n June 17, Mitsui O.S.K. Lines’ MOL Comfort began suffering from severe hogging and broke in two while underway from Singapore to Jeddah with a load of 7,041 TEUs. The crew escaped in life rafts and picked up by another merchant vessel.
On June 25, Sri Lanka Shipping company’s tug, M/V Capricorn, connected to the bow section and commenced towing to the Arabian Gulf. Tugs were never able to connect to the stern section.
Image © Al Malone
Under tow. Image © Al Malone
On June 27, the stern section began taking on water and sank with an estimated 1,700 containers and 1,500 metric tons of fuel oil. These photos sent to gCaptain were taken over a five minute period.
On July 2, the MOL Comfort’s bow section broke free from its towing wire while in “adverse” sea conditions. Crews were able to reconnected and continue towing. Four days later, Mitsui O.S.K. Lines reported that on July 6, a fire broke towards the rear of the bow section of the MOL Comfort, and fire fighting efforts commenced.
Image © Indian Coast Guard
Image © Indian Coast Guard
Image © Indian Coast Guard
Image courtesy Indian Coast Guard
image via Ole, gCaptain contributor
In a statement July 10, Mitsui O.S.K. Lines said that most of the containers on deck have been burnt out, but they have not been able to confirm the situation in the cargo hold. An update said that the bow section sank near 19’56”N 65’25”E (water depth about 3,000m) at 19:00 UTC on July 10 (04:00 on July 11 JST). The section sank with about 2,400 containers and 1,600 metric tons of fuel oil, MOL has estimated.
Plotted approximate positions of where the MOL Comfort broke apart and eventually sank