Cargo ship Sea Breeze was towed by tug Tennaherdhya to St Austell Bay after sinking off the Lizard peninsula in Cornwall, after water was found in the vessel’s engine room.
Travelling from Liverpool to Shoreham, the Barbados-registered vessel was carrying 2750 metric tonnes of limestone, 16 metric tonnes of gas oil, and 3.5 metric tonnes of lube oil.
Falmouth Coastguard was called early morning with reports of a flooded engine and requesting immediate assistance, about 11 miles south east of Lizard Point.
The three pumps in the engine room couldn’t cope with pumping out the water.
Coastguards said that some members of the crew sustained minor injuries but all were ashore after issuing a mayday call at 0700 hrs.
All six crew members of the 87-metre-long cargo vessel were rescued by RNLI lifeboats from Lizard and Falmouth and a helicopter from RNAS Culdrose, near Helston, as the situation deteriorated.
“We tried to pump water from the engine room, but it looks fairly bleak for the vessel now,” said a spokesperson from the rescue operation.
The captain satayed at the scene onboard the Royal Navy ship HMS Tyne, whilst an assessment was made on recovering the ship.
The cargo vessel has been assessed and will be repaired.
Click below link to watch the crew members being rescued by the RNLI after the engine room filled with water!
http://rnli.org/Pages/Video-Details.aspx?videoitemID=p2GRA6mF