Ships Collide In Busy Bosphorus Straits

A Turkish-flagged cargo ship sank on Sunday after colliding head-on with another vessel in the Bosphorus straits, the coast guard said. The stricken Kaptan Cavit's seven member crew was rescued after a collision with another Turkish-flagged cargo ship, the Nadya, at the Black Sea end of the straits early on Sunday, a coast guard spokesman in Istanbul said. The 1,175 dwt Kaptan Cavit had been en route to Bulgaria with 1,100 tons of wheat. The 914 dwt Nadya was carrying 480 tons of slag to the Turkish town of Izmit, the state-run Anatolian news agency said. The coast guard spokesman said the Nadya had suffered serious damage to its prow but did not appear to be in immediate danger of sinking. Investigators were still trying to determine what had caused the vessels to collide, he said. Collisions and shipwrecks are not uncommon in the Bosphorus, a narrow passage winding through Turkey's largest city and on which commercial vessels are guaranteed free passage during peacetime under the 1936 Montreux Treaty. - (Reuters)