Dynamite-Filled Ship Adrift in English Channel
A Danish cargo ship loaded with 400 tons of dynamite and detonators and abandoned by its crew after a fire drifted in the English Channel on Tuesday.
Coast guard officials warned vessels in the busy international waterway to steer clear of the ship for fear that the fire may be continuing and could trigger a huge explosion.
The crew of two men and three women abandoned the 1,000-ton, 136-foot Hornestrand on Tuesday morning after Capt. Niels Bach Kristensen saw smoke coming from a hold. A Cypriot freighter picked them up, and a helicopter brought them ashore.
Adm. Christian Jammayrac, the maritime governor of Cherbourg, ordered the ship’s Danish manager, Bendt Andersen, to have the vessel towed away. Otherwise, he said, the French navy may open fire and sink it.
Decision at Dawn
Jammayrac’s office issued a statement Tuesday night saying officials would decide what to do with the ship at daylight today if Andersen had not contracted with a civilian tug.
The statement said aerial reconnaissance Tuesday afternoon showed no smoke coming from the vessel, drifting about 46 nautical miles northwest of Cap de la Hague on Normandy’s Contentin Peninsula.
However, no one appeared ready to board the ship.
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