Ships collide in North Sea.

Have just seen a news item, it was stated that the American flagged oil tanker (Stena Immaculate) was stationary at anchor.

The container ship (Solong) was sailing under a Portuguese flag, and didn’t take evasive action to avoid the collision.

Conspiracy theorists are already suggesting that this was a deliberate attack on an American vessel, an American diplomat/politician (sorry didn’t catch their name) refused to deny this claim

Quite shocking. there must have been automatic warning systems that were ignored?

I am repeating what was reported on the news yesterday Freya. MOnica’s post confirms the likelihood of the reported cause.

Athrawes

How on earth did that happen? The ocean is vast yet one ship failed to avoid the other. Once again the wild life / sea creatures will suffer

DH is a marine surveyor and has been involved in dealing with a number of these events.

The causes wil be the usual ones, no proper watch being kept, drunkeness. These ships are usually undercrewed for economic reasons.

DH dealt with one case where the captainof the offending vessel, claimed that a light house had changed its position and that is why he had hit it!

Barleyfields

Apparently one of the ships had nobody on watch.

Let's let the Marine Accident IB carry out their investigations before accusations are thrown around.
One man's missing, presumed dead. So lucky there were not more.
I understand the concerns re pollution, I live on that coastline, and we have a fragile eco system.

Not an excuse but it was also rather foggy in this area yesterday morning.

Apparently one of the ships had nobody on watch.

How on earth did that happen? The ocean is vast yet one ship failed to avoid the other. Once again the wild life / sea creatures will suffer

It's still not known exactly what they were carrying, according to the news today.