In the dark early morning of 27 November 2003, two big cargo ships were moving near Gibraltar. One was the Bulk Atalanta, a very large bulk carrier coming in to pick up a pilot and then head across the ocean. The other was the Forest Pioneer, which had just finished taking fuel while at anchor and was starting to leave the bay. The weather was windy with bursts of rain, but they could still see the usual navigation lights. Both ships were in ballast, which means they were not carrying cargo and rode higher in the water.
Bulk Atalanta turned slowly into the bay to make a safe place, called a lee, for the small pilot boat to come alongside. As the pilot boat approached, the captain of Bulk Atalanta reduced speed and even stopped the engine for a moment, because picking up a pilot is a delicate job. He also called Gibraltar Port Control on the radio and asked them to tell the other ship to keep clear, since he was busy with the pilot boarding.
Meanwhile, Forest Pioneer had been weighing anchor near other anchored ships and a very large tanker. After she got her anchor up, her master chose to turn the ship to a heading around 210 degrees and increased speed to get away from the anchorage. He knew there was an inbound ship coming to pick up a pilot, but he did not keep a sharp enough radar watch before changing course and speed. That turn and speed-up put Forest Pioneer on a path that crossed ahead of Bulk Atalanta. On the radar, the two ships were now set on collision courses.
Because of rain and confusion, the people on Forest Pioneer could not pick out Bulk Atalanta’s lights at first, and they assumed Bulk Atalanta would soon turn to starboard (to the right) to head north to the pilot station. That assumption was wrong. Bulk Atalanta needed to maintain a steady north-westerly course to shelter the pilot boat and could not just swing away. On Forest Pioneer, there were short, uncertain helm orders—first to starboard, then to port, and then hard to starboard again after someone overheard a radio call saying “hard to starboard,” whose source and purpose were unclear. What Forest Pioneer really needed to do at that point was to stop and go full astern to kill her speed, but she did not do that in time.
On Bulk Atalanta, the lookout also was not good enough. If the bridge team had tracked Forest Pioneer’s radar echo earlier, they could have taken more way off sooner. When the captain finally saw Forest Pioneer close ahead on the starboard bow, he first ordered a small increase (dead slow ahead with hard to starboard) to try to swing clear, and then the pilot, who had just climbed aboard, shouted for full astern. Even so, by then the ships were too close. The starboard bow of Bulk Atalanta struck the port side of Forest Pioneer at a shallow angle. Bulk Atalanta suffered significant damage; Forest Pioneer had little.
In court, the judge decided that this was not a “restricted visibility” case where special fog rules applied. Visibility was changeable with showers, but good enough overall that the ordinary collision rules (about safe speed, lookout, and keeping out of the way) governed the situation. The court looked closely at the tracks and speeds. It found that Forest Pioneer created the danger by turning to 210 degrees and increasing speed without first making sure where Bulk Atalanta was. That blind alteration transformed a safe situation into a risky one, especially because Bulk Atalanta was constrained by the pilot operation and the need to keep a lee. Forest Pioneer then compounded the problem by relying on an unsafe assumption that Bulk Atalanta would turn away, by failing to make strong engine moves to slow or stop, and by reacting to an unclear radio message. Bulk Atalanta was not blameless: her radar lookout should have been better, and she should have taken off more way a little earlier once Forest Pioneer closed to about half a mile. But asking Bulk Atalanta to turn to starboard while the pilot boat was alongside would have been dangerous and was not required.
The final result was that the court shared the blame but not equally. Forest Pioneer took the great majority of fault because her turn and speed-up created the crossing risk and her later reactions were indecisive and too slow. Bulk Atalanta had a smaller share for not reducing speed sooner. The court apportioned liability 85% to Forest Pioneer and 15% to Bulk Atalanta, and it reached that conclusion after confirming that ordinary collision rules applied, not the special rules for restricted visibility.
