Pictured: The tug FAIRMOUNT SUMMIT connected to the bulk carrier GLORY AMSTERDAM, which remains aground off Germany, November 1, 2017. Photo: Germany’s Central Command for Maritime Emergencies
BERLIN, Nov 1 (Reuters) – It may take until Friday to free the grounded freighter “Glory Amsterdam” from a sand bar near the North Sea island of Langeoog, German authorities said on Wednesday, but no holes or cracks are evident in the ship’s hull to trigger an oil leak.
Shallow waters off the island had forced officials to revise initial plans to dislodge the 225-metre (742-foot) freighter, which ran aground during a storm that killed at least six people in Germany, Poland and the Czech Republic.
Environmental and fishery groups have warned of dire environmental consequences to the Wadden Sea, a UNESCO World Heritage site, if the ship begins leaking 1,800 tonnes of heavy oil and 140 tonnes of marine diesel on board.
Germany’s Central Command for Maritime Emergencies said the FAIRMOUNT SUMMIT connected a 1,500m towline to the bulk carrier on Wednesday morning (Nov. 1). The shipowner hired the salvage company SMIT Salvage for the operation. Photo: CCMEA second tug, UNION MANTA, is currently picking up salvage material in nearby Wilhelmshaven and is expected to arrive at the site Wednesday evening. Once both tugs are connected to the GLORY AMSTERDAM, ballast lightering operations can begin. Photo: CCME
Workers on Wednesday attached the first of two towing ships to the freighter with a 1.5-km towline, Germany’s Central Command for Maritime Emergencies said in a statement.
Once a line is attached to the second towing ship, work will begin to pump out more than 18,000 tonnes of water that the Glory Amsterdam took on board during the storm to keep the ship steady in the water, the command said.
Simone Starke, spokeswoman for the command, said authorities had rejected as too risky any effort to transfer the oil and diesel given rough seas and the complications of having to first heat the heavy oil.
Preparations are to continue on Wednesday and Thursday, with the towing operation likely to begin on Friday.
Officials were keeping a close watch on the ship via overflights and said it remained safe for now.
“No holes or cracks have appeared in the ships,” Starke said.
The non-profit environmental group World Wildlife Fund on Monday said the oil on board continued to pose a significant risk to the Wadden Sea, the largest unbroken system of intertidal sand and mud flats in the world. (Reporting by Andrea Shalal; Editing by Jeremy Gaunt and Andrew Heavens)
Norway's King Harald and Queen Sonja were visiting the main settlement on the strategically located Arctic archipelago of Svalbard on Monday, at a time of increased interest in the resource-rich polar region from the U.S., Russia and China.
Israel’s overnight airstrikes on Iran drove up freight rates and tanker stocks Friday as traders and investors priced in the prospect of disruption to a large swath of the global oil-shipping fleet.
Finnish prosecutors are considering pressing charges against three senior officers of an oil tanker suspected of damaging undersea power and telecommunications cables in the Baltic Sea in December, police and the prosecutor said on Friday.
June 13, 2025
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