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The Bad Luck Continues…

SHAH ALAM: I AM aware that many people do not believe in luck but the saga of the RMN’s training ships certainly call for a dose of good luck – in buckets literally. One of the two boats apparently caught fire this morning as they were being completed at a shipyard in Lumut.

The ship that caught fire was Teguh Samudera, pennant number 272, the second training ship. Teguh and her sister ship, Gagah Samudera, were towed to the Grade One Marine Shipyard in Lumut, in mid-2015, for completion after being left incomplete for almost three years. The original builder, NGV Tech Sdn Bhd, went bust shortly after Teguh was launched in 2013.

Teguh Samudera seen prior to the launching ceremony in early 2013.

According to Sinar Harian, Teguh Samudera, had a fire in its engine room.

PCU Gagah Samudera, prior to her launch.

The report stated that firemen from the Sitiawan Fire and Rescue Department rushed to the shipyard after receiving an emergency call at 9.59am. The firemen took about 20 minutes to douse the fire which affected five per cent of the ship’s engine room, according to the report.

RMN, meanwhile, in a press release stated that the fire only affected the canvas cover of the engine and not the engines itself. It stated that the GOM, the shipyard, is fully responsible for the incident and the cost of repairs.

Thick black smoke coming out from the rear end of Teguh Samudera as seen from the helicopter deck. From the picture, most of the paint job on Gagah (port) has been completed while more work was needed on Teguh. Bomba picture

A full survey is however needed to find the extent of the damage cause by the fire and the costs to repair it.
From the image which appeared in the Sinar Harian report, it appears that both training ships, Gagah and Teguh, were in the final stage of completion. Probably RMN finally got the funding for the completion of both ships although the fire will probably delayed the commissioning of Teguh.

For more travails of the training ships check out Malaysian Defence previous articles on the two ships.

Previously, RMN’s hydrographic ship, KD Mutiara, had to be rebuilt after it caught fire while undergoing a refit at the MMHE shipyard in Johor. The most famous fire involving an RMN ship was of course the former KD Inderapura which was decommissioned after devastating fire back in 2009. She had earlier been repaired after another fire in 2002.

— Malaysian Defence

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Marhalim Abas: Shah Alam

View Comments (19)

  • Is there something with our shipyard or our skilled worker or whatever???

    Reply
    More of the shipyard culture thing

  • Its not the first time a RMN ship had caught fire. RMN should in future enforce strict safety requirement on its cobtractors.
    Must get the contractor to shoulder the loss this time. They must repair the ship ASAP .

  • Alhamdulillah,

    Thanks God it was a minor incident

    Both of them still gagah and teguh
    to be commissioned soon, InsyaAllah.

  • "...stringent Occupational Health and Safety guidelines..."

    OSH Act and FM Act are comprehensive and stringent enough, the big question is how far our shipbuilding industry commit, self regulate and obey to it?

    Fire is a major incident for a ship, I suspect somebody done hot works and took too much a shortcut in fire prevention.

  • Call in HSE procedure/implementation as in Petronas/O&G.

    Accidents will be reduced, but cost (to do work) will go up up and away...

  • Blacklist this shipyard

    Reply
    They wont do so as this is technically a minor incident, compared to its past stellar record. Others had done worse

  • You're a stubborn chap. You do know that against an enemy with a modern load of 5.56 rounds, you would be severely outgunned if you carried the same number as in the 70s (120 rounds) because you instead wanted a third RPG for the section?

    It baffles me as to why the section needs so many RPGs at all.

    Might as well say you did without body armour in the 70s so todays troops can do without.

    Not too long ago, you were suggesting the JF -17 which shows less concern for the logistics burden and combat effectiveness of your country's armed forces than for your opinion of China.

  • 120 rounds?. Are you sure?. Even for 7.62mm we carried 6 full mags with two spares n 200 roungs in our pouches during those times. When things change from 7.62 to 5.56 the same amount was carried. Please calculate how much ammo per person