As the Maritime Prefecture of the Channel and the Mediterranean informed, the ferry ‘Ulysses’ has been released from the container ship ‘Virginia’, on October 11. This comes after the first attempt to separate the ships earlier this week, which was unsuccessful.
Namely, with combined movements the team responsible for the operation managed to separate the ‘Ulysses’ from ‘Virginia’.
Currently, ‘Ulysses’ stays on the spot, while all means on area are mobilized to secure the ships and prevent an environmental impact.
During the first attempt to separate the ships, the ferry tried to maneuver. It put its engines back, but the situation did not change.
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In the meantime, two ships ‘Jason’ and ‘Abeille Flanders’ used their pulling power to try to help the movement. However, nothing happened to separate the vessels.
‘Ulysse’s collided with ‘CLS Virginia’ while the latter was anchored about 28km north of Cape Corsica on the high seas. No injuries were reported.
Nonetheless, the collision caused a breach in the bunkers of the container ship, causing an oil spill which is currently moving away from the coast of Corsica. France, Monaco and Italy are helping in the clean up operation. The oil spill now covers 25km.
Pollution control actions started on Sunday night and have continued ever since.
