Container vessel abandoned mid atlantic.

halcyon said:
Aft view shows it empty:confused:

Brian
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No i think its just the outer box`s awol

tow5.jpg
 
It has long been my understanding (usual caveats yada yada!) that container ships try to carry hazardous cargo in the outer aft deck stacks where it is less likely, in the event of a fire or explosion, to cause collateral damage and from whre they can be jettisoned if necessary

So I'm wondering if this is the case with the Flamenia i.e. that either the crew or the salvors jettisoned the hazardous cargo containers in the aft stacks as a precaution?
 
Brigantia said:
It has long been my understanding (usual caveats yada yada!) that container ships try to carry hazardous cargo in the outer aft deck stacks where it is less likely, in the event of a fire or explosion, to cause collateral damage and from whre they can be jettisoned if necessary

So I'm wondering if this is the case with the Flamenia i.e. that either the crew or the salvors jettisoned the hazardous cargo containers in the aft stacks as a precaution?
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It tends to vary ship to ship where the DG containers are carried. However it is quite common for ships to sail with one or more bays empty on deck. It would not be possible for the crew to jettison the cargo not sure what sort of equipment the salvors have but I think that it would be pretty unlikely they could either.

Are there any pictures photos of the ship with cargo in that bay? I think the most likely scenario is that there were never any containers in that bay.
 
The UK doesn't really have the same media helicopters as the US but 2 miles is nothing for getting video footage from a skycam. The CAA (or whatever the regulatory body is these days) has much stricter rules on over water flight requirements and over cities - especially twin engine requirements - so tends to make it less attractive financially for news stations. Besides here in the US news sells advertising...

PW.
 
Ship’s hazardous cargo floats towards Irish coast

Dangerous cargo containers which toppled off a chemical ship are floating towards the south-west coast. It is understood that some harbour hazardous chemicals which could present a danger to transatlantic vessels on the main shipping lanes.
The containers slipped off German-registered ship MSC FLAMINIA, which caught fire on Jul 14. It caused an explosion that forced the crew to abandon the ship. Salvage operations were under way as some of the
containers were towed into Castletownbere, West Cork, by a tug boat. The Hamburg-registered ship had originally been on its way from Charleston in the US to the German port of Bremenhaven.
The 85,823-tonne vessel was carrying 2,876 containers, 149 classed as dangerous goods. One crewman died and another is missing, presumed dead, following the incident on the Atlantic. The surviving 24 crewmen were rescued from a lifeboat. The ship started listing and some of its containers fell into the sea, about 1,600km from land.
The MSC FLAMINIA remained listing until authorities in Britain, France, Belgium, and the Netherlands cleared it for passage to be towed through the English Channel. It recently arrived in the German port of Wilhelmshaven. Now, some of its containers are appearing off the south-west coast and floating into the Atlantic’s main cargo shipping lanes.
The Atlantic Towage & Marine Ltd-owned tugboat The OCEAN BANK, skippered by Castletownbere-based Sean Harrington, was asked by the ship’s insurers to recover some of the containers yesterday. "They were about 80 miles south-west of the coast when we located them and towed them back," Mr Harrington said. "The three we recovered were empty." He said it was possible the tug boat would be sent out to bring in others in the days ahead.
"There were a good lot of them floating into shipping lanes and that could be a cause of concern for other vessels," he said.

Will this tail ever end??
 
Maybe this might make someone have to take action over the menace of semi-submerged containers, as this time it's a significant number in a very busy shipping area, not out of sight out of mind where they may 'only' sink yachts or pile onto beaches.

Well one can hope...
 
As an aside, I didn't know an empty container would float. I thought it was buoyant contents that did that. I'm very surprised that they are able to make them watertight. A few small holes somewhere would seem a sensible precaution, no?
 
Robwhelton said:
As an aside, I didn't know an empty container would float. I thought it was buoyant contents that did that. I'm very surprised that they are able to make them watertight. A few small holes somewhere would seem a sensible precaution, no?
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Not when you get a load of water damaged televisions!

Most do have airvents in them, but these are usually so close to the top seam as to be well above the waterline.
 
DaveS said:
Why would anyone ship empty containers?
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because we generally import more than we export and there is a limited number of containers in the world! empty containers are always shipped to reposition ready for our desire to import more cheap products!
 
As one who has recently sailed singlehanded from NW Spain to Kinsale, I'm very thankful that this has happened after I had safely passed. Were I about to set off now, whom should I contact in La Coruna to find out the latest sighting positions? (or the UK for that matter). Presumably it is someone's job to keep the plot.....

It's the exporting countries that want the empty containers - these were probably on their way to Germany.
 
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