The incident is not recent this week but the photograph is. The talented photographer of this image, Rickard Gillberg, tells us more about the ill-fated cargo ship Fortuna:
Rescue helicopter Lifeguard 907 (a Sikorsky S-76) is hovering behind the relics of an old cargo vessel at northern Fårö, Sweden. Stranded shipwrecks are a very rare sight in the country, but this one is an interesting exception.
The year was 1968 and the 51 year old German freighter MF Fortuna was headed southbound with a crew of five when she struck bad weather. The crew tried to find lee behind the Norsholmen islet, but ran heavily aground. The waves swelled the deck and the crew struggled to launch the lifeboat, but the ship rocked too violently and the lifeboat became flooded by water.
At half past three on the morning of October 28th a witness on dry land saw some distant emergency flares and made the crucial distress call. A military rescue helicopter was launched instantly and it managed to salvage all five people onboard within an hour.The most of MF Fortuna has now been swallowed by nature, 40 years later, but the bow still remains. She sits on the shallow shores of Norsholmen, in the middle of the Baltic Sea, and waits for nature to take the rest of her back.
Seems like Fortuna was kind of an unfortunate name for this ship….
Join the gCaptain Club for curated content, insider opinions, and vibrant community discussions.
Join the 108,983 members that receive our newsletter.
Have a news tip? Let us know.
Shipping firms may need to pay a fee to use the Baltic Sea, one of the world's busiest shipping routes, in order to cover the high costs of protecting undersea cables, Estonia's defense minister said on Wednesday following a spate of breaches.
Russian nuclear icebreaker 50 Let Pobedy (50 Years of Victory) suffered damage to its hull in a collision with a cargo ship while operating on the Northern Sea Route. Photos of the incident show a deep gash on the vessel’s port side near its bow.
Swedish authorities boarded a Maltese-flagged ship seized in connection with the latest breach of cables running along the bottom of the Baltic Sea to begin an investigation into the matter, the country's security police said on Monday.
Maritime and offshore news trusted by our 108,983 members delivered daily straight to your inbox.
Essential news coupled with the finest maritime content sourced from across the globe.
Sign Up
Join The Club
