Emergencies
Salvage of grounded Baltic Sea ferry started
A man in protective clothing works on the beach. Oil has leaked again from the Baltic Sea ferry “Marco Polo” (back, l), which is stuck off the southern Swedish coast. photo
© Ola Torkelsson/TT News Agency/AP/dpa
Since October 22, the ferry with around 70 people on board has run aground and been stuck. She lost oil in the process. Now the ship is free again.
Off the Swedish Baltic Sea coast is the Salvage of the grounded passenger ferry “Marco Polo” started. As the Swedish coast guard and the shipping company TT-Line announced on Wednesday, salvage work began in the morning. Everything is going according to plan.
The ship was slowly raised from the seabed, freed again and is now anchored in its new position a good nautical mile further southeast. According to the Coast Guard, a small amount of oil leaked again during the morning.
During further underwater examinations, the damage to the ship’s hull will be examined in more detail later in the day. Ultimately, the ship will then be brought to the port of the city of Karlshamn – when exactly is still unclear.
The “Marco Polo” was traveling between the southern Swedish cities of Trelleborg and Karlshamn on October 22nd with around 70 people on board when it touched the bottom, but continued on its journey and ran aground again about five kilometers later. Since then, the ship has been stuck near Hörvik, around 120 kilometers northeast of Malmö. The passengers and some of the crew were able to leave the ship. A lot of oil leaked, which caused damage to nature. The Swedish emergency services have so far collected around 50,000 liters of oil and oil waste. Two crew members were fined for negligence in shipping.