Crew Reviews, Ratings & Info for Mercosul-Santos

In the morning of April 25, 2021, the 'Mercosul Santos' arrived in the Port of Santos unter tow. The ship had encountered engine problems at the beginning of 1025 containers and then be repaired. In the port, four port tugs took over in the early afternoon and pulled the vessel to the Dubai Ports World (DPW) Santos terminal in the Santos Continental Area. She docked in berth 1 at 3:40 p.m. The cargo oepration will be completed in the foremidday of April 26. At the Giusfredo Santini Passenger Terminal the repair will take place. Report with photo: https://www.atribuna.com.br/noticias/portomar/navio-conteineiro-chega-rebocado-ao-porto-de-santos-neste-domingo

The collision of a pusher tug with the "Mercosul Santos" near Óbidos, in Pará, in which nine of the 11 crew members of the tug died, was caused by a failure to comply with navigation rules. The Pará Civil Police indicted two people, the immediate (function just below commander) Raimundo Cruz and the practical Flávio Lins Barbosa, for the accident between the pusher tug if the Bertolini company and the "Mercosul Santos" on Aug 2, 2017 on the Amazon River near the municipality of Óbidos. According to the Civil Police, the indictment was based on five months of investigation, depositions and audios captured by the ship's data recording system. The audios did not show communication between the pusher and the ship. The lack of contact and misunderstandings on the part of the crew of the "Mercosul Santos" had been decisive for the collision. Raimundo Cruz and Flávio Lins were accused for crimes related to maritime and fluvial navigation. The sentence may amount up to 12 years of imprisonment. The investigation now was handed over to the State Public Prosecutor's Office of Pará. On Dec 5, the tug had lifted from the bottom of the river and the missing crew members were recovered.

A little more than three months after the sinking of the pusher tug "CXX" of Bertolini Transportes near Óbidos west of Pará, after the collision with the "Mercosul Santos" on Aug 2, the sheerleg "Taklift 7" and the "Smitbarge 8" to lift the wreck arrived on site on Nov 14. Of the 11 persons aboard, nine crew members of the tug and two passengers, only two had survived. They were able to jump off the ship before it went down and were rescued by the "César da Silva" which was passing by. Six of the missing were from Pará, two from Amazonas and one from São Paulo. Smit Salvage has been contracted for the salvage operation. The sheerleg arrived in Brazil on Nov 6. The recovery will be done in phases. The arrival of the equipment was part of the first phase. Inspections by sonar and installation of buoys were also part of this phase. In the second step, a net will be placed over the tug to ensure that parts, objects or other things inside the wreck do not come loose. After this is done, it will be lifted by a hydraulic claw and searched for the missing victims. If bodies are found, they will be sent aboard a specific vessel to the Centro de Perícias Renato Chaves in Santarém. The crane will be disassembled as soon as the lifting operation has been completed in early December. Spanish report with photo: https://g1.globo.com/pa/santarem-regiao/noticia/chega-a-obidos-navio-que-fara-icamento-de-rebocador-e-resgate-de-nove-desaparecidos-em-naufragio.ghtml