On Thursday 18th January 2007 MSC Napoli, a 275 metre (900foot) long container ship was caught in stormy weather in the English channel and suffered structural damage. Cracks began to appear in the engine room which became progressively worse and resulted in a 1metre by 0.5metre (3ft by 1ft 6in) hole developing in the starboard side of the vessel.
The vessel began to take in water through this hole and the crew were forced to issue a distress call and abandon ship in favour of a lifeboat. The distress call was received by Falmouth Coastguard at 10:30 GMT and 2 helicopters were dispatched from RNAS Culdrose to assist the crew, which consisted of 26 members of various nationalities, those being Bulgarian, Ukraninan, Turkish, Indian, Filipino and 2 young British cadets.
The weather and conditions were described as “pretty horrific” by the rescuers due to the severe south-westerly gale force nine winds (more than 50mph) and the 8 to 9m (26 to 30 foot) swells. The first helicopter took approximately 45 minutes to airlift 13 of the crew, the remaining crew were picked up by the second helicopter and they were all returned to Cornwall. The crew luckily escaped serious injury but were treated for hypothermia and extreme seasickness.The vessel was listing dangerously and had to be moved so on Saturday 20th January the vessel was towed by French tugs (a salvage deal had been made with a French team) and deliberately beached at Lyme Bay near Branscombe to prevent further damage being sustained in deep waters. The original plan had been for the vessel to be taken to Portland harbour in Dorset however due to the stormy conditions the Maritime Coastguard Agency decided the best course of action would be to ground her. The vessel was held in place by the tug boats. By Sunday two long gashes were apparent, one on each side of the vessel just above the water line. The tugs remained to hold the vessel in place and she remained firmly aground however continued to roll in the storms. At high tide the rescue team edged the vessel closer to safety and pumped in sea water as ballast, the vessel was also surrounded by 1 kilometre (0.6 miles) of oil-protection boom in an attempt to minimise pollution of the area200T of oil mixed with water leaked from the vessel, however the ship’s tanks were not punctured. The MCA began the operation to remove the fuel from the vessel on Monday 22nd January, as the fuel had to be heated before it could be off-loaded to a waiting vessel the process took a week to complete. At the same time a salvage team of 8 boarded the vessel to begin analysis of the situation, this led to a team of divers plugging a gap in the vessel the next day.
Lucky Guy Got a BMW Bike as well.
The vessel began to take in water through this hole and the crew were forced to issue a distress call and abandon ship in favour of a lifeboat. The distress call was received by Falmouth Coastguard at 10:30 GMT and 2 helicopters were dispatched from RNAS Culdrose to assist the crew, which consisted of 26 members of various nationalities, those being Bulgarian, Ukraninan, Turkish, Indian, Filipino and 2 young British cadets.
The weather and conditions were described as “pretty horrific” by the rescuers due to the severe south-westerly gale force nine winds (more than 50mph) and the 8 to 9m (26 to 30 foot) swells. The first helicopter took approximately 45 minutes to airlift 13 of the crew, the remaining crew were picked up by the second helicopter and they were all returned to Cornwall. The crew luckily escaped serious injury but were treated for hypothermia and extreme seasickness.The vessel was listing dangerously and had to be moved so on Saturday 20th January the vessel was towed by French tugs (a salvage deal had been made with a French team) and deliberately beached at Lyme Bay near Branscombe to prevent further damage being sustained in deep waters. The original plan had been for the vessel to be taken to Portland harbour in Dorset however due to the stormy conditions the Maritime Coastguard Agency decided the best course of action would be to ground her. The vessel was held in place by the tug boats. By Sunday two long gashes were apparent, one on each side of the vessel just above the water line. The tugs remained to hold the vessel in place and she remained firmly aground however continued to roll in the storms. At high tide the rescue team edged the vessel closer to safety and pumped in sea water as ballast, the vessel was also surrounded by 1 kilometre (0.6 miles) of oil-protection boom in an attempt to minimise pollution of the area200T of oil mixed with water leaked from the vessel, however the ship’s tanks were not punctured. The MCA began the operation to remove the fuel from the vessel on Monday 22nd January, as the fuel had to be heated before it could be off-loaded to a waiting vessel the process took a week to complete. At the same time a salvage team of 8 boarded the vessel to begin analysis of the situation, this led to a team of divers plugging a gap in the vessel the next day.
Lucky Guy Got a BMW Bike as well.
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