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Dry Beam - A Dangerous Cargo of Logs

by Murray Polson 2012

Murray Polson photo The bulk carrier cargo ship Dry Beam was sailing from Washington State, USA to Japan in 2012. She was about 350 nautical miles west of the North end of Vancouver Island and in heavy weather.

Murray Polson photo A very large rogue wave washed over her port side driving her cargo across her deck. Regaining her trim with ballast tanks she sailed to Victoria Harbour, BC. She was nudged into place by the tugs Seaspan Queen and Charles H. Gates IV.

Murray Polson photo The forward logs were held on board by her forward stanchions. Her above deck cargo was in a very precarious position. Many of the logs were ready to spill.

Murray Polson photo The section of logs just in front of her superstructure was washed away. The power of the wave snapped the restraining cables and bent steel beam stanchions as if they were paperclips. The starboard forward stanchions stopped the logs from spilling overboard. The cargo, now loose, was very dangerous. The weight of the shifting cargo pulled the port side stanchions like meaningless restraints.

Murray Polson photo The tug Seaspan King brought the self loading and dumping barge Seaspan Phoenix along side to unload the precarious and dangerous cargo of logs.

Murray Polson photo First the cranes on the Seaspan Phoenix pulled on the restraining cables to snap them free. It was much too dangerous to put a man on the logs.

Murray Polson photo Then the methodical unloading of the Dry Beam,/em> and loading of the Seaspan Phoenix began.

Murray Polson photo The Seaspan King brought the now loaded Seaspan Phoenix around to the other side of the pier; and off loads the logs onto the pier.

The Dry Beam was built in 2005 by Oshima Shipbuilding Ltd., Japan. IMO: 9317482, MMSI: 563207000. 186m x 31m x ?m. 26,402gt, 46,619dwt. 13 knots. Registered in Singapore. Call Sign: 9VAU9. She is owned by the Douglas Line and her manager is Sandigan Ship Services inc.

Murray Polson photo On the night of February 17, 2012, The Dry Beam left Victoria Harbour bound for Kashima, Japan. She left her cargo of logs behind on the wharf and there they waited for the arrival of the Eco Discovery to pick up the cargo of logs left behind by the Dry Beam.

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Site News: December 21, 2024

The vessel database has been updated and is now holding 94,824 vessel histories (with 16,274 images and 13,929 records of ship wrecks and marine disasters).

Vessel records are currently being reviewed and updated with more than 45,000 processed so far this year (2024).

The mariner and naval biography database has also been updated and now contains 58,599 entries (with 3996 images).

Thanks to Ray Warren who is beginning a long process of filling gaps in the photo record of vessel histories in the database. Ray has been documenting the ships of Vancouver Harbour for more than 60 years.

Thanks to contributor Mike Rydqvist McCammon for the hundreds of photos he has contributed to illustrate British Columbia’s floating heritage.

My very special thanks to our volunteer IT adviser, John Eyre, who (since 2021) has modernized, simplified and improved the update process for the databases into semi–automated processes. His participation has been vital to keeping the Nauticapedia available to our netizens.

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