Russian master of Solong appears in British court
Containership Solong collided with tanker Stena Immaculate off the UK coast on March 10
Plastic nurdles spotted in the water and on UK shores, which while not toxic can pose a risk to wildlife
THE master of the containership that collided with a tanker off the UK coast appeared in court on Saturday, March 15, charged with gross negligence manslaughter following the presumed death of a member of the boxship’s crew.
Vladimir Motin, aged 59 from Primorsk, St Petersburg, spoke only to confirm his name and date of birth at Hull Magistrates Court.
Motin’s appearance in court was followed by reports that plastic nurdles had been spotted by the Royal National Lifeboat Institution in the waters near to location of last week’s incident.
Chief coastguard Paddy O’Callaghan said retrieval of the nurdles began on Monday (March 17). Nurdles are small pellets of plastic resin used in plastic production. They are not toxic but can pose a risk to wildlife if ingested.
Ernst Russ, which owns containership Solong (IMO: 9322554), confirmed that the nurdles most likely came from their vessel.
While no containers holding nurdles were lost overboard, Ernst Russ said what “may have occurred, is that intense heat during initial firefighting efforts caused one or more of the openings of some of the smaller containers to open, resulting in the release of some contents”.
O’Callaghan said the locations of both vessels, Solong and tanker Stena Immaculate (IMO: 9693018), were unchanged. There are now only small pockets of fire on Solong, which “are not causing undue concern”, O’Callaghan added.
Crowley, which operates Stena Immaculate, said Smit Salvage experts were continuing onboard assessments of the tanker over the weekend.
Those assessments confirmed that more than 17,500 barrels of the tanker’s jet fuel cargo had been lost, but the remaining cargo and bunkers were secure.
Crowley vice-president Cal Hayden praised the actions of the tanker’s crew, which were decisive in mitigating the damage caused by the collision.
“Before being forced to abandon ship, the crew had the dedication and presence of mind to ensure fire monitors were active to provide boundary cooling water to the adjacent cargo tanks,” Hayden said.
“Their heroic action limited damage to only the cargo tanks impacted due to the allision.”
