This raised structural issues over this particular ship, and more importantly for the industry as a whole showed that other vessels may be prey to such weaknesses. While containerships generally are deemed a safe and efficient mode, the report said that at least a dozen of the kind examined were identified by classification societies as requiring remedial measures.

This has worrying repercussions for ports, given the pressures on ship managers in terms of rapid turnround and overloading, a factor that is suspected to be behind some accidents at terminals where cranes have hit boxes that have slipped free.

The UK report criticised what it said was the inadequate safety margin between the hull design loading and the ultimate strength of the MSC Napoli, with the load on the hull likely to have been increased by the whipping effect of heavy seas – and remember, this was a ship that was fully laden. The ship was six days behind schedule and there were indications that some container weights were under-declared.

Shipowners and shippers who misdeclare container weights could thus bear a heavy responsibility for what happens in port as well as at sea, and this poses a threat to onward transport by land too, the insurance industry is emphasising. 

These risks are building at a time when insurance premium rates are soft, as a result of more insurance capacity being available than for several years, but the balance in favour of the insurance buyer may change soon. A swift about-turn is possible as the credit crisis forces capital providers to re-assess their decisions to put money behind insurers. This may be the last year of a relatively free provision of money to this, and other, sides of the insurance market.