Drifting cargo shift could hit French Atlantic Coast by Tuesday



PARIS: -- French authorities were still scratching their heads on Sunday (January 31) as to how to prevent a cargo ship loaded with timber from crashing into the country’s Atlantic coast.

Salvage team workers have been airlifted near the drifting Modern Express, to try and find a way to tow it from rough waters. But bad weather has made their work very difficult, according to the French Navy.

The Modern Express was transporting 3,600 tonnes of wood from Gabon to France’s northern port of Le Havre, but listed heavily to one side last week in rough seas and has not recovered an upright position, leading to the evacuation of the 22 crew members by helicopter.

The vessel, which has 300 tonnes of oil in its fuel tanks, has since been adrift in the Bay of Biscay and was about 116 kilometres off Arcachon Bay near Bordeaux on Sunday.

Maritime expert Jacques Loiseau said he didn’t believe it was possible to straighten the ship at this stage. “It’s very complicated; we can’t take it into a port in its current state, it’s much too big,” he said.

He said a more likely scenario would be to gently bring the ship aground onto a soft sandy beach — avoiding rocks and anything that might wreck it — and then have it dismantled and cleaned up.

The maritime prefecture said there may be a window of opportunity on Monday (February 1) morning to tow the ship.

If that fails, it’s expected to end up by Tuesday night on a sandy beach in the Landes, south of Bordeaux.


-- (c) Copyright Euronews 2016-02-01

Why not just pump out the fuel. Let the wood float to shore. Tow the boat out to sea, with a tug boat and sink it.

Sorted.

Why not just pump out the fuel. Let the wood float to shore. Tow the boat out to sea, with a tug boat and sink it.

Sorted.

YEA!!!!!!!!----------- Simple solution-------- Wish I had thought of that

Why not just pump out the fuel. Let the wood float to shore. Tow the boat out to sea, with a tug boat and sink it.

Sorted.

Why would one want to do that? ,,,,,Way to easy ,,,,,

One thing you've got to give the French authorities: they run a tight shift

tow it to a large dry dock, surely there must be one big enough somewhere (remove the oil first)

Why not just pump out the fuel. Let the wood float to shore. Tow the boat out to sea, with a tug boat and sink it.

Sorted.

Nice respond on this topic!

Now do you self a favour before you hit your keyboard, look at the weather at this location!

There are two dutch tugs, trying to hook up on this vessel, but there is noway with the current weather that they can do that, and btw, they tried it a few times.

They also have a helicoptor ready to go, to get the tow line to this vessel. But once again it has to be save to fly.

I am sure that the tug boys have tried everything possible.

After all they get a line aboard, then claim salvage rights (law of the sea). Then it is a big payday for them.

Why not just pump out the fuel. Let the wood float to shore. Tow the boat out to sea, with a tug boat and sink it.

Sorted.

Nice respond on this topic!

Now do you self a favour before you hit your keyboard, look at the weather at this location!

There are two dutch tugs, trying to hook up on this vessel, but there is noway with the current weather that they can do that, and btw, they tried it a few times.

They also have a helicoptor ready to go, to get the tow line to this vessel. But once again it has to be save to fly.

The water doesn't look rough to me, hardly any whitecaps, my spa gets more waves.

The water doesn't look rough to me, hardly any whitecaps, my spa gets more waves.

only when you have been eating chilli

Its not a Cargo ship , its a car transporter.

Its not a Cargo ship , its a car transporter.

And the cars it carries are classed as cargo,no pun intended.

And it's actually named a vehicles carrier.

https://www.vesselfinder.com/vessels/MODERN-EXPRESS-IMO-9231688-MMSI-356187000

Edited February 1, 201610 yr by stoneyboy

This is a car transporter.

Bring in some Somali or west African pirates, they'll probably come up with a clever solution.