The 32 crewmembers aboard a leaking Russian fishing ship near Antarctica have made progress stabilizing the vessel, and a plane was scheduled to drop them supplies yesterday. Rescue ships, hampered by heavy sea ice, were still several days away.
The vessel Sparta hit underwater ice on Friday, tearing a 30cm hole in the hull and causing it to list at 13 degrees.
Maritime New Zealand, which is coordinating rescue attempts said yesterday that the crew had pumped water from the vessel overnight and moved cargo around, making the boat safer and more stable.
Crewmembers who had donned emergency suits and boarded life rafts were now back aboard the Sparta, the agency said.
A New Zealand Defence Force C-130 plane was scheduled to drop fuel and equipment, including -another water pump, to the vessel later in the day.
The crewmembers were making patches that they would attach to the hole in the hull if they could get the ship upright, said Chris Wilson, who was coordinating the rescue mission for Maritime New Zealand yesterday.
“It’s a very remote, unforgiving environment,” said Andrew Wright, executive secretary of the Australian-based Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources, which has licensed the Sparta to catch toothfish in the Southern Ocean.
Wright said he did not know what caused the hole, although he added that an iceberg “would be a good candidate.”
The Sparta, which is 48m long, sent a distress call early on Friday. Maritime New Zealand said heavy ice in the Southern Ocean would make it difficult for other ships to reach the vessel.
The Sparta’s sister ship Chiyo Maru No. 3 was heading toward the stricken vessel, but had no capacity to cut through sea ice, the agency said. A New Zealand vessel, the San Aspiring, had some ice-cutting ability and was also en route, but was still three to four days away yesterday. A third vessel was much closer, but was hemmed in by heavy ice and unable to move toward the Sparta.
The crew’s emergency -immersion suits can keep them alive for a time in freezing water, Maritime New Zealand said.
The crew is made up of 15 Russians, 16 Indonesians and one Ukrainian, the agency said.
The weather in the area was calm yesterday, with temperatures a relatively mild 3oC.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
‘POLITICAL EARTHQUAKE’: Leo Varadkar said he was ‘no longer the best person’ to lead the nation and was stepping down for political, as well as personal, reasons Leo Varadkar on Wednesday announced that he was stepping down as Ireland’s prime minister and leader of the Fine Gael party in the governing coalition, citing “personal and political” reasons. Pundits called the surprise move, just 10 weeks before Ireland holds European Parliament and local elections, a “political earthquake.” A general election has to be held within a year. Irish Deputy Prime Minister Micheal Martin, leader of Fianna Fail, the main coalition partner, said Varadkar’s announcement was “unexpected,” but added that he expected the government to run its full term. An emotional Varadkar, who is in his second stint as prime minister and at
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia