THE stricken Hoegh Osaka suffered failures in one of its last three maritime safety inspections, it has been revealed.

The transporter ship stranded in the Solent had undergone a series of unannounced tests carried out when routinely ships leave ports around the world.

But shipping experts say that the failed points were very minor and were unlikely to be linked to the problems which led the pilot to deliberately ground it on Bramble Bank.

Last night the owners stressed the vessel had immediately made amendments to the failures and passed two other spot checks since.

Port State Control Inspections are carried out to check a vessel's seaworthiness before they embark.

The inspection covers a series of areas at a time rather than the whole vessel.

Osaka had four non detainable deficiencies before it left Bremerhaven in Germany on July 7.

The findings - which were not deemed major enough to prevent it from sailing - related to its propulsion and auxiliary machinery, navigation charts and radar and certificate and radar.

A Hoegh spokesman said the deficiencies were down to an incomplete contacts list and a malfunctioning incinerator, which was due to be fixed a week after the inspection was sprung upon them.

He said: “These were minor deficiencies and they weren't enough to keep the vessel in port.

“If they were major they would insist in keeping the ship in port.

He stressed it had subsequently passed two other tests held in Doha, Qatar, in August and Jebel Ali United Arab Emirates, in November.

A shipping expert also stressed they would be considered as minor points little affecting the vessel and said: “How she came to be how she is is something experts are working on.

“But it doesn't sound like it's anything to do with propulsion and auxiliary machinery.

“It looks like to do with stability.

“They are trying to establish what happened and why she had problems with stability and it looked like to me it was an operational issue.

“She has been sailing for 15 years and hasn't been a problem in the past so it has to be something fairly recently.”