Year Needed to Remove Disaster Ship Wreck

Year Needed to Remove Disaster Ship Wreck





    
 
January 2007  - Work to salvage the cargo 
of the container ship MSC Napoli aground in East Devon's Lyme 
Bay proceeded today with construction of a fence at Branscombe 
beach to keep scavangers away from broken containers spilling 
their contents onto the shore. 
The operation to remove the containers from the stricken ship 
will take months, according to the Maritime And Coastguard 
Agency, MCA. Once this has been completed, the process of 
removing the ship will begin. The whole operation is likely to 
take up to a year. 
The MSC Napoli is listing and aground in Lyme Bay on the Devon 
coast near the Jurassic Coast World Heritage site. (Photo 
courtesy Tom Williams) 
The 62,000 metric ton British-flagged ship lost power during a 
gale in the English Channel Thursday, when the engine room 
flooded more than 40 miles from the Cornish coast. After the 
crew was rescued unharmed, the ship was deliberately grounded 
Sunday to keep it from sinking. 
About 200 metric tons of oil from the ship's ruptured fuel 
tank has spilled near an area which forms part of a the 
Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site. The MSC Napoli was 
carrying 2,323 containers, 158 of which are classed as 
hazardous, and authorities fear hazardous materials may escape 
from broken containers washed up on the beach. 
People scavaged East Devon beaches yesterday and today to pick 
through cargo from beached containers. They trampled over 
private property, and brought large vehicles and roughly 
constructed stretchers through villages to take away cargo 
ranging from shoes and toys to BMW motorbikes. 
Containers which held people's personal possessions were 
looted and their property discarded on the beach. 
The Maritime And Coastguard Agency, MCA, says "these 
activities caused damage estimated to be 800 percent more 
significant than the damage caused by the incident itself." 
The oil tanker Forth Fisher is now on scene and started to 
pump the first of the heavy fuel oil from the vessel. Work 
will continue for the next week to transfer all of the oil 
from the vessel. 
Car and wrecked container from the MSC Napoli that came ashore 
on Branscombe beach. (Photo courtesy Dan Regan) 
Since the vessel was run aground, there has been some leakage 
of used engine room oil and sludge from a crack in the port 
side, which has now been stopped. 
In addition, there has been another small fuel leak that the 
MCA says was identified and plugged by divers. 
"This provided us with the opportunity to test the effect of 
spraying dispersants on the oil," the MCA said in a statement 
today. "The test was successful and the oil sprayed was 
observed to be dispersing. In addition oil containment booming 
was deployed to trap the leaking oil." 
The oil slick from the Napoli extends four miles along the 
coast. 
A total of 268 birds have been admitted to the RSPCA West 
Hatch Wildlife Centre since the MSC Napoli was beached. RSPCA 
officers are responding to public concerns about stricken 
birds on beaches from Paignton in Devon to the Purbecks near 
Poole. 
Seabird fouled with oil from the Napoli is in expert hands at 
the RSPCA West Hatch Wildlife Centre in Somerset. (Photo 
courtesy RSPCA) 
"The job now is to rehydrate, clean and rehabilitate this huge 
number of sick seabirds," said Rupert Griffiths, manager of 
RSPCA West Hatch Wildlife Centre. "It is a complicated 
process, which requires birds first to be weighed, then 
flushed with charcoal to absorb oil from their stomachs, 
before cleaning their clogged feathers with detergent." 
The RSPCA says if people find oiled birds, they should not 
attempt to wash or feed the birds but should leave that to the 
experts. Call the RSPCA 24-hour helpline: 0870 55 55 999, 
which can arrange collection or identify a nearby collection 
point. 
Meanwhile, salvors and contractors are taking steps to remove 
the fuel oil aboard the MSC Napoli. Each of the fuel tanks on 
board the ship will be pumped out on a step by step basis. At 
the same time, two heavy duty cranes will be loaded onto 
barges in Rotterdam and will arrive at the vessel within a 
week. 
The contractor who erected the fence across Branscombe Beach 
has started to bring in diggers, dumper trucks and cutting 
equipment. From tomorrow, there will be no public access to 
the beach, with access to the village restricted to residents. 

People who have already acquired items of wreck must by law 
report it to the Receiver of Wreck. This can be done via a 
form available on the MCA's website at 
http://www.mcga.gov.uk/row. In the meantime items should be 
secured and held until the agency contacts the legal owner of 
the property. 
Receiver of Wreck's officer Mark Rodaway of the Maritime and 
Coastguard Agency called the scavangers' behavior "dreadful." 
BMW first aid kit washed ashore from a container off the MSC 
Napoli (Photo courtesy David Mitchell) 
"I hope that members of the public will cooperate with us to 
allow the important beach cleanup operation to move ahead 
without delay," Rodaway said. 
The organization of coastal local authorities in Britain and 
eight other Northern European countries is concerned about 
liability and compensation for damages in such incidents. 
KIMO International, an organization that consists of 115 
coastal local authorities representing over six million 
inhabitants, said today that the grounding of the MSC Napoli 
is the type of incident that the North Sea ministers and 
senior officials should have addressed, but ignored, at a 
meeting last year. 
KIMO officials had called on the ministers to take action to 
protect coastal communities from the impacts of pollution from 
container ships. However, these requests fell on deaf ears 
despite previous commitments in 2002 and in 2006, the 
organization said. 
KIMO President Councillor Angus Nicolson said, “This incident 
highlights an issue on which we have been campaigning for many 
years and confirms our fears that as these large 
containerships increase in age this type of accident will 
become more prevalent." 
"The fact that there is no compensation and liability regime 
in place could adversely affect coastal communities and place 
a further burden on local authorities which could find 
themselves responsible for costly clean up operations, as was 
the case for the MV Cita,” said Nicolson. 
The container ship MV Cita ran aground in 1997 on the Isles of 
Scilly, an archipelago off the southwestern tip of the UK not 
far from Lyme Bay. After an eight year court case, the local 
authority and the UK Department for Transport received no 
compensation for damages and were liable for their own costs 
for the legal battle. 
Wreck of the MV Cita lies on the ocean floor at the Isles of 
Scilly (Photo courtesy BSAC) 
KIMO points out that the UK government has yet to implement 
three treaties that could help cover local authorities for 
damage by hazardous substances and oil pollution. The 
International Convention on Liability and Compensation for 
Damage in Connection with the Carriage of Hazardous and 
Noxious Substances by Sea 1996; the Protocol on Preparedness, 
Response and Co-operation to Pollution incidents by Hazardous 
and Noxious Substances, 2000; and the International Convention 
on Civil Liability for Bunker Oil Pollution Damage, also have 
yet to be ratified internationally. 
This failure to act shows "the lack of urgency ministers have 
in addressing liability and compensations issues in general," 
KIMO said. 
There is currently no specific liability and compensation 
convention for non-toxic goods carried in container ships. 
Therefore, if the owners do not accept responsibility, local 
authorities must pursue compensation through the courts. 
The MSC Napoli is owned by Metvale Ltd., a company based in 
Tortola, British Virgin Islands. It was operated by Zodiac 
Maritime Agencies Ltd, based in London.