The crew of a UK marine aggregate dredger were undertaking the task of positioning the intermediate wire reel onto the deck of the vessel to facilitate the intermediate wire change.
The task involved lifting the wire spool over the dredge pipe and landing it into the A-Frame trestle. On the first attempt the reel was lifted with the sides of reel in the direction forward to aft. On lifting the wire over the pipe, it became evident that in this direction it would not fit between the dredge pipe and the ships hand railings.
The reel was rotated 90 degrees, lowered past the dredge pipe and then rotated again back 90 degrees and lined up with the A-Frame trestle. On lining up with the A-Frame trestle it became apparent the reel was too wide to fit.
The task was halted, and the reel was returned to shore. A decision was then made to use 2 independent trestles which were set up in a different position on deck. An attempt was made to land the reel in this position, but the dredge pipe reduced the available space in this area and the reel was too big to fit.
A decision was then made to move back to the original location and the trestles were set up in this location. The wire reel was lifted on-board, a cross bar was then inserted through the centre of the reel to facilitate rotating the reel into the fore and aft direction. During the rotation, the reel moved more quickly than in the previous attempts,it was at this point the IP sustained a crush injury to his left forefinger. The reel crushed his finger against the upright stanchion of the hand railings.