Steel is a Finnish pusher vessel owned and operated by ESL Shipping. It is part of the Finnpusku integrated tug and barge system developed in the 1980s by Finnlines, a Finnish shipping company that also managed the vessel until 2003, in co-operation with Rautaruukki for the transportation needs of the steel company. The vessel, built by Hollming in Rauma, Finland, as Finn, was delivered on 28 April 1987 and has since been used mainly to supply raw materials to the Raahe Steel Works.
On 27 December 1990 the vessel capsized along with the barge Baltic outside Hanko, Finland, while en route from Raahe to Koverhar in southern Finland with a cargo of iron ore concentrate. The cargo shifted in heavy weather, resulting in the loss of stability and the vessel capsizing in 10–15 seconds. Seven crew members and a pilot lost their lives in the accident, but the chief engineer and chief officer survived in an air pocket in the aftmost part of the engine room and were later rescued through a hole cut in the bottom. The combination was later rightened and towed to Rauma for rebuilding. Finn returned to service as Steel and Baltic as Botnia in 1991.
Steel has an identical sister vessel, Rautaruukki, which was delivered in 1986.
Development and construction
The development of the Finnpusku system dates back to the 1960s when Finnlines developed the first version of the icegoing pusher-barge system. While the concept was not pursued further due to various problems, an upgraded version was developed in the 1970s.Holma, H.: Proomukuljetukset. Oy Finnlines Ltd, 1972. In the late 1970s Rautaruukki Oy began transporting raw materials to the steel mill in Raahe by towed barges and found them suitable for the steel company's transportation needs. However, due to the poor maneuverability of the barges and their inability to operate in winter conditions, Rautaruukki decided to investigate if it would be possible to design a pusher-barge system that could also be operated in ice conditions. When Finnlines was consulted, it presented the Finnpusku system it had developed and the two companies signed a development contract. Later Finnlines performed several feasibility studies which showed that a pusher-barge system would be the most economical and efficient method of transporting bulk cargoes on the relatively short routes of the Baltic Sea.
The initial plan was to establish shipping companies for each vessel of the Finnpusku system under the joint ownership of several large Finnish industrial and shipping companies, including Rautaruukki and Finnlines, which would also manage the vessels. However, due to delays in negotiations, Rautaruukki, concerned about the continuous supply of raw materials to the Raahe Steel Works, decided to order one pusher and two barges for itself. A follow-up order for another pusher and three more barges was signed by joint shipping companies "Puskija", "Proomu I", "Proomu II" and "Proomu III", formed by Effoa Oy (20%), Oy Finnlines Ltd (16%), Hollming Oy (10%), Neste Oy (25%), Palkkiyhtymä Oy (10%), Oy Paratug Ltd (5%), Rautaruukki Oy (9%) and Thomesto Oy (5%), on 14 March 1985. The second pusher of the Finnpusku system, Finn, was laid down on 7 November 1985 and launched on 9 May 1985.
Pusher Steel and barges Baltic, Board and Bulk, built by a Portuguese shipyard Estaleiros Navais de Setubal in Setúbal and outfitted in Rauma, were delivered to their respective joint shipping companies on 28 April 1987. When the two pushers and five barges of the Finnpusku system entered service in 1986–1987, it was estimated that they would carry one third of the ten million tons of bulk cargo arriving in Finland by sea every year.Mauno, J. Finnpusku minimoi satama-ajan. Navigator 11/86.
Career
While the first pusher, Rautaruukki, was used since the beginning solely to supply the Raahe Steel Works with raw materials, the jointly owned pusher Finn was time-chartered by the transportation department of Rautaruukki only when the steel company required additional capacity. The pusher-barge combinations transported different bulk cargoes from various ports of the Baltic Sea, such as limestone from the port of Storugns in Gotland, iron ore concentrate from Luleå, Sweden, and coal from various Eastern European ports. In addition the jointly owned pusher and barges were also used for other cargoes such as lumber by the owner companies and, to reduce the number of southbound ballast legs, the pusher-barge combinations carried occasional iron ore concentrate and pellet cargoes from Luleå to various ports in the Baltic Sea for the Swedish mining company LKAB.von Bruun-Riegels, U. Raaka-ainekuljetukset proomuilla. Rautaruukki Oy, 1991.
Due to the difficulties in the timing of the transportation needs of Rautaruukki and Finnlines the time-chartering of the second pusher did not fulfill the requirements of the steel company's raw material supply schedule. It was decided to transfer the ownership of the pusher Finn and barges Baltic, Board and Bulk to new joint shipping companies owned by Rautaruukki Oy (95%) and Oy JIT-Trans Ltd (5%). Once all vessels were under the control of a single company, these issues disappeared and the Finnpusku system was found out to be suitable for the transportation needs of Rautaruukki in both port-to-port transport and lightening large bulk carriers outside the port of Raahe. By the end of 1987 the amount of cargo transported by the Finnpusku system, 7.5 million tons per year, had grown beyond the capability of the transportation department that was under the central administration of the steel company, so on 1 May 1988 a subsidiary company, JIT-Trans, was established to deal with both the parent company's own cargoes and external shipping business.
Finn was rebuilt after capsizing and returned to service in 1991 as Steel under the ownership of a new jointly owned shipping company. Later the ownership of the pushers and barges was transferred to a Finnish financial institution Suomen Asiakasrahoitus,Vapalahti, H. Finnish illustrated List of Ships 1994. later known as Merita RahoitusVapalahti, H. Finnish illustrated List of Ships 1998. and nowadays as Nordea Rahoitus.Finnish Maritime Administration: The Finnish merchant marine 1994.
In July 2003 a seven-year contract for the transportation of raw materials in the Baltic Sea was signed between JIT-Trans and Aspo Group.Toimintakertomus 2003. Aspo Group. Page 14. As part of the agreement, worth 140 million euros, the ownership and management of the Finnpusku system was transferred to ESL Shipping, a subsidiary of the Aspo Group.Rautaruukki ja ASPO kehittävät yhteistyötä raaka-aineiden merikuljetuksissa. Rautaruukki Oyj, pörssitiedote, 30.7.2003. In February 2011 ESL Shipping signed a new long-term contract with Rautaruukki for the transportation of the raw materials of the steel industry in the Baltic Sea. The pushers and barges of the Finnpusku system was docked at Arctech Helsinki Shipyard and modernized by STX Finland Lifecycle Services during the summer of 2011.ESL Shipping and Rautaruukki signed a long-term contract for sea transport . ESL Shipping Ltd, 2011-02-20. Steel arrived at Helsinki for modernization in mid-August and left couple of weeks later.
Capsizing in 1990
Final voyage
Finn-Baltic left the port of Raahe with a cargo of 13,398 tons of Malmberget A Fines (MAF) iron ore concentrate bound for the steel factory of Koverhar in Hanko, southern Finland, on 25 December 1990. Baltic had been loaded in Luleå, Sweden, on 21 December and brought to Raahe by the pusher Rautaruukki on the following day to wait for transit to the south. During its stay in Raahe, the barge developed a list of 1–2 degrees to port and the harbour workers noted that the cargo seemed to be wet and some of the ore heaps had collapsed.
After the harbour pilot had left the ship the combination turned southwest and headed towards the Kvarken in heavy head seas. To prevent water splashing over the forecastle and wetting the cargo only one main engine was running and the ship made headway at only four knots. When Finn-Baltic passed the Ulkokalla lighthouse, the second main engine was turned on to improve the maneuverability of the vessel, increasing its speed to around six knots. However, this also increased the amount of water entering the cargo hold every time the bow slammed to a wave and the watch officer, who used searchlights to monitor the state of the cargo, noticed that more ore heaps had collapsed. Later in the evening the combination passed the lighthouse and pilot station of Tankar, and the wind seemed to calm down.
On 26 December, Finn-Baltic continued its journey south past the lighthouses of Nordvalen and Kaskinen while maintaining an average speed of 6–7 knots in heavy head seas. In daylight the chief officer noticed that in the forward part of the cargo compartment three or four ore piles had collapsed to half of their original height and the others appeared to be wet. Sea water flowed continuously to the hold and washed ore to the sea through the storm shutters on the sides. However, during the last watch of the day the weather seemed to calm down again.
In the following morning, Finn-Baltic continued along the southwestern coast past the pilot stations of Isokari, Kustavi and Turku. The captain was concerned about the upcoming turns near Hanko because the weather forecast predicted wind speeds up to . He also noted to the pilot that the cargo was probably wet because water had been splashing over the bow since leaving Raahe and suggested stopping at Hanko to wait for the weather to calm down. After changing the pilot for the last time at noon, Finn-Baltic continued past Hanko towards the port of Koverhar, heading first east and then southeast along the outbound shipping lane from the port of Hanko. The wind speed, measured at the nearby island of Russarö, was from the south.
Capsizing
Finn-Baltic was tracked by radar from the pilot station of Hanko until around 12:15, when the pilot on duty noted that the combination had turned east and was heading towards Koverhar. When he returned to the radar half an hour later, he immediately noticed that Finn-Baltic had stopped and was drifting north by east at roughly one knot. However, he assumed that due to heavy weather and bad visibility the pilot onboard had decided to turn the combination back. He resumed tracking the vessel, but there was no change in speed or heading until Finn-Baltic disappeared from the radar screen ten minutes later. The low visibility due to snowing prevented him from seeing the vessel even though its last recorded location was only a bit over from the pilot station — the location of the capsizing, based on the location of the ore concentrate cargo and debris that remains in the bottom to this day at a depth of , is .