Grounded Mumbai Maersk Successfully refloated after almost 30 Hours

The giant container ship Mumbai Maersk that ran aground at about 3 NM North of the East Frisian Island of Wangerooge on Wednesday at 11:05 pm has been successfully refloated.

 

Mumbai Maersk was headed from Rotterdam to Bremerhaven, the German Central Command for Maritime Emergencies said when the event happened.

As much as six tugboats towed the vessel free during the high tide hours of Friday morning in their third attempt as the earlier two attempts to bring the container ship back into the deeper water had failed.

The silver lining is that no fuel was leaked, and entry to the port was not obstructed, with no report of injuries or loss of life.

The Danish-flagged vessel, which can carry over 18,000 twenty-foot (33 cbm) equivalent containers, was only partially loaded when the incident took place.

Maersk’s statement on the incident is below:

“We can confirm that on 2 February at around 23:00 CET, Mumbai Maersk was grounded outside Bremerhaven, Germany. All crew are safe, and there is no pollution and no sign of hull breach. The vessel is on the ground on a shallow patch and as such the entrance to the port is not obstructed and port operations is running as normal. Sailing from Asia, the vessel had its last stop in the port of Rotterdam before grounding outside of Bremerhaven. The vessel was on its way to discharge, and consequently, the cargo meant for Bremerhaven is still on board, along with cargo destined for the Scandinavian countries.
A first attempt to free the vessel has been performed unsuccessfully. Therefore, extra tugs are being deployed, and a new effort is expected at the coming high tide around midnight on 3 February.”

The cause of the incident was not apparent; however, it is being investigated.

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