Delay in availability of SIEG machines from ARC

5-November-2013

We are aware that many people are awaiting availability of certain SIEG machines, which have been out of stock at ARC for a few months now.

Many of these machines are inside a container on the vessel: Maersk Salina, which was expected to land at Felixstowe on 29th October 2013. However, whilst sailing through the Bay of Biscay, the vessel was damaged by a storm, which led to several containers falling into the ocean, and many other containers falling onto their sides on the vessel, as you can see from the pictures below. Thankfully, to the best of our knowledge, there was no loss of human life.

At time of writing, Maersk Salina is in port at La Havre

**LINK**

where Maersk are slowly removing the damaged containers. They have advised that our container is probably OK, as it was not located in the fallen stack. However, we will only know for sure once the container arrives at Felixstowe. Provided all is well, we hope to have 'out-of-stock' SIEG machines available towards the end of November 2013.

Please accept our apologies for this delay and any inconvenience caused.

Ketan at ARC.

Never a dull moment, is there ?!

Hope all goes well for you, Ketan.

MichaelG.

You couldn't make up a better excuse than that, at least they haven't been nobbled by Somalian pirates.

Hope they are OK.

Neil

Ketan

I do hope that you get all those "goodies" soon to satisfy your customers.

Knowing little of ships, or the loading thereof , I'm amazed at all the cargo piled up on deck. It looks pretty dodgy to me though.

This impression is not helped by the name on the side:- MAERSK LINE.

As a bit of a crossword fan I find this to be this is an anagram of "LAME SINKER" !!!

Unfortunate maybe?!

Cheers

Norman

Thanks, I hope it goes OK too.

The cranes on land cannot be used to remove the damaged containers. So I guess that they have some kind of cranes on mobile platforms on both sides of the vessel trying to remove the damaged containers without upsetting the balance. The way it has been put to me is that the situation is similar to playing a game of Jinga!

Too right Neil. I had to post this here and on our website because we are starting to get calls asking for reasons for the delay. If Somilian pirates had nobbled the container, I would hope that they wouldn't know what to do with the contents, in which case, they might be easier to recover, as they couldn't exactly 'weight it in'

Ketan at ARC.

The Bay of Biscay can be a bit of a nightmare, it's the only place I ever saw a force ten blow

Was like being on a roller coaster surrounded by cremola foam

The fishing guys there just get on with it in their tiny boats, rising and falling 50+ feet every 10-20 seconds

They must be some of the toughest sea going people on the planet

Norman,

If anything, I am grateful that the container is on a Maersk vessel.

Bay of Biscay has rough weather often. If you google 'Bay of Biscay rough weather' you will see plenty of images.

I guess that the waves in the storm were just too strong. Port of Felixstowe was closed, so the vessel couldnt dock.

Ketan at ARC

As a brat I experienced a force 11 from Hamburg to Harwich. That was an experience, exciting at the time to an 11 yo, but its something that has left me with a huge respect for the power of storms.

Those container ships look so vulnerable, I'm amazed there are not more losses from them.

Regards,

Richard

I'll probably get the blame for this, I always do get the blame for everything.

There goes my two quid .................. sigh..............

Hi Ketan,

Hope you get your shipment safe and sound, Have been throught the what we call the Somalian Straits last time in convoy with a Russian Battleship and chopper. rear of ship was covered in razor wire. been through the Bay of Biscay many times and seen waves taller than the ship. Went through the Panama Canal with one of these container ships tailing us boy fully loaded they are BIG.
Everyone please be patient with Ketan,
A now happily retired old seadog
Bob

I really feel sorry for the importers whose goods are at the bottom of the deep blue sea. If I am having sleepless nights, it is difficult to imagine what they and the importers whose containers are damaged/on their side/hanging on the ship, must be going through. When you see it on the news, it is just news. But when you get effected, you see things differently.

John, I will be over to get the bag of chips with the two quid you owe me.

Ketan at ARC.

Pst, anyone want a cheap lathe, fell of the back of a ship

Jason

Should that read 'with possible water damage' !!!!!

Seriously hope that the container is safe and sound with its contents intact.

Edited By Martin W on 05/11/2013 17:43:20

I once worked on steelwork for hongkong airport...the new one. Spent 6 months on various items only to get an exact repeat order 86 months later. All 6 containers were missing on arrival at port - suspected fallen off ship in storm! WE WERE TOLD IT HAPPENS REGULARLY!

richardandtrac, that wasn't in August, about 1958 was it?. The ship we were in was on the Harwich to Hook of Holland route and was delayed by 7 hours due to riding out a storm at sea. It was awful, all the public areas needed hosing down to clean them up

Frank (An old dog).

If it's any conolation, the last figures I saw were over a thousand containers a year lost

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That sounds like a drop in the ocean..................................

Two quid is equivalent to 50 fourpenny ones. I'll leave Ketan to deal with that and Stevenson.

Dennis