Photo: scheepvaartwest.be
Cargo ships are so massive and heavy, that anything short of an iceberg would have difficulties in causing enough damage to sink one. However, when these titans collide with one another, the results can be catastrophic! Sadly, this is what happened off the coast of Belgium, where the Baltic Ace (148-meter), with 1,400 Mitsubishi vehicles on board collided with the slightly smaller Corvus J (134-meter).
The impact caused the Baltic Ace to sink, along with its cargo of cars, which were being moved from Zeebrugge, in Belgium, to Kotka, in Finland. Also, despite the best efforts of the Royal Dutch Sea Rescue Organization, as well as two additional navy vessels, four helicopters and one airplane, six of the ship’s crew of twenty four were still missing, and this morning the search was called off.
The tragedy was attributed to human error, in one of Europe’s busiest shipping lanes. This is the first fatal shipping accident to take place off the Dutch coast, since 1994, when a British fishing vessel, the Larissa, went down along with its six crew, after colliding with a Maltese-flagged tanker, according to the BBC.
The tragedy was attributed to human error, in one of Europe’s busiest shipping lanes. This is the first fatal shipping accident to take place off the Dutch coast, since 1994, when a British fishing vessel, the Larissa, went down along with its six crew, after colliding with a Maltese-flagged tanker, according to the BBC.
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