On November 30, ONE Apus encountered 20-foot swells at a position about 1,600 nm northwest of Hawaii on a voyage from Yantian to Long Beach. Most of the vessel's on-deck container bays collapsed in circumstances that are under investigation, bringing a total of 1,816 containers into the North Pacific.

ONE Apus shifted course to the south, avoiding the worst of a strong weather system, then turned eastward toward a Japanese port of refuge. On December 8, she arrived in Kobe.

An initial damage survey of the Apus' cargo bays via drone overflight was performed by the cargo claims consultancy WK Webster. In order to ascertain the full extent of any internal damage, thousands of containers remain on deck and will have to be individually examined; many display obvious external signs of damage, especially containers at the bottom of each stack.

According to WK Webster, the overall bill could reach $200 million and could be greater than the value of the newly-built vessel itself.

If ONE and its insurers follow that path, the owners of the surviving cargo will be forced to post a (typically steep) GA bond in order to recover their goods. The parties are assumed to be weighing whether to invoke a general average.

The vessel's operator, Ocean Network Express (ONE said Friday that the Japan Coast Guard had issued its authorization to begin removing the remaining containers on deck and that work is now underway.

It is expected that the cautious, step-by-step removal process would take more than a month. After the cargo discharge is completed a full damage assessment of the vessel itself will begin.

Maritime Business World