Tanker sails wrong way down Channel
Date: 11-Feb-02
Country: UK
Frantic radio warnings from the French Coastguard went unheard by the 24-strong Chinese crew of the Dong Ting Hu, and not until another empty tanker intentionally blocked his path did the captain realise something was amiss, the French Coastguard told Reuters.
Ships scattered from the path of the 228 metre long tanker as it navigated south through the northbound shipping lane earlier this week, shipping sources said.
Fuel oil is widely regarded as the most destructive of all marine pollutants, and the Dong Ting Hu was carrying at least five times more than was spilt by the tanker Erika when it broke apart off Brittany in December 1999.
A French Coastguard spokesman said it was "not at all normal" for two tankers to get lost in the Channel in so short a space of time. About 150 ships head south through the Channel each day.
Two weeks ago another Chinese captain with no maps steered a tanker full of highly explosive aviation fuel the wrong way up the Channel.
Shipping sources said Captain Zheng narrowly missed two head-on collisions as he guided the tanker Asia Lion through the world's busiest waterway.
"It was his first time up the Channel," a spokesman for the ship's manager CSC Oil Transportation explained at the time.
The Captain of the Dong Ting Hu said bad weather had contributed to his confusion, the French Coastguard said.
