'Panic stations': ship aground
.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/panic-stations-ship-aground/2007/06/08/1181089282623.html
'Panic stations': ship aground
Jano Gibson and Rod Quinn
June 8, 2007 - 11:18AM
The ship is running aground.
Photo: smh.com.au reader
Latest related coverage
Wild weather lashes Sydney
A major emergency is underway in Newcastle with a bulk carrier ship breaking its mooring and running aground 50 metres off a beach this morning.
Authorities are frantically working to avert a potentially major environmental disaster as the ship, the Pasha Bulker, with 21 crew on board, threatens to move closer towards Nobbys Beach, near the Newcastle Baths.
Acting Inspector Kirren Steel, at Newcastle Police, told smh.com.au: "It's a bit of panic stations at the moment.''
She said the ship was "balancing just on the reef'' between 50 and 100 metres of the beach.
Massive waves are crashing into and over the ship, with the bow swinging towards the beach.
A local resident said it was like nothing he had seen before.
"It's right between the flags where people usually swim and there's this massive ship,'' he said.
"There were people everywhere. As word got out people started coming from everywhere - there were hundreds. Driving out, the number of cars going in to have a sticky was amazing. There were police everywhere, choppers as well.''
The resident said people can swim out further than where the ship is aground.
"The waves were actually going over the top. The conditions were horrible, if they were out on the deck they would have been washed away,'' he said, referring to the crew.
The Pasha Bulker, a 225-metre long coal ship built last year, has 700 tonnes of heavy fuel and 34 tonnes of diesel on board.
It does not have any coal on board. It had been due to pick up a load 68,000 tonnes of coal on June 12.
The crew members will stay on board to help attach lines from two tug boats that have been mobilised.
Jim Sullivan, the news director of local TV station NBN, said: "I can't see any sign of the crew on board''.
He added that there appeared to be no immediate attempt to get the crew them off the vessel.
A local port authority helicopter, as well as a Westpac helicopter, had circled the stricken ship however unrelenting gales meant any evacuation at this stage unlikely.
"The wind is extremely strong here,'' he told Sky News. "You can hardly stand up.''
He said gales, surf and tide were pushing the ship further into the beach and within a few hours, he said the crew would "just about be able to walk off''.
Ships are normally anchored two to five kilometres off the coast but the wild weather, including winds of more than 100 kilometres an hour, had caused it to break its moorings.
Two ambulance helicopters are on the ground.
A spokesman for ambulance media said they would be launched after the Ports Authority's first attempts to pull the ship from where it is lodged.
"From what I understand the Ports Authority are putting their tug out to see if it can pull it off the reef. A command post has been set up there, with police and ambulance officers,'' he said.
A number of ambulances are in Nobbys car park waiting to treat crew if necessary when they are brought from the ship.
Ambulance media said there were 21 crew aboard, but no injuries had been reported.
- with Erik Jensen