Grounded Bulk Carrier Could Be Stuck for Days Off Sweden

The Liberian-flagged MV Victoria aground off Sweden. Photo: Swedish Coast Guard

The Swedish Coast Guard and a commercial salvage crew are continuing to respond to a bulk carrier hard aground off the west coast of Sweden in the Kattegat.

The 46,000 DWT MV Victoria was carrying a cargo of wheat from Germany to Guinea, West Africa when it ran aground on a shoal late Saturday night about 15 nautical miles from Varberg, Sweden. A dive inspection on Sunday revealed a 3 meter gash in the ship’s hull below the waterline. 

As of Tuesday evening, two Coast Guard vessels, a salvage tug and a tanker were on scene to stabilize the ship and begin removing fuel oil. The Swedish Coast Guard said that about 550,000 liters of fuel located in tanks near the grounding point will need to be transferred to the tanker before the bulk carrier can be refloated. 

Two additional emergency response vessels are on standby and could respond in the event of an environmental emergency, although so far no pollution has been reported.

One of the tugs reported some sideways movement from the Victoria in the wind and waves. Some video of the ship below shows the weather conditions salvors were faced with on Monday:

The Coast Guard estimates that the ship will not be refloated until the end of this week at the earliest. The operation to remove the fuel from the vessel is expected to take one day but is dependent on the weather. 

It was reported earlier that the Victoria was loaded with 1,000 cubic meters of heavy bunker fuel and 200 cubic meters of diesel when the grounding occurred.