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This photo was taken today by Ship Spotter Adrian Perera near Gibraltar. Lloyds List tells us:

EMERGENCY services from Gibraltar and Spain mounted a joint operation last night to save 31 seafarers whose cargo ship, the M/V Fedra, ran aground against Europa Point in severe weather.

By 10.30pm on Friday night three men had been airlifted off by a Spanish rescue helicopter and the rest were huddled on the bow of the vessel awaiting rescue.

But with the ship pounded by waves in the dark, the high winds made the helicopter evacuation both extremely dangerous and difficult.

The 24-year old Liberian old cargo ship Fedra was pinned against the sheer cliffs of Europa Point and the sound of steel grinding against limestone cut through howling gusts of wind of up to 83 km per hour.

The drama started late yesterday morning when the vessel suffered engine failure late and dragged its anchor until it came perilously close to the shore. Read More…

For more dramatic photos of this incident click HERE.

UPDATE:  Reader Jim Crone points us to this photo slideshow from the website DiscoverGibraltar.com

This photo was sent by Jan Brand via our tips line with the following caption:

Salvage of motor vessel Holmatindur at Walvis Bay, Namibia. The vessel capsized and sank three hours before it was for docking. Poor stability was the cause of this very costly incident. It took some time to lift the vessel removing all nets, oil, cables to make it safe to work on. Also, finding all the leaks and making the vessel watertight before lifting her was a major job.

The Holmatindur prior to the incident: [Continue Reading →]

Today’s Incident Photo Of The Week is the tugboat “The Carrie”. News 6 in Corpus Christi tells us:

A tugboat caught fire at about 7 a.m. Tuesday after pushing a barge from Ingleside to Rincon Channel to offload some diesel fuel and brine water.

Port of Corpus Christi Assistant Chief Tom Mylett said that when it came into the channel, the captain of “The Carrie” discovered a flash fire in the engine room.

The barge’s contents were the biggest concern.

“It was 500 gallons of diesel fuel, from what we understand, that was on the barge, that was set for delivery inside Rincon. Then, there were several other drums you have on your footage of brine water; nonflammable material,” Mylett said.

There was also an additional 500 gallons of fuel on the tugboat.

Luckily no one was injured. Click HERE for the full story and HERE for the video. (via Maritime Monday 129)

We don’t have the full details on how this yacht found its way to the beach but the photos do a great job in describing the salvage operation!

Crushed containers hang off the the vessel

More hang off the stern including one self-unloading box

While crossing the Pacific in late February 2008, M/V CMA CGM Dahlia ran into a strong storm, suffering significant damage.  The vessel makes it to the Port of Manzanillo, Mexico where Emergency Services stand by to assess the damage.  Containers hang off the starboard side since the storm hit, with more damaged on the stern.

This along with other maritime disasters can be found at cargolaw.com

March 21, 2006 - M/V Hyundai Fortune suffered a major explosion about 43 miles off the coast of Yemen in the Gulf of Aden.  An estimated 60 - 90 containers were blown overboard forming a debris field about 5 miles in diameter around the vessel.  Fortunately, a destroyer from the Netherlands was nearby to provide assistance.  All 27 of the crew were rescued, with just 1 receiving non-life threatening injuries.

The cause of the fire is not known but according to cargolaw:

“Photo analysis shows what appears to be a significant section of hull plating blown out above the waterline on the port side, under the house and aft deck (pictured above). If this is accurate, might have been an explosion inside a tank, as opposed to an explosion in a container.”

For more information on this and other maritime disasters, visit cargolaw.com

Even more information on the incident can be found HERE

This weeks Incident Photo is of German Navy mine hunter M106 Grömitz from back in February, 2007.  Cargo Law tells us;

German Navy  Type 332 Frankenthal class mine hunter M106 Grömitz  (built 1994) based in Kiel — will remain for some time on the rocks where it grounded in the night of Feb 21 off the harbor Floræ on way to Bergen. While hull remained so far undamaged in the grounding, the bunker fuel will have to be taken off before salvage. This probably will have to be undertaken by a sheerleg as a tug could cause hull damage when towing the ship off the rocks where Grömitz  is stuck fast with its bow pointing to the sky. Cause of the grounding was said to be a navigational error, but the small island could possible not be detected by radar in snowy conditions. Ship was underway with other NATO-units within a mine hunting exercise. She was expected in Bremerhaven the forthcoming weekend but this is very unsure now.

This, along with other incidents involving maritime and aviation transport can be found at Cargolaw.com.

Damage caused by Hurricane Gustav along New Orlean’s Industrial Canal. Photo by Eric Gray, NPR. More photos can be seen at NPR’s Hurricane Gustav page (Direct Photo Link).

UPDATE:

BlueNorway has the details HERE.

August 13, 2008: From what appears to be the result of strong winds whipping through the area, a 125 ft., 950-ton container crane collapsed, slamming into a second crane of the same size.  Both cranes crumbled to the ground in a heap of twisted metal, damaging a third crane.

The cranes, located on Jaxport’s Blount Island Marine Terminal in Jacksonville Fl., cost an estimated $6M each.  Luckily, no injuries were reported.

Investigators are looking further into the incident, as the cranes have withstood tropical storms for 25 years without a hitch.

For more information on this and other maritime incidents, check out Cargolaw.

December 10, 2007 - Upon departure from Montevideo on The Rio de la Plata, the M/V Norwegian Dream fully loaded with passengers on a 23 day cruise, collided with an adrift container barge.  Despite valiant efforts the collision could not be avoided.

Both vessels suffered severe damage.  The barge lost multiple autos and containers overboard with loss and damage estimated in the millions.  The M/V Norwegian Dream suffered a four-by-four foot hole in the bow about five feet above the water line, and was quickly returned to Montevideo for repairs.

As for the passengers, they were offered some compensation for the mishap but continued on after the repairs were made.

More information on this incident can be found at CargoLaw.

Another interesting note… The Norwegian Dream is now a two-time Incident Photo of The Week’er.  Check out the first incident HERE.