Divers Report Wider Damage to Supertanker

Citing damage more extensive than originally estimated, maritime salvage experts reported Sunday that water flooded four of 31 compartments in the Kuwaiti supertanker Bridgeton after it hit a mine while U.S. warships escorted it through the Persian Gulf.

Divers who inspected the 401,382-ton supertanker said the blast left a gaping 30-by-10-foot hole. Initial reports had said that only one compartment was flooded when the mine exploded 20 feet below the water line and that the ship would be able to take on oil for its return trip to the mouth of the gulf.

But a maritime expert in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, said, “The Bridgeton should not be loaded before it is repaired.”

French Carrier Alert

Meanwhile, the French Defense Ministry, citing increased tension in the gulf, announced Sunday that its aircraft carrier Clemenceau and three support ships have been put on alert and their crews told they might sail for the Middle East within 24 hours.

The carrier group, which includes the missile-launching frigates Suffren and Duquesne and the oiler Meuse, has about 3,000 marines assigned to it.

And in West Germany, Bavaria’s state premier, Franz Josef Strauss, suggested that his country send a warship to the gulf as a gesture of support for U.S., French and British vessels in the region. Strauss told the newspaper Bild: “The psychological significance would be greater than the military one.” Strauss is chairman of the Christian Social Union, Chancellor Helmut Kohl’s parliamentary ally.

The Bridgeton struck a mine in waters near Kuwait early Friday while being escorted by three U.S. Navy warships as part of the vanguard of a U.S. effort to protect oil shipping lanes from attacks stemming from the Iran-Iraq War.

Only two shipyards in the gulf--one in Bahrain and another in Dubai--are capable of handling a vessel the size of the Bridgeton. Shipping sources said both are heavily booked for an unspecified duration.

Shipping sources in Kuwait said a patch might allow the Bridgeton to be partly loaded. A patch would enable the vessel to avoid a dry-dock repair job for several months.