Wangerooge
Ran aground: Freighter blocks harbor entrance of North Sea island for hours
Watch the video: Freighter “Amanda” blocks the harbor entrance of a North Sea island for hours. Video source: n-tv.de
A coaster boat hit a sandbank as it was leaving Wangerooge harbor. The ship got stuck and blocked the shipping lane. The accident has consequences for vacationers.
A stranded coaster blocked the entrance to the port of Wangerooge on Tuesday morning, temporarily bringing shipping to and from the North Sea island to a standstill. Ferry traffic was temporarily suspended. With the flooding in the early afternoon, the ship was refloated and brought to a mooring in the island’s port, said Stephan Hellwig, head of the shipping department at the Weser-Jade-North Sea Waterways and Shipping Authority in Wilhelmshaven. The ship will now be examined more closely there.
The coaster “Amanda”, which flies under the Danish flag, had tried to leave the island’s harbor on Tuesday night and got stuck on a sandbank. The cause was probably a navigational error by the captain, said Hellwig. No one was injured. According to initial findings, the ship was not damaged. No harmful substances were released either.
For tourists who want to go to the easternmost of the inhabited East Frisian Islands at the start of the holiday season, the accident came at an inopportune time. The ferry departures to and from Wangerooge had been cancelled for the morning, a spokeswoman for Deutsche Bahn said. The railway operates the ferry service to the island with a subsidiary. In addition to the trips of the large passenger ferries, the departures with the fast ferry “Wattsprinter” were also cancelled. The ferry service was due to resume in the afternoon.
400-meter-long container ship runs aground off North Sea island of Wangerooge
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Wangerooge: Freighter “Amanda” ran aground
According to the Waterways and Shipping Authority, the 81-meter-long coastal motor vessel was carrying stones for the renovation of the deck structure on the island. It had traveled from Emden to Wangerooge for this purpose.
“It often happens that ships get stuck when traveling across the mudflats,” said Hellwig. It is normal for ships or ferries to get stuck. This happens about two to three times a year, said the authority spokesman.
It also happens from time to time that ferries get stuck in the Wadden Sea between the mainland and the East Frisian Islands. The cause of these mostly harmless accidents is usually low water levels, for example when the wind blows from the east, changes in the shallow and narrow shipping lanes, and shifts in sand and silt caused by tides, currents and storms.