Continuing evidence at a maritime inquiry into last week's capsizing of the bulker Rocknes indicated that a lopsided cargo can have played a critical role in the ship's sinking. A loading belt failed to spread the cargo evenly, creating a space on the starboard side that filled quickly with gravel when the ship struck bottom and may have accelerated the turn over.
A Dutch deck machinist testified at the hearing Wednesday that he was in the control room on Monday January 19 and saw that a computer screen was displaying a blinking red message with the word "critical".
Earlier in the inquiry captain Olav Tangedal, who was on leave when the accident occurred, explained that the Rocknes had a load calculator on the computer that would issue a warning in a red window if limits were exceeded
......
Read more on Aftenposten Interaktiv