I\'ve got a snorkle, anyone got a boat?

:rolleyes:

An empty cargo ship has struck the sunken vessel that went down in the English Channel on Saturday carrying a £30m load of luxury cars.
The Nicola, a 3,000 tonne ship registered in the Dutch Antilles, hit the Norwegian Tricolor at around 0040 GMT on Monday.



When something like this happens it can be catastrophic
 
Mark Clark, UK Coastguard  

The wreck had been in shallow waters 30 miles (48.3km) east of Ramsgate, Kent, since a collision with another vessel in thick fog on Saturday.

Salvage experts from the French and UK authorities had been battling with bad weather to retrieve the sunken car carrier and were hoping to start pumping fuel from the vessel.

Mark Clark, from the UK Coastguard, said the Nicola had eventually come free at around 0900 GMT on Monday.

He told BBC News: "There have been three tug boats in the area and, with the rising tide, they have hooked on to her and she came off.

"Now she is anchored off to one side.

"There are no reports of any pollution escaping but, obviously, a full inspection of the Nicola will have to take place before she proceeds on anywhere else."  

Mr Clark said the Nicola appeared to have suffered little damage and its seven crew members, who had remained on board, were un-injured.

Mr Clark said the Tricolor had sunk in the busiest part of the shipping lane.

He added: "Because of the radar system we use we have reduced collisions to one or two a year.

"But when something like this happens it can be catastrophic."

Mr Clark said the French authorities, in whose waters the accident occurred, would want to look closely at how they had guarded the sunken vessel.

Shipping lane

The Tricolor sank after a collision with a cargo freighter named the Kariba.

No-one was injured and a rescue team quickly retrieved the 24-member crew and took them to safety.

 
The damaged Kariba is now anchored back in Antwerp
 

Fog over the weekend prevented divers going down to examine the wreck of the 55-000 ton Tricolor, which was carrying nearly 3,000 Volvos, Saabs and BMWs when it sank.

The Norwegian owners had been under immense pressure to move the ship, which is lying just below the surface of the water in the middle of one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world.

Dutch salvage team Smit Tak had positioned beacons around the site to warn other vessels of the hazard, but these still failed to prevent a collision.

Lars Walder, from Smit Tak, said: "We tried our best to inform all ship owners about this accident and the exact location of the Tricolor.

"There is some fog and high winds, so the weather conditions are not very favourable."

The value of the cargo on board is put at £30m, and the Tricolor itself is worth about £25m.

lol

another ship has collided with it

See part DUE thread

It just seems odd as hell how many mid-ocean collisions there are. All of that water..what are the odds?