On the morning of 18 March 2018, the Belgian trawler Deborah (photo n°1) goes fishing in the Channel shipping lane, followed by more than 70,000 merchant ships and 500 million tonnes of hazardous cargos each year, a little as if a collector of greasy papers and mushrooms was working day and night on a motorway or at the edge of the emergency strip.
1 – Deborah © Fiskerifladen Illustreret
2 – Britannica Hav © Henk Jungerius
The Deborah is sailing at low speed (between 3-4 knots), the crew is mostly concentrated on fishing. On March 20, in the early afternoon, it changes fishing area, goes down south, approaches Cherbourg at a speed of about 10 knots and spurs on the port side at about 14h40 UTC the Britannica Hav (photo n°2) departed from Renteria (Spain) and heading to Keadby (United Kingdom) with 2000 tonnes of scrap metals and more than 40 tonnes of propulsion oil.
Robin des Bois map – source Marine Traffic
An ingress of water forced the 7 crew members to leave the Britannica Hav with survival craft just before she capsized, turned turtle and drifted rudder into the air.
After having contributed to the rescue of the crew finally helicoptered towards the military port of Cherbourg, the Deborah completely changes course and heads for her home port of Zeebrugge, Belgium, where she arrives on 21 March at 9h55 UTC.
Questions
– Under what senseless regulation can a fishing vessel work day and night in the middle of a two-way maritime highway used by 20 to 25% of world maritime traffic?
– How is it that the maritime prefecture of the Channel and North Sea based in Cherbourg did not order the Deborah to be diverted to a French port for the purposes of the investigation?
– What will be the fate of the Britannica Hav which his drifting at an average speed of 6 km/h and constitutes for all the ships in the area one risk more of colliding and more over difficult to spot ?
– If the wreck persists to float, will the Franch-English authorities find another solution than the scuttling and dumping of the former cargo ship belonging to Russian and Norwegian interests and flying the Maltese flag?
Overturned wreck of the Britannica Hav
© Marine Nationale
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