Cargo Ship Aground in Turkey’s Dardanelles Strait

Some more trouble to report Friday in Turkish waters with the Gibraltar-flagged cargo ship MV Schillig running aground while transiting the Dardanelles strait.

Turkey’s General Directorate of Coastal Safety says that the 2,415 gross ton dry cargo ship ran aground on Friday at approximately 01:31 while heading south through the strait. A tugboat and Coast Guard vessel were on scene and no pollution has been reported, the agency said.

The grounding is the latest in a string of incidents involving commercial ships to hit Turkish waters in recent months, particularly the in the Bosphorus Strait and greater Turkish straits, including the Dardanelles. Here’s a list we’ve been compiling:

• June: A fully-laden Suezmax tanker was hard aground near Istanbul.
• June: Cruise ship with hundreds of passengers and a chemical tanker carrying flammable naphtha collided in the Dardanelles Strait, causing damage but no injuries. 
• July: A general cargo ship carrying fertilizer ran hard aground in Dardanelles strait.
• July: A cargo ship smashed a house in the Bosphorus. Seriously.
• July: A Turkish-flagged cargo ship sank and one person died after colliding with freighter near the Bosphorus Strait’s Black Sea entrance.
• August: A capesize coal carrier lost power in Bosphorus, had to be rescued.
• August: Bosphorus closed due to adrift general cargo ship.
• September 1: A tanker and bulk carrier collided near northern entrance of Bosphorus Strait.

The Turkish straits – including the Bosphorus, the Sea of Marmara, and the Dardanelles – collectively connect the Black Sea with the Aegean and Mediterranean Seas.

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