Alan Peat EVIDENCE NOW confirms that the explosion on board the Pacific International Lines (PIL) vessel, the Sea Elegance, was caused by a containerised cargo of an undeclared hazardous substance - the swimming pool chemical, calcium hypochlorite. “It appears on the manifest as calcium hypochlorite,” Captain Bill Dernier, head of the SA Maritime Safety Authority (SAMSA) told FTW, “but it was not declared as dangerous.” This lack of warning that it was hazardous was coincidentally accompanied by what turned out to be the worst possible stowage for such a product. The container was right at the bottom of the hold, and hard against the engine-room bulkhead, a natural, and ultimately explosive source of heat. Calcium hypochlorite is safe in certain forms but most definitely dangerous in others. Heat causes the product to deteriorate, FTW was told, in turn generating its own heat and rising to combustion temperature, after which nothing but a big bang. SAMSA will now complete its report, Dernier said, and this will then be forwarded to both Chinese and Singapore authorities. China, he added, because that was where it was originally loaded, and Singapore because that was where “he was led to believe” that it was transhipped for its southerly journey to SA and its explosive destiny.
