Castor Still Seeks Calm Waters

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. A salvage operation off Spain last week managed to discharge some 6,000 tons of gasoline, before worsening weather made it impossible to continue, Constantinou added. The 18,565 gross ton vessel had been sailing from Ukraine to Lagos, Nigeria when it was damaged in the storm. - (Reuters)