Foundering of the fishing vessel Argos Georgia with the loss of 13 lives

Read our marine accident investigation report, which includes what happened, subsequent actions taken and recommendations.

Argos Georgia was a longline fishing vessel registered in St Helena. The vessel foundered while on passage from Port Stanley in the Falkland Islands to fishing grounds near the island of South Georgia. Of the 27 people on board, 13 lost their lives.

The investigation found that the line hauling hatch in the starboard side of Argos Georgia opened unexpectedly. This allowed significant quantities of water to enter the vessel, causing it to list to starboard and founder.

Cause of loss: The manual securing mechanism for the line hauling hatch had likely not been applied and the hatch could not be closed by the crew. This led to the vessel progressively flooding, loss of stability and foundering.

Technical and operational failures: The hatch’s drive mechanism had an unidentified design weakness, while open weathertight doors, vulnerable electrical systems and inaccessible manual controls allowed flooding to spread.

On board emergency response: The crew’s response was unstructured, and delays in declaring distress and abandoning ship reduced rescue time. Poor evacuation control, extreme conditions and liferaft damage increased cold water exposure and loss of life.

Shoreside management deficiencies: The company lacked effective systems for controlling safety-critical risks and for assessing, escalating and responding to flooding, abandonment and distress emergencies in severe weather and remote waters.

The Maritime and Coastguard Agency is recommended to amend Merchant Shipping Notice 1873 (F) – The Code of Practice for the Construction and Safe Operation of Fishing Vessels of 24m Registered Length and Over – to include design requirements for shell door arrangements that, as a minimum, require automatic locking arrangements capable of securing doors in the closed position.