Ship heads for port after hitting sunken Tricolor
A cargo ship that hit the sunken vessel Tricolor in the English Channel was tonight heading for port under its own power.
The 95-metre Nicola had seven people on board when it struck the Tricolor just days after the car carrier sank, taking with it £30 million worth of luxury cars.
This morning, three tugs pulled the 3,000-tonne vessel off the top of the wreck. It anchored nearby as crew awaited instructions from the owner, German firm Weedendamm.
The empty cargo ship, which is registered in the Dutch Antilles, had been travelling from La Coruna in northern Spain to the Dutch port of Rotterdam.
This afternoon, it set off bound for the German port of Hamburg under its own steam, said Rotterdam-based salvage firm Smit Salvage, which has a team at the scene.
A spokesman said: “If she is able to go to Hamburg under her own power the damage cannot be overly extensive otherwise she would have been towed by one of the attending tugs.”
Tricolor was carrying 2,862 BMWs, Volvos and Saabs when it and the Bahamas-registered container ship Kariba collided in thick fog off the French port of Dunkirk on Saturday.
Her crew of 24 scrambled into lifeboats as the 50,000-tonne, 200-metre ship went down within 90 minutes.
The men were taken to Dunkirk but were not thought to be injured.
The Kariba was towed to the Belgian port of Antwerp with its bow severely damaged.
Geranium, a French warship sent from Cherbourg, was alerting other ships to the wreck while a single buoy marked the spot.
Bad weather had prevented more buoys being placed around the wreck, which lies in one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes.
However, the British Navy ship Anglesey was due to arrive at the scene tonight to help warn other vessels, said French coastguards.
A team of eight experts and a vessel from Smit Salvage were also in position about 20 miles east of the Kent coast to check the Tricolor for oil leaks.
High winds and strong sea currents over the last two days had prevented divers going down to the wreck to assess the damage.
But the Smit Salvage spokesman said divers may be able to start work later today or overnight, weather-permitting.
He said an initial investigation suggested none of the 2,000 tons of bunker oil had leaked out, but there was perhaps some leaking from the engine rooms.
“The initial priority for our salvage team is to plug any holes oil can leak from and then the 2,000 tons of bunker oil will be removed.”
