Charterer:

Mediterranean Shipping Company S.A. (MSC)

MV Rena is a container ship

Container ship

Container ships are cargo ships that carry all of their load in truck-size intermodal containers, in a technique called containerization. They form a common means of commercial intermodal freight transport.-History:...

 owned by the Greek

Greece

Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....

 shipping company Costamare Inc.

Costamare

Costamare Inc. is a Greek shipping company, specialising in the ownership of container ships. It owns a fleet of 61 vessels, with total capacity of 337,000 Twenty-foot equivalent units , which are chartered out to other shipping operators.-History:...

 through one of its subsidiaries, Daina Shipping Co. The ship was built in 1990 as ZIM America for the Israel

Israel

The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...

i shipping company Zim

Zim Integrated Shipping Services

Zim Integrated Shipping Services Ltd. , formerly ZIM Israel Navigation Company Ltd. and Zim American Israeli Shipping Inc., is the biggest cargo shipping company in Israel, and 10th largest in the world...

 by Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft AG in Kiel

Kiel

Kiel is the capital and most populous city in the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein, with a population of 238,049 .Kiel is approximately north of Hamburg. Due to its geographic location in the north of Germany, the southeast of the Jutland peninsula, and the southwestern shore of the...

, Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

. She was renamed Andaman Sea in 2007 and has sailed under her current name and owner since 2010.

On 5 October 2011 the Rena ran aground near Tauranga

Tauranga

Tauranga is the most populous city in the Bay of Plenty region, in the North Island of New Zealand.It was settled by Europeans in the early 19th century and was constituted as a city in 1963...

, New Zealand

New Zealand

New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

, resulting in an oil spill.

Career

In the late 1980s the Israeli shipping company Zim launched a major renovation and fleet expansion project, which included ordering 15 new ships. One of the new ships was ZIM America, which was laid down on 4 October 1989 at the Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft AG shipyard in Kiel, Germany. Delivered on 1 April 1990 and registered in Haifa

Haifa

Haifa is the largest city in northern Israel, and the third-largest city in the country, with a population of over 268,000. Another 300,000 people live in towns directly adjacent to the city including the cities of the Krayot, as well as, Tirat Carmel, Daliyat al-Karmel and Nesher...

, the new container ship enabled Zim to offer a weekly fixed-day sailing schedule for its customers. The ZIM America was later re-registered under the Maltese

Malta

Malta , officially known as the Republic of Malta , is a Southern European country consisting of an archipelago situated in the centre of the Mediterranean, south of Sicily, east of Tunisia and north of Libya, with Gibraltar to the west and Alexandria to the east.Malta covers just over in...

 flag in 2004 with Valletta

Valletta

Valletta is the capital of Malta, colloquially known as Il-Belt in Maltese. It is located in the central-eastern portion of the island of Malta, and the historical city has a population of 6,098. The name "Valletta" is traditionally reserved for the historic walled citadel that serves as Malta's...

 as her home port, and in 2007 she was renamed Andaman Sea.

In 2010 the Andaman Sea was sold to Daina Shipping Co., a subsidiary of the Greek shipping company Costamare Inc. She was renamed Rena and registered in the port of Monrovia

Monrovia

Monrovia is the capital city of the West African nation of Liberia. Located on the Atlantic Coast at Cape Mesurado, it lies geographically within Montserrado County, but is administered separately...

 in Liberia

Liberia

Liberia , officially the Republic of Liberia, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Sierra Leone on the west, Guinea on the north and Côte d'Ivoire on the east. Liberia's coastline is composed of mostly mangrove forests while the more sparsely populated inland consists of forests that open...

. In 2011 the shipping company signed a five-year charter for Rena with the Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC).

AIS malfunction

In 2006, during a US Coast Guard

United States Coast Guard

The United States Coast Guard is a branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven U.S. uniformed services. The Coast Guard is a maritime, military, multi-mission service unique among the military branches for having a maritime law enforcement mission and a federal regulatory agency...

 inspection, the ship's Automatic Identification System

Automatic Identification System

The Automatic Identification System is an automatic tracking system used on ships and by Vessel traffic services for identifying and locating vessels by electronically exchanging data with other nearby ships and AIS Base stations...

 (AIS) was found to be inoperative, and not transmitting to other ships. The Coast Guard recommended that the AIS transponder be replaced.

2011 grounding and oil spill

On Wednesday, 5 October 2011 at 2:20 AM while sailing from Napier

Napier, New Zealand

Napier is a New Zealand city with a seaport, located in Hawke's Bay on the eastern coast of the North Island. The population of Napier is about About 18 kilometres south of Napier is the inland city of Hastings. These two neighboring cities are often called "The Twin Cities" or "The Bay Cities"...

 to Tauranga

Tauranga

Tauranga is the most populous city in the Bay of Plenty region, in the North Island of New Zealand.It was settled by Europeans in the early 19th century and was constituted as a city in 1963...

 the MV Rena ran aground

Ship grounding

Ship grounding is a type of marine accident that involves the impact of a ship on the seabed, resulting in damage of the submerged part of her hull and particularly the bottom structure, potentially leading to water ingress and compromise of the ship's structural integrity and stability...

 on the Astrolabe Reef

Astrolabe Reef

Astrolabe Reef is near Motiti Island, off the Bay of Plenty coast in New Zealand. The reef, which breaks the water surface at low tide, is a renowned scuba diving spot that drops off to in different parts...

, off the Bay of Plenty

Bay of Plenty

The Bay of Plenty , often abbreviated to BOP, is a region in the North Island of New Zealand situated around the body of water of the same name...

, New Zealand

New Zealand

New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

. The ship was carrying 1,368 containers, eight of which contained hazardous materials, as well as 1,700 tonnes of heavy fuel oil and 200 tonnes of marine diesel.

By Sunday, 9 October a 5-kilometre (3.1 mi) oil slick threatened wildlife and the area's rich fishing waters. Oil from the Rena began washing ashore at Mount Maunganui

Mount Maunganui

Mount Maunganui is a town in the Bay of Plenty, New Zealand, located on a peninsula to the north of Tauranga. It was independent from Tauranga until the completion of the Tauranga Harbour Bridge in 1988....

 beach on 10 October. Bad weather that night caused the ship to shift on the reef, and the crew were evacuated. The shifting of the ship caused further damage, resulting in a further 130 - 350 tonnes of oil leaking.

On 11 October the spill was declared New Zealand's worst ever maritime environmental disaster by Environment Minister Nick Smith.

By 13 October the ship was on a 20-degree lean and 88 of her 1368 containers had fallen into the sea.

Due to increased pressure to her hull, Rena is expected at any point to split in two, furthering the environmental impact of the disaster. It was reported on October 14, 2011, that Rena had cracked in two, held together only by her internal structure and the reef itself.

Description

The Rena is a 236 metres (774.3 ft) Panamax

Panamax

Panamax and New Panamax are popular terms for the size limits for ships traveling through the Panama Canal. Formally, the limits and requirements are published by the Panama Canal Authority titled "Vessel Requirements"...

 container ship with a container capacity of in seven holds. Her breadth, limited by the old locks of the Panama canal

Panama Canal

The Panama Canal is a ship canal in Panama that joins the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean and is a key conduit for international maritime trade. Built from 1904 to 1914, the canal has seen annual traffic rise from about 1,000 ships early on to 14,702 vessels measuring a total of 309.6...

, is 32.2 metres (105.6 ft) and fully laden she draws 12 metres (39.4 ft) of water. Her gross tonnage

Gross tonnage

Gross tonnage is a unitless index related to a ship's overall internal volume. Gross tonnage is different from gross register tonnage...

 is 38,788, net tonnage

Net tonnage

Net tonnage is a dimensionless index calculated from the total moulded volume of the ship's cargo spaces by using a mathematical formula...

 16,454 and deadweight tonnage

Deadweight tonnage

Deadweight tonnage is a measure of how much weight a ship is carrying or can safely carry. It is the sum of the weights of cargo, fuel, fresh water, ballast water, provisions, passengers, and crew...

 47,231 tons. The Rena is served by a crew of 20.

The ship is propelled by a single eight-cylinder Cegielski-Sulzer

Sulzer (manufacturer)

Sulzer Ltd. is a Swiss industrial engineering and manufacturing firm, founded by Salomon Sulzer-Bernet in 1775 and established as Sulzer Brothers Ltd. in 1834 in Winterthur, Switzerland. Today it is a publicly owned company with international subsidiaries...

 8RTA76 two-stroke low-speed diesel engine

Diesel engine

A diesel engine is an internal combustion engine that uses the heat of compression to initiate ignition to burn the fuel, which is injected into the combustion chamber...

 directly coupled to a fixed-pitch propeller. The main engine, which has a maximum output of 21996 kW at 98 rpm, burns 90 tons of heavy fuel oil per day while giving the ship a service speed of 21 knots (11.4 m/s). For maneuvering at ports the ship is also equipped with a bow thruster

Bow thruster

A bow thruster is a transversal propulsion device built into, or mounted to, the bow of a ship or boat to make it more maneuverable. Bow thrusters make docking easier, since they allow the captain to turn the vessel to port or starboard without using the main propulsion mechanism which requires...

. The shipboard power is generated by two 1240 kW auxiliary generating sets.