ZHEN HUA 10 (STRANDED NEAR ROTTERDAM)

Today we have a very special report at Ship of the Day. In the night between friday and saturday, the heavy load carrier Zhen Hua 10 (IMO: 7917410, Port of Registry: Kingstown, St. Vincent and the Grenadines), which was anchored near Rotterdam, ran adrift in storm conditions and floated towards the Dutch coast, where she finally ran aground at the 'Slufter'-beach at the Maasvlakte. For a while it appeared that the vessel was in danger of capsizing, but she was soon stable being stuck in the sand. The Zhen Hua 10 is loaded with 5 containercranes (of which one is destined for the new Euromax-terminal at Rotterdam) from Shanghai and has a crew of 33, which are still on board and not injured.

The Zhen Hua 10 is 244 metres long, 40 metres wide, has a maximum draught of 8.5 metres and a deadweight of 45323 tonnes. She was built in 1981 by Astilleros y Talleres del Noroeste S.A., Spain as an oil tanker and was converted to a heavy load carrier in 2005. The vessel is operated by Shanghai Zhenhua Shipping Co. Ltd, China.

On Sunday (February 3.), an attempt to refloat the vessel was made using several tugs, but since the vessel's propeller was stuck in the mud, the attempt failed. One of the tugcables broke and the attempt was aborted. Last night anouther attempt was made, but this also failed.

Yesterday (February 4.) the tug "Janus" (IMO: 9367504) arrived at the Zhen Hua 10 to assist in the attempts, however a mooring rope got caught in the vessel's propeller so the Janus could not participate in the third attempt. Unfortunately the third attempt also failed. However, they did succeed in turning the ship, with her bow facing west, towards open sea.

Last night, a fourth attempt was made using the tugs "Smit Humber", "RT Magic", "Fairplay 21" and the "Janus". This attempt was successful and the ship was refloated. After a short period of new anchorage, due to heavy winds, the vessel entered the Port of Rotterdam this morning and is currently moored at the Yangtzehaven where she will be surveyed for any damage. When she appears to be in order, she will continue her voyage, after unloading the crane at the Euromax-terminal, Rotterdam, to Hamburg. However it is most likely that the vessel suffered to much damaged on her propeller and rudder to continue her voyage.