In what would on first appearance be a stupid New Year joke is indeed reality.
A tanker carrying 70,000 tons of flammable kerosene, travelling in one of the world’s busiest waterways, inexplicably missed several warning signs and hit a ship dubbed Tricolor, a ship which was sunk with its cargo of 3,000 luxury cars in mid-December in the English Channel following its collision with a containership.
In a vast understatement, a British Coast Guard official was quoted by one of the wire services as saying: This accident should not have happened. Really?
Warnings of the
sunken ship, which is submerged in about 75 ft. of water and apparently visible only at low tide, include half-hour warnings broadcast in the area, fluorescent buoys and a radar beacon.
Apparently the tanker which struck the submerged ship, Vicky, was faring o.k., with only small amounts of reported leakage and minimal damage. The ship is anchored about 14 miles (22 km) off the Belgian coast.