THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — A freight ship carrying thousands of cars that burned for a week on the North Sea will be towed on Thursday to a Dutch port for salvage, the government said.
The Fremantle Highway, carrying 3,784 new vehicles, including 498 electric ones, from the German port city of Bremerhaven to Singapore was to be towed to the northern port of Eemshaven, the Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management said.
The nearly 200-meter (around 650-foot) vessel will be accompanied as a precaution by a boat that has special booms to clean up oil spills.
Fire broke out on the Fremantle Highway on July 25 and burned out of control for a week as it floated near busy North Sea shipping lanes and the shallow Wadden Sea, a World Heritage-listed migratory bird habitat. Dutch authorities did not attempt to spray water onto the ship for fear of making it unstable.
The ministry said that Eemshaven, 215 kilometers (134 miles) northeast of Amsterdam, was chosen because it is close to the Fremantle Highway’s location in the North Sea and because of deteriorating weather conditions, the existing infrastructure and the facilities that the port offers for the next steps in the salvage of the ship.
The ministry said that most of the ship has now been inspected by salvage experts and “there are no indications that the fire is still burning.”
One crew member died and others were injured when the fire erupted. The crew of 21, all Indian nationals, and two other people on board, were evacuated in the early hours of July 26. The cause of the blaze has not been established.
