Ship spilling oil and cargo off England

A damaged and listing cargo ship was spilling fuel and cargo containers into stormy seas off the southwest coast of England, near Devon, British officials said Sunday night. Some of the containers held hazardous materials.



An estimated 150 to 200 containers have slipped off the deck of the heavily damaged ship, the Napoli, which is listing severely, said Paul Coley of the Maritime and Coastguard Agency at a press conference Sunday.

Some of the containers have already washed up at local beaches, officials said. The police have closed some beaches and warned residents not to approach any of the containers, some of which are thought to contain substances like nitric acid and perfume ingredients.

In addition, the boat's hull developed a crack at some point before or during the towing operation and since last night has been spilling heavy diesel fuel oil into the sea, presumably from its engines.

The Napoli was deliberately run aground after it was damaged during a storm Thursday. The ship was refloating at each high tide and still at risk of capsizing, so two French tug boats were trying to move it further ashore. Once it is firmly beached, the ship will be flooded to prevent further movement and the fuel oil in the tanks will be pumped out.

It is not clear how much fuel oil has spilled into local waters, although there have been reports of a few sea birds covered in oil.

The leaks are extremely threatening because the boat is near a sensitive ecological area, the estuary of the Axe River, an area known for wildlife and also salmon breeding, said Mike Dunning, spokesman for the U.K. Environment Agency in Southwest England. The British authorities have deployed a boom over the mouth of the river as a precaution to prevent any oil from washing in.

"We are working closely with the MCA to minimize damage," he said, referring to the Maritime and Coastguard Agency, which is leading the salvage operation.

The Napoli was damaged and its crew of 26 evacuated 40 miles, or about 65 kilometers, off the British coast on Thursday after a severe storm, with seas of 40 feet, or 12 meters, and winds of 70 miles per hour. British officials subsequently decided to tow the vessel nearer to land and to ground it to prevent it from sinking.

But recurrent gale force wind and high seas near the coast Sunday caused the boat to list, allowing containers piled 4 high on its deck to fall into the sea perilously close to land, Dunning said.

"The salvage plan concerns the oils that we deem at this present moment to be the greater threat," said Robin Middleton, a salvage advisor to the Maritime and Coastguard Agency, at a news conference Sunday.

The vessel was carrying 2,323 containers, 158 of which are classed as hazardous according to the International Maritime Dangerous Goods Code. In addition to the nitric acid and perfume ingredients, dangerous material in the containers included potassium hydoxide and battery acid.

The coastguard agency said that it believed only 2 of the containers washed overboard contained hazardous materials and that the risk they posed was so far deemed "minimal."

Other containers on the British-registered ship held motorcycles and car parts.

The 16-year-old ship was last inspected by the coast guard agency in May 2005. But the same ship, previously named CMA-CGM ran aground in Vietnam in 2001 and subsequently underwent major structural repairs, the BBC reported.

Despite reports of hazardous materials overboard, British officials said Sunday they were still most concerned about the fuel oil.

The ship's tanks hold a total of 3,000 tons of diesel and fuel oil but British officials said Sunday that only one tank, holding 200 tons, appeared damaged.