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An American pilot tanker was struck by a northern sea container on Monday morning, triggering fires on the two ships and a rescue by the British emergency services.
The British and Coast Guard of the United Kingdom agency has sent rescue helicopters, rescue canoes and fire-fighting ships to the scene and said it was asking the “probable response of the required pollution”.
It was alerted from the incident off the humberside coast at 9:48 am on Monday.
Martyn Bowers, managing director of the port of Grimsby East, said that 32 people had been brought back to the ground following the incident.
“I know they were all alive,” he told Sky News, adding that more people were expected.
The follow-up of marine traffic information, the ship traffic information site on the site suggested that the container carrier Solong had entered the oil tanker, the Stena Immaculate, while the oil tanker was anchoring.
The information on the site has shown that ships were now sitting at right angles with each other in the North Sea.
The STENA Immaculate is an American flag ship managed by Crowley, a maritime logistics company based in Florida. Its registered owner is STENA Bulk Marine Services, a company registered in Denmark.
Crowley said the Immaculate Stena had “undergone a broken cargo tank containing fuel jet-a1” after being “hit by the solong container carrier” and that “the fuel was reported”.
“The Immaculate STENA crew abandoned the ship after several explosions on board. All Crowley’s sailors are safe and fully taken into account, ”added the company.
In 2023 Crowley announced that STENA Immaculate and two other ships he managed had been chosen to participate in a US government program that guarantees fuel supply for the US military.
Crowley said at the time that ships would operate with US teams, adding: “oilmen would continue international commercial operations but can be chartered in the short term to serve US government operations.”
It was not immediately clear if the ship carried fuel in the name of the US military at the time of Monday incident.
The owner of Solong is listed by the Maritime Company Ernst Russ, based in Germany. The company did not immediately respond to a request for comments.
According to Marine Traffic, the Immaculate STENA transported 18,000 tonnes of A-1 jet, a form of aviation fuel, of a refinery in Greece.
Marine traffic has shown that Solong had left the port of Humber Estuary from Immingham and sailed in Rotterdam.
The RNLI said that one of the four rescue canoes sent to the premises had been withdrawn at 11:40 am, while three others “continued to support research and rescue efforts.”
