How not to sink a ship: lesson one...

Assessing a ship has adequate stability for its intended voyage on completion of cargo operations and before it sails is a fundamental principle of seamanship that must not be neglected.

https://www.gov.uk/government/upload...saka_Flyer.pdf
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hampshire-35823182

Well yes, you'd think so. Apparently not for the PCC/PCTC [pure car carrier/pure car and truck carrier] cargo sector though, according to a government report. It appears that what amounts to guesswork has been the norm. Hence the running aground of the Hoegh Osaka in the Solent a year ago. And it could have been much worse - it was more or less luck that it ended up aground on the Bramble Bank rather than sinking in the deep water channel and blocking the port of Southampton entirely, with all that would have entailed.

The Solent was of course the resting place for the Mary Rose (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_R...ses_of_sinking) - which likewise got into trouble at least partly as a result of stability problems. That was back in 1545 though, and one might have hoped that a few lessons had been learned since then. Evidently not. Ships still appear to only be as safe as the idiot you put in charge...