Salvage workers try to save Gulf ship

Press, 4 June 1988, Page 10

Salvage workers try to save Gulf ship

NZPA-Reuter Dubai Salvage workers in airtight suits fought yesterday to save a tanker leaking toxic ammonia after an Iranian gunboat attack in the Gulf last week. A white cloud of ammonia gas hundreds of feet high enveloped the 15,530tonne Mundogas Rio, holed and listing badly off the United Arab Emirates coast after the attack, shipping sources said.

Workers aboard the Norwegian-operated ship pumped out warm seawater that has vapourised some of its 20,000 cu. m

of refrigerated liquefied ammonia.

“Ammonia has turned the sea white for 100 metres around the ship,” said a source. The gas burns the skin and is noxious to breathe. At Iran’s Larak oil terminal in the Strait of Hormuz, workers continue repairs to the 340 m-long supertanker, Seawise Giant. The world’s largest ship was blasted by parachute bombs in an Iraqi air raid on May 14. Shipping sources say the crew quarters of the 564,739-tonne vessel were gutted in the attack and

the engine-room damaged. “It is in no danger of sinking but could be sold for scrap if the owners — Hong Kong’s Tung group — decide repairs are proving too expensive,” a source said.

Lloyds Shipping’ Intelligence said oil was being pumped from the stricken ship, used by Iran for storage, to another vessel. Assessment of damage will take another three weeks, Lloyds said. It added that Tung has a SUS9m (about sl3m) hull insurance policy on the vessel.