Tanker collided with bulk carrier at Ijmuiden outer anchorage, North sea, understood early in the morning Jan 31, reports Maritime Bulletin.
What happened?
The bulk carrier seemed to be at anchor at the time of collision, she was breached in engine room area with mass water ingress, and according to Dutch media, citing officials, all the crew were evacuated by helicopters, in very challenging conditions of full-scale storm.
Hierbij een indruk van hoe de evacuatie van de bemanningsleden van het stuurloze schip ging. Hierbij werden meerdere SAR-helikopters @NhvHelicopters en 1 helikopter vd Belgische Kustwacht @agentschapMDK ingezet. pic.twitter.com/2OyFsvAq0H
— Kustwacht Nederland (@Kustwacht_nl) January 31, 2022
As of 1700 UTC, Jan 31st, the bulk carrier was still adrift, with AIS still online. While adrift, already contacted wind farm grid transformers platform, and her hull was breached one more time. Wind farm platform regretfully, wasn’t destroyed. Salvage is hampered by extreme weather, making unmanned ship towage impossible.
As of Feb 1 0530 UTC, she is under tow of OSV SOVEREIGN (IMO 9262742) with assisting tug MULTRATUG 18, port of destination so far, unknown. Convoy is proceeding in southern direction, weather is toning down, so hopefully, worst is behind.
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Source: Maritime Bulletin
