Hans J Marter

16 September 2007

THE NORTHERN isles emergency towing vessel Anglian Sovereign was last night (Saturday) attempting to salvage a massive floating dock drifting in the middle of the North Sea.

Shetland Coastguard was alerted to the incident in the early hours of yesterday after the Russian tug Stakhanovets with 22 people on board lost her tow with the floating dock in severe weather conditions, around 50 miles east of Sumburgh Head.

The dock belongs to the large Ukrainian dock building specialist Pallada, based in Kherson, on the Black Sea.

Initially the Caledonian Vigilance offered assistance to the Coastguard and attempted to help in the transfer of personnel onto the floating dock in order to reconnect the tow line, but this had to be abandoned due to the weather conditions.

The Anglian Sovereign arrived at the scene at around 7pm last night and will be trying to get a cable attached to the floating dock.

A Coastguard spokesman said the drifting dock was well clear of any oil installations.

Following a brief weather window during daylight yesterday, the forecast was again for increasing south westerly winds force eight turning north westerly.