With a crew of 30 and a pilot on board, one of the world’s mega containerships, the CSCL Indian Ocean, is hard aground in Germany’s Elbe River leading to the port of Hamburg.
The 400-metre, 184 320-dwt boxship, capable of carrying 18 980 TEUs and owned by Shanghai-based China Shipping Container Lines, ran aground last Wednesday night. Initial reports to the marine authorities claimed the incident was caused by an apparent steering system failure.
After the rescue teams failed to refloat it on Thursday, it was decided to lighten the vessel by pumping out some 3 000 tonnes of fuel, according to the German Federal Waterways and Shipping Administration. At the same time a dredger was employed to deepen the water alongside the grounded ship.
Reportedly, traffic using the river was hampered by the massive vessel.
According to the vessel tracking system FleetMon, it is understood that maximum high water will come with the new moon on February 9, “so probably this date will be decisive for salvage”, it added.
