KIMBERLY C e RITA - Very serious maritime casualty
Vessel: KIMBERLY C RITA
GAMA reference: 2025-087
Data da ocorrência acidental: 24-02-2026
Circulated on: 14-07-2026
Published on: 17-08-2026
Casualty Event: Collision - With other ship
Summary
On 24 February 2026, approximately 40 nautical miles south of Portugal, the Portuguese-flagged general cargo ship KIMBERLY C was proceeding towards Gdansk and the Portuguese-flagged container ship RITA was proceeding towards Rotterdam. Visibility deteriorated from intermittent fog patches to dense fog. RITA approached KIMBERLY C from astern at a higher speed, while the calculated CPA progressively reduced from about 0.79 nautical miles at 04:10 to 0.02 nautical miles at 04:40. At 04:45:53, RITA's starboard bow collided with KIMBERLY C's port quarter. KIMBERLY C sustained structural damage and water ingress associated with damaged potable-water tanks, while RITA sustained damage to her bow. No injuries or pollution were reported, and both vessels proceeded under their own power.
Safety recommendations
SR01-2026/087, to Peter Döhle Schiffahrts-KG: Assess the effectiveness of bridge watchkeepingbridge resource management arrangements applicable during restricted visibility, including the deploymentuse of available lookout personnel, in supporting the systematic monitoringreassessment of developing collision risk. SR02-2026/087, to Carisbrooke Shipping Ltd.: Assess the effectiveness of the fleet-wide measures introduced following the occurrence in supporting systematic monitoringreassessment of developing collision risk during restricted visibility, including allocation of bridge-team duties, communication of relevant observationsuse of navigational information.
Lessons learned
Detecting another vessel is not equivalent to monitoring collision risk successive CPATCPA values should be compared throughout the encounter restricted visibility requires systematic radarARPA observationtimely reassessment available bridge personnel should be assigned specific lookoutcross-checking duties avoiding action must be taken while sufficient timedistance remain, rather than during the final stage of the encounter.