Gottlieb Detained at Brake Over Steering Gear and Hidden Engines
A pilot reported the steering; the inspection that followed found three uncertificated auxiliary diesels
The Gottlieb, a 126-metre cargo ship under the flag of Barbados, has been detained at Brake on the Lower Weser after the pilot taking her in reported that the steering gear was not responding properly.
That report was enough to trigger a port state control by the ship safety service of BG Verkehr in Hamburg, and the inspection was where the ship came apart. Three new auxiliary diesel engines were found on board that appear on none of the vessel's certificates. Checked against the standards they should meet, the installed engines did not comply with the nitrogen oxide limits required of them.
The findings did not stop at the machinery. The sanitary spaces were in poor condition and the crew's living quarters were inadequate.
Under the maritime environmental rules, the Federal Maritime and Hydrographic Agency in Hamburg imposed security deposits of 20,000 euros each on the master and the chief engineer, 40,000 euros in total, and the vessel was given a departure ban. The case was set out by the water police inspectorate in Oldenburg.
The sequence is the part worth keeping. Nothing here was found by a routine targeting algorithm or a scheduled survey. A pilot came aboard to take a ship up a river, noticed that the helm was not answering as it should, and said so. Everything else — the uncertificated engines, the emissions breach, the state of the accommodation — followed from one observation made by somebody whose job that is not.
It also says something about what a certificate is worth on its own. Three main-sized auxiliary engines are not a detail that goes missing by accident, and a ship carrying them unrecorded has passed through ports and inspections in that condition. The steering defect is what made somebody look.
The ship now sits at Brake until the yard work is done and the flag state and the inspecting authority are satisfied, with her operating costs running and no revenue against them.
This story is part of the Maritime Briefing of 17 September 2026.
