The Yantian Express suffered a fire in container while transiting the Atlantic from Canada on 3 January. The fire spread to other containers forcing the evacuation of the vessel with it taking firefighting tugs a week to bring the fire under control and largely contained.
Hapag-Lloyd said the salvage master from Smit had taken the decision to sail the vessel to Freeport in the Bahamas.
“Once there, the recovery and assessment efforts of the cargo can proceed in a safer environment. At present, the container ship is approximately 1,250 nautical miles from the Bahamas and is expected to arrive in Freeport by next week,” the company said.
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The vessel is sailing under its own power with a tug escort. Originally it had been planned to sail the vessel to Halifax, Nova Scotia.
Hapag-Lloyd said it was not able to make a precise estimate of the cargo damage.
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