Two Ships Burn Off English Coast After Collision

By Phil Noble

WITHERNSEA, England, March 11 (Reuters) – Two ships burned off the English coast on Tuesday, a day after an unexplained collision that left a tanker carrying U.S. army jet fuel with a gaping hole in its side, and a container ship adrift and likely to sink.

A crew member from the Portuguese-flagged container ship Solong was assumed dead and that ship was unlikely to stay afloat, junior transport minister Mike Kane told parliament. Thirty-six people were brought ashore following the incident and no others remain missing, the coastguard said.

The tanker Stena Immaculate, which carries jet fuel for the U.S. military, was at anchor when it was struck by the smaller Solong, causing huge fires and explosions, and releasing fuel into the sea.

Aerial TV footage on Tuesday showed a gaping hole in Stena Immaculate’s hull, with fire damage along its length, although the flames that engulfed the vessel after the collision appeared to have subsided.

‘UNLIKELY TO STAY AFLOAT’

The Solong, which appeared badly burnt in separate TV footage, had drifted south overnight, the coastguard said. A one-kilometer (0.62 mile) exclusion zone was placed around both vessels, the statement said.

“Modeling suggests that should the Solong remain afloat, it will remain clear of land for the next few hours,” Kane said. “The assessment of (the coastguard) is, however, that it is unlikely the vessel will remain afloat.”

Dutch marine provider Boskalis, appointed to salvage the Stena Immaculate tanker, said four ships carrying foam and extinguishing agents were on their way to the scene.

Equipment to minimize pollution at sea, such as spray dispersants for oil spills and containment booms, were on standby, the British government said.

UNEXPLAINED INCIDENT

Authorities and operators of the vessels have yet to offer an explanation of how the crash happened, or why multiple safety systems on board modern vessels failed to prevent the crash.

Data from maritime analytics website MarineTraffic showed the 183-meter Stena Immaculate was anchored off Immingham, northeast England, when it was struck by the 140-meter Solong, which was en route to Rotterdam.

The Solong was sailing at cruise speed and close to the maximum of around 18-19 knots, shipping sources said on Tuesday, and the vessel had sailed through the same area on past voyages.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s spokesman said there did not appear to be any suggestion of “foul play” at this time.

The potential environmental impact was being assessed, coordinated by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency and an East of England environmental group, and the situation was being monitored overhead by plane, the government added.

While Britain’s Marine Accident Investigation Branch will gather initial evidence, overall responsibility for investigating the crash lies with the U.S. and Portuguese authorities, the flag states of the vessels.

(Reporting by Phil Noble, Sarah Young, Sachin Ravikumar Charlotte Van Campenhout and Michael Holden; Writing by Sarah Young and William James; editing by Paul Sandle and Bernadette Baum)

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