fire main

Cars were first reported loose in hold 3 at 0544, at the same time the captain said it was unsafe to enter hold 3 due to "gear adrift" and "a lot of water." The bilge pumps were already running. If cars were loose by that time, one or more of them could have hit the unprotected inlet piping section of the emergency fire pump, rupturing the piping or damaging the skin valve so that it could not stop seawater from entering the hold. At 0714, the VDR recorded the chief mate reporting that the chief engineer had said that something hit the fire main and "got it ruptured, hard." (The entire fire system, including the emergency fire pump and piping, was known as the fire main.)