Stranded Solent Cargo ship run aground deliberately says owner

As soon as the ship Hoegh Osaka became stranded on Bramble Bank in the Solent, speculation started as to why the huge car container ship had hit the well-known sandbank – especially after the BBC reported that it had a local Pilot on board.

Channel Four news are quoting Ingar Skiaker, chief executive of Hoegh Autoliners, which owns the vessel, saying that it was deliberate, after the vessel started to list:

“Our vessel developed a severe list shortly after she left port and the pilot and the master took the decision to save the vessel and its crew by grounding her on the bank,” he said.
“At this stage it is too early to speculate on the cause of the list but we are starting an immediate investigation.”
Mr Skiaker said that the ship was carrying around 1,400 cars but was not overloaded with cargo.

Now listing over further
It’s also emerged from the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) that the marooned craft is now at a 52 degree angle, a significant increase from the 45 degrees they were reporting at 11am this morning.

With this news it was also announced the company who will carry out the salvage of the 1,400 cars on board will be Svitzer.

Hugh Shaw, the Secretary Of State’s Representative for Maritime Salvage and Intervention convened a meeting earlier today with the key stakeholders involved has said,

“I am confident that the vessel owners are working professionally and promptly and have appointed salvors who arrived on scene early this morning and have already started work to assess options for salvage and the removal of the vessel. Further salvage personnel and salvage equipment is expected to arrive on scene tonight. Further assessments will be carried out over the next few days and these will assist the salvage team to formulate a suitable salvage plan.”

Our thanks to Stuart Stevens for these great HD photos of the stranded ship.

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Listing comparison
Kevin Quick shared this photo below, showing a comparison of how the listing (leaning) of the vessel changed throughout the day.

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