Avinesh Gopal Monday, June 16, 2014
The Fiji Times
IT is a reef that is regarded dangerous by seafarers.
Since time immemorial, the Vatoa reef in the Lau Group has wrecked some foreign-owned ships.
The ships were on their way to Fiji with either cargo or coming here to take beche-de-mer — a product that was being traded in the early years.
While the ships were wrecked after being stranded on the reef for some time, the crew members and some passengers on the vessels were able to reach safety.
Four shipwrecks, which are said to have occurred between 1825 and 1973, reportedly exist on the reef, which
On the afternoon of May 20, 2013, a fire broke out in the engine room of the uninspected fishing vessel Arctic Storm as it was under way in the North Pacific Ocean, about 46 nautical miles west of Aberdeen, Washington, conducting fish processing operations. The crew extinguished the fire through the combined use of portable extinguishers, fixed suppression, and fire hoses. No injuries or pollution resulted from the accident. The estimated damage to the Arctic Storm was $5 million.
About 1505, the chief engineer had just entered the engine room when he noticed a fire in the overhead area above the
The shipping company Finnlines passenger-cargo vessel MS Finneagle has run aground in Kapellskär harbour, 90 kilometres north of Stockholm. 168 passengers and 30 crew were on board. According to Finnlines no-one was hurt and no-one is in danger due to the incident.
”It was what you might call a safe grounding,” Tapani Voionmaa from Finnlines said.
The ship ran aground early on Thursday morning as it arrived in Kapellskär from Naantali in Finland. It was due to