Andreas Constantinou News

A salvage operation began on Sunday to prevent Castor -- a stricken petrol tanker lying off Spain -- from cracking open and spilling thousands of tons of gasoline into the western Mediterranean, Cyprus, the flag state, said. "The salvor told us the salvage operation started today. He is quite optimistic that it will be successful," a senior surveyor at the Cypriot department of merchant shipping said. Authorities had earlier said the Castor might have to be blown up as a last resort if the salvage operation failed. Castor has proven to be somewhat of an enigma, and is sure to raise the level of discussion around the world regarding ships in distress. Castor, laden with 29,500 tons of gasoline, developed a 20-metre (60-foot) crack in its deck on December 31.

A stricken petrol tanker stranded in the Mediterranean is being towed eastwards in search of calm waters to continue a salvage operation, the Cyprus Department of Merchant Shipping said on Tuesday. Castor, registered in Limassol, Cyprus, formed a 60 ft. crack in its deck after a storm on December 31 and is now in international waters some 40 miles off Malta. It was being taken eastwards in the hope that an operation to discharge all of its 29,500 ton cargo of unleaded gasoline could continue, the department said. "A convoy of salvors is following the vessel. The salvors hope to find calm seas," said Captain Andreas Constantinou, a senior surveyor at the department.

Salvors working in open seas have managed to safely discharge a petrol cargo from a damaged Cypriot tanker in the Mediterranean, averting the risk of an environmental disaster. The salvage operation on the Castor, which has been sailing off Malta with a long crack on its deck, was completed on Thursday. All 29,500 tons of unleaded gasoline were successfully discharged. "The ship is now due to be towed to Pireaus. Once it gets there the damage will be assessed," said Andreas Constantinou of the Cyprus Department of Merchant Shipping (DMS). The 18,565 gross ton Castor developed a 60 ft. crack above one of its petrol deposits after it was damaged in a storm in the western Mediterranean on December 31 while sailing from Ukraine to Lagos, Nigeria.

Investigators hoping to find the cause of why an assumed healthy ship developed a near fatal deckplate crack - an incident which led to a 39-day saga which will serve as an impetus for change in the rules of the way ships in distress are handled - have issued a preliminary report. Following an exhaustive inspection and analysis of the damaged product tanker Castor, the Cyprus Department of Merchant Shipping and ABS have jointly announced preliminary findings that point to hyper-accelerated corrosion as the probable principal cause behind the structural failure. "The Castor has become a floating laboratory which is providing us with some surprising findings," said ABS Chairman and CEO Frank J. Iarossi.

Few marine incidents have vexed the collective international marine community as much as the recent situation with the damaged product tanker Castor, a ship, which experienced a near fatal deckplate crack in mid-voyage and then was denied safe harbor for fear of the ship splitting open and spewing its gasoline cargo. Though the ship was eventually docked safely without environmental incident, the name Castor will serve as a lightning rod in the IMO to more firmly establish rules and procedures for ships in distress at sea. As the political wrangling and finger pointing start to subside, attention is now turned on the ship itself, and more accurately finding out the reason that an assumed healthy ship developed a near fatal deckplate crack.