delusionofgrandeur

Stricken bulk timber carrying ship, Ice Prince has sunk approximately 26 miles from Portland Bill in the English Channel.

The ship got into difficultly on Sunday night when it’s load of cut timber shifted caused an initial 25 degree list to port. After an emergency call was made, the crew were taken off by both HM Coastguard helicopter and RNLI Lifeboat.

French coastguard tug Abeille Liberté sailed up from Cherbourg to stand by the Ice Prince and was later joined by JP Knights tug Anglian Earl. The tugs monitored the Ice Prince into last night by which point it had developed a 45 degree list. Abeille Liberté reported further loss of timber from the deck of Ice Prince just prior to the 6,395 ton ship sinking in rough seas. Some 5258 metric tons of sawn timber were aboard the Ice Prince, 2000 tons of which were on deck. Further to this, over 300 tons of fuel oil are aboard. The MCA are reviewing counter pollution stockpiles to counter this.

Other sources report a ‘timber slick’ on the surface created by Ice Prince’s load. The wreck itself presents a hazard to shipping with the bow above water, the stern on the seabed and as such, Abeille Liberté is remaining on station to guard the wreck.

Photo Credit: MCA

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 15th, 2008 at 12:28 pm and is filed under Automotive, News.You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.