EV-laden freight ship towed to new location
July 31, 2023
Salvage specialists have completely towed a burning freighter ship off the coast of the Netherlands to a less-dangerous location on Monday.
It has been ablaze for several days near the Wadden Sea nature reserve and authorities hoped to relocate it to a less-sensitive spot.
The ship arrived at its new temporary location, far from shipping lanes, media reported on Monday. The slow towing operation began on Sunday.
A spokeswoman for the Dutch water management agency Rijkswaterstaat told the ANP press agency that the ship would be further removed from shipping routes to become more sheltered from the wind. She added that this first location was an intermediate step in the difficult salvage operation.
What do we know about the operation?
The operation had initially been announced on Saturday but was then delayed because of unfavorable winds and concerns of smoke-related risks for crews on the vessels towing the stricken freighter.
On Sunday, conditions became suitable to tow the freighter carrying more than 3,500 cars, around 500 of them electric vehicles.
"There was considerably less smoke on the cargo ship this afternoon," said the Rijkswaterstaat on Sunday.
The government agency added that the vessel's stability was constantly being monitored following concerns that it could sink.
The ship was slowly towed to an area about 16 kilometers (approximately 10 miles) north of the islands of Schiermonnikoog and Ameland, a few dozen kilometers from where it became stricken.
That's close to the ecologically sensitive Wadden Sea nature reserve, the largest tidal flats system in the world and a UNESCO World Heritage site. The vessel could cause severe environmental damage were it to sink there.
Why was the ship towed?
The ship has been ablaze for several days. Extinguishing the fire has proved extremely challenging, in no small part because of the difficulty of extinguishing lithium-ion batteries if they ignite.
Dousing the fire with large quantities of water was also not an option for fear of sinking the ship, sending the pollutant materials on board to the ocean floor.
The fire has shown some of the modern challenges of transporting larger numbers of electric vehicles on packed freighters, where on-board fire-extinguishing equipment is often relatively primitive and where it can be hard for crews to access the tightly packed ranks of vehicles.
The cause of the fire on board is unclear, though the vessel's owner has said an electric vehicle may have been the source. Whatever caused the fire, the large number of EVs present among the fire complicates efforts to extinguish it.
One crew member of the Fremantle Highway died in the fire, which forced other sailors to jump overboard when it broke out late on Tuesday.
msh/jsi (AFP, dpa)