AN Australian Transport Safety Bureau report next week on the Pasha Bulker grounding will confirm the failings of the ship's master.
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It will broaden responsibility to include contributions made by the ship's Japanese owner, weather forecasts, the "blacklisting" of ships, ballasting, the coal queue and operations at the Port of Newcastle.
News of the report's imminent release comes as the first picture surfaces of the new-look Pasha, which has been renamed the Drake.
The Drake was photographed leaving Singapore under its new name and with a new black funnel, minus the name of former charterer Lauritzen.
The famous red hull of the ship has given way to a coat of black paint between the 14-metre mark of its Plimsoll line and the deck with a neat Drake where once there was Pasha Bulker.
Australian Transport Safety Bureau investigator Michael Squires confirmed yesterday there were "pages of recommendations" within the 110-page report that will be released on Friday.
Sixteen confidential copies were sent to "parties of interest" yesterday.
They include ship owner Fukujin Kisen, Newcastle Port Corporation, Port Waratah Coal Services and Hunter Valley Coal Chain.
The report will include communications between the Pasha Bulker's master, who was criticised in last year's NSW Maritime report for having breakfast while the ship headed for shore, and the ship's owners on the morning of June 8.
"The issue of who spoke to who about what is in the report," said Mr Squires who, although unable to comment specifically about the report's contents, noted that "to say a master can act alone is probably unrealistic, because he really can't".
"We say he did this and this and this and then we look at the issue of why he did those things.
"Masters have a whole range of legal rights in terms of operating their ships but there's a saying in the shipping industry that the master can only exercise those rights once."
In a Herald article early this year former federal transport minister and author of the Ships of Shame report Peter Morris said he expected the Australian Transport Safety Bureau to answer the questions: "Who made the decision to move or not move the ship, when was that decision made and where was that decision made?"
Other matters covered in the report include anchorage of queued ships outside the port, the pressures of having a coal queue, harbour control and the "blacklisting" of ships including the Pasha Bulker in the weeks before the grounding for deballasting too slowly.
The Herald reported soon after last June's storm that the Pasha Bulker was one of about 50 ships that coal-loader operator Port Waratah Coal Services no longer wanted to service because they took too long to pump out ballast water.
Port Waratah Coal Services general manager Graham Davidson confirmed at the time that the new operating conditions meant no new applications to load coal would be taken from the 50 vessels, including the Pasha Bulker, considered "poor performing".
The list had been drawn up shortly before the June 8 storm and it is believed the report investigates whether the "blacklisting" led the master of the Pasha Bulker to pump out, or deballast, more water than was prudent to try to speed up its loading.
"Accidents are often a result of a particular person's actions but we say in all accidents there's a number of contributing features and any one of them, if you remove them, might have an impact on the outcome," Mr Squires said.
"We don't prioritise the different contributing factors. There's a whole pile of things for a whole lot of people that should be done differently than they were done before."
One of the first changes after the Pasha Bulker grounding was Newcastle Port Corporation's decision to increase the anchorage line beyond which ships must queue, from two nautical miles to three nautical miles, on the recommendation of harbourmaster Captain Tim Turner.
The change was implemented last July and was a direct consequence of the grounding, Port Corporation spokesman Keith Powell said.
Mr Squires said he expected the report to generate significant public and media interest.
He said the Pasha Bulker investigation shared characteristics with other Australian ship groundings but differed in one crucial detail.
"The Pasha Bulker is unique in the fact it is the grounding at the end of a main street," Mr Squires said.
