Stricken cargo ship adrift in Channel after crew are rescued in heavy seas

A cargo ship was adrift in the Channel without her crew last night after attempts to bring her under tow were thwarted by heavy seas.

The 20-strong crew had been taken off earlier in a hazardous rescue operation as the ship, the Greek-registered Ice Prince, threatened to capsize.

A coastguard helicopter winched 12 crewmen to safety, including a 41-year-old man with a broken leg, after an emergency call was put out by the ship when she began listing on Sunday evening. The remaining eight crew were taken off by Torbay lifeboat. Mark Criddle, the lifeboat’s coxswain, said: “We went alongside in between the swells and got them off one at a time.” One of the crewmen slipped into the sea but was quickly recovered during the operation.

The 330ft (100m) Ice Prince was on passage from Scandinavia to Alexandria, Egypt, when she ran into difficulty southeast of Start Point in Devon. A spokesman for Brixham coastguard said last night that the vessel had drifted and was about 30 miles (50km) from Portland Bill, Dorset. Much of the cargo of 5,000 tonnes of timber had been washed overboard. Officials from a salvage company were hoping to carry out an inspection of the ship this morning.

Source:RamblerNews