Chemical tanker and cargo vessel collide in Channel

The crewmen abandoned ship shortly after the collision.

The Maritime and Coastguard Agency said the tanker has not sunk, despite the vessel listing heavily.

As yet there are no signs of any pollution resulting from the incident, which happened off the coast of Brittany in north-west France.

Patrick Adamson, spokesman for V. Ships told Channel 4 News that the goal now is to bring the vessel, the Maltese-registered Uranus, into Brest under shelter to assess the damage, but this is subject to the French Navy and authority’s approval.

A Maritime and Coastguard Agency spokesman said: “We have spoken to French coastguards who told us that the 13 people on the Uranus abandoned ship after the collision, which was at 4.27am UK time.

“After taking to lifeboats, they were picked up by a French helicopter and taken to Lanveoc Poulmic, which is south of the port of Brest.”

The MCA spokesman continued: “The other vessel involved was the Hanjin Rizhao, which was carrying steel.

“We understand that the Uranus is listing heavily to port but not sinking and there is no sign of pollution. A French frigate and a tug are on the scene. As far as we know, no one has been hurt.”

An international company which supplies ship management services to a fleet of more than 1,000 vessels owns the Uranus. V. Ships has offices across the globe, with its British residence in Glasgow.

Uranus carried gasoline
The Uranus, a 6,970 tonne tanker, was heading for Amsterdam from the Italian port of Porto Marghera.

It was carrying a type of gasoline called heavy pygas.

It collided with the Panamanian-flagged, 179,000 tonne Hanjin Rizhao which was heading for Rotterdam.

V. Ships spokesman Patrick Adamson said a French tug, called the Abeille Bourbon is currently towing the Uranus “slowly south” to the port of Brest.

Mr Adamson said the crew consisted of six Filipinos, five Russians, one Bulgarian and one Latvian.

Patrick Adamson, spokesman for V. Ships told Channel 4 News that the goal now is to bring the vessel into Brest under shelter to assess the damage, but this is subject to the French Navy and authority’s approval.

He said: “We know the vessel, a chemical carrier, was struck at around 4am this morning on the stern. The French Navy took the crew off the Uranus at around 5.30am, after it began to tilt 12 degrees in the water.

“The Uranus was carrying 6,474 tonnes of pygas which is a specialist gasoline used for various manufacturing purposes. These may include industrial cleaning products and other specialist manufacturing.

“Many of these products are moved around and it is just one of a myriad of chemicals based on hydro carbon products which is transported in the Channel.”

He said there has been “no pollution”, but the French Navy are on board the vessel as it is tugged back to the French coast along with a V. Ships salvage team armed with “data recorders”, which will notify them if any pollution does begin to occur. He said there had been “no fuel or cargo leakage and the water ingress has stopped”.

He said: “The vessel is currently on its way from the collision point 35 miles off the coast of Brest and is moving at four knots in fair conditions.

“The pyrogas is very flammable so we have to be extremely careful with it.”

Mr Adamson said as yet, V. Ships does not know how the collision occurred. He said: “It happened at 4am, it was dark, we don’t know if it was misty. The two vessels appeared to be heading in the same direction north.

“There will be an investigation of course, but the main issue now is to make sure the crewmen are ok and the data recorders catch any future pollution.”