Marine Safety Alert – propulsion boiler casings

The US Coast Guard issued a Marine Safety Alert advising owners and operators of steam-propelled ships to have their engineering staffs assess the structural integrity of their boiler casings; paying particular attention to support structure interfaces in the steam drum, front-to-side casing attachments, and upper-to-lower casing transitions. It is also recommended that a thorough review of previous casing repairs be conducted to identify signs of diminished structural integrity. A bulk cargo vessel recently suffered a boiler tube rupture resulting in a boiler casing failure which injured two crewmembers. (HK Law)