INTERNATIONAL NEWS:
MOL Comfort before breaking up (top), the position of the floating sections (middle) and rescued seamen coming ashore in Colombo (nice sweat shirt)
Three tugs and a patrol boat arrived on scene this week to lay claim to the two still floating halves of the container ship MOL Comfort. The Sri Lanka Shipping company tug Capricorn (11,000 BHP) now has the forward section of the vessel under tow. Unfortunately, following a heavy weather battering over the last few days, the vessel’s stern section sank in a 4,000 meters of water before it could be stabilized, taking with it around 1,700 containers and around 1,500 tons of bunker fuel. On the insurance front, London headquartered Clyde & Co has disclosed that it has been instructed by a number of cargo interests to protect them in respect of Lloyd’s Open Form, General Average and Recovery, to the aggregated insured value in excess of $120m.
New pictures of the bow section under tow – so far, so good however not such good news for the stern section which could not be saved.
Meanwhile MOL has announced plans to temporarily withdraw from serviceMOL Comfort’s sister ships namely the MOL Creation, MOL Charisma, MOL Celebration, MOL Courage, MOL Competence, and MOL Commitment to permit thorough structural inspection by her builders and Class. As an immediate measure, the company has introduced “operational procedures” to reduce hull stress.
