Brazilian miner Vale confirmed the incident, revealing that the crew of 20 were evacuated from the ship, which is currently located around 100km off the Brazilian coast.
According to local reports, The ship left port of Ponta da Madeira, Brazil, on Feb 24, bound for Qingdao, reportedly she suffered water ingress in cargo hold or holds, or probably it was cargo shift. As of 1700 UTC Feb 26, the ship remains afloat, with AIS on. At least 4 tugs and SAR ships are engaged in salvage, it is said, that they’re trying to tow giant ship to shallow waters, to prevent sinking. Crew safe.
The ship’s captain maneuvered the vessel to run aground on a sand bank after it started taking on water. A spokesperson for Polaris Shipping told the news that the cause of the incident has yet to be determined.
Marine Traffic data shows the vessel was headed for Qingdao in China, and various reports say the ship had around 275,000 tons of iron ore loaded.
For Polaris Shipping, the incident comes just days after it was found guilty of failing to report defects on converted VLOC Stellar Daisy which sunk in the south Atlantic in 2017 leading to the loss of 22 lives. Kim Wan-Jung, the CEO of Polaris, was also found guilty of not reporting the vessel defects and handed a year’s probation. The shipping line was also given a KRW15m ($12,426) fine.
