What is your small hole?

I was watching Discovery Channel with family about MV Debyshire (BLUE PRINT FOR DISASTER: THE MYSTERY OF DEBYSHIRE), a 160 thousand ton ship which sank in the Pacific in just two minutes. I find the documentary value adding and the lessons learned can be applied in our career, business, or personal life.

Facts about MV Debyshire :

• The Derbyshire had an overall length 294.1 metres
• Extreme breadth 44.28m and a maximum draught 18.44m
• Gross tonnage 91,654.50, and net tonnage 67,428.51.
• She was longer than three football pitches and as wide as a six lane motorway.
• She was built by Swan Hunter at Haverton Hill shipyard, Teesside,
• This type of ship is called a Bulk Carrier.
• she was classed A1 by Lloyds Register, the top classification for merchant ships

This ship was built to withstand the wrath of the high seas.

However, on September 8, 1980, MV Debyshire crossed path with typhoon Orchid enroute to Japan and sank in the Pacific not given the chance to send a distress call.

Several theories were considered that could have sank the Bulk Carrier:

• Structural defect on frame 65.
• Road waves.
• Negligence of the captain and his crew.
• Explosion on the engine

When the wreckage was discovered, all 3 theories were ruled out except negligence because

• The ship sank by the bow.
• It could not have been the cause of road waves because the bow is undamaged.
• flooding of the bow could have pulled the ship down.

Investigators looked for clues as for the reasons why the bow was flooded. And they noticed that the “bosun hatch” was open. It is the responsibility of the captain and his crew to ensure that this hatch is always tight closed. Thus, the ruling of negligence.

This was disputed by Nigel Malpass, former chief officer who was supposed to be part of the fatal trip. Using the same pictures and videos the investigators used, he pointed out the presence of ropes tied around the hatch. This is what the crew have came up as SOP, on top of the built in safety measures. This is to ensure that the hatch will not be opened by accident. Because of this, negligence was ruled out.

All investigators were back to the square one. But still with one question, how the bow was flooded.

It was discovered that the ventilation caps of a dozen of small (less than a foot diameter) holes gave in and exposed the bow to flooding.

This is what they thought have happened:

• During the 36 hours that MV Debyshire is being battered by typhoon Orchid, and the waves pounding the ship, something must have been damaged.
• While all critical areas of the ship is fortified, the ventilation caps are not. Thus, it gave way.
• This ventilation caps is not visible from the deck at night and in the middle of the storm.
• When it gave way, and the waves is pounding the ship for continuous 36 hours, it “slowly” flooded the bow.
• Having been in the storm for 3 days, the captain the and crew may have not noticed that the bow is slowly pulling the ship down, exposing the bow and the ventilation holes to more waves and more flooding. Until on Sept. 10, 1980, all three hatch covers gave in one after the other causing the entire ship to sank in the pacific.

The mighty ship that was built to withstand typhoons and storms sank because of ventilation holes less than a foot in diameter.

Now let’s take it to a personal level– for sure we have fortified most areas of our business or career, even our personal lives, to ensure that it will withstand the storms brought by relationships, economy and corporate politics. But do we have small holes which we thought could not bring us or our career or business down? These small holes may slowly be flooding our “bows” and slowly pulling us down unnoticeable.

In your opinion, what are the possible small holes that we should look into? Is it in career or business or in relationships?

photo of Debyshire is from http://www.zetnet.co.uk/oigs/derbyshire/

for the detailed story on the mystery of Debyshire, please watch BLUEPRINT FOR DISASTER at Discovery Channel. Or explore the following sites:

• The sinking of MV Debyshire
  
• MV Debyshire