The wreckage found at the bottom of the sea on 31st October was confirmed to be that of the ill-fated container vessel El Faro, which sank on 1st October having succumbed to the atrocious storm generated by Hurricane Joaquin. A search team on board the USNS Apache found the wreckage at a depth of about 15,000 feet in the vicinity of the ship’s last known position. The El Faro, owned by TOTE Maritime, was carrying 33 crew members aboard whilst en route to San Juan, Puerto Rico, from Jacksonville, Florida when she went missing. The crew consisted of 28 U.S.A citizens and five Polish nationals. TOTE has already had to apply for protection against multiple law suits being filed in the aftermath of the tragedy.

Flinter’s stricken Flinterstar had all remaining heavy fuel oil (HFO 380) removed in late October having been semi submerged off Zeebrugge after colliding with the LNG tanker Al-Oraiq on 6th October. The 2002- built Flinterstar had around 427 tons of heavy fuel oil and 125 tons of diesel at the time of the incident, an undetermined amount of which leaked into the North Sea. Dutch salvage and towage companies Multraship and Smit Salvage started the oils from the vessel on 10th October. This was pumped to the specialised offshore supply ship Vos Sympathy, with the salvage rescue vessel Offshore Beaver performing the clean-up of any leaked oil.

The 38,105gt Mexican bulk carrier Los Llanitos (above), which was trapped on the rocks near Barra de Navidad, a small town located on the western coastline of the Mexican state of Jalisco, from 23rd October, is to be towed out to sea and scuttled by the Tsavliris Salvage Group having broken her back. Once the fuel oil has been pumped off, the 71,665dwt ship will become an artificial reef. The ship fell victim to Hurricane Patricia which hit Mexico’s Pacific coast after she sailed from Manzanillo one day before the hurricane struck, on 22nd October. The ship had been anchored but was powerless to prevent being swept ashore. Damage to the ship was severe with the engine room and several sections of the hold suffering water ingress. Fuel tanks were also ruptured releasing pollution along the shore. A helicopter rescued 19 of the 27 crew on board with the remainder staying aboard voluntarily.

On 25th October the whale-watching boat Leviathan II sank near Tofino, British Columbia, killing five British tourists from a visiting cruise ship. A search then ensued for a sixth passenger. The Leviathan II departed Tofino at 1330 Pacific Daylight Time (PDT) on a whale-watching tour. There were 24 passengers and 3 crew members on board. Around 1545 PDT, the vessel experienced problems and took on water. The Leviathan II is operated by Jamie’s Whaling Station & Adventure Centres and was left partially submerged around 8 nautical miles northwest off Tofino before later being towed to port. Reports suggested that the whale watchers were gathered on one side of the vessel when a wave arrived at the opposite side thus causing all loss of stability.

One person died and three were rescued following the collision of the Marshall Islands flagged oil products tanker Elixir with a Nigerian self-propelled barge identified as MT Tank (above), some 65 nautical miles off the Nigerian coast at around midnight on 19th October. The 3 rescued crew members, of the total of at least 12 reported to be on board the MT Tank prior to the accident, received medical treatment. The collision took place some 10 nautical miles south west of the Bonga Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) unit, located near Warri, in Nigeria’s Delta State. The remaining eight crew members of the MT Tank were unaccounted for.

On the morning of 22nd October the 6,362gt/1996 built and Cyprus-flagged container vessel BF Fortaleza ran aground in Skatestraumen, south of Maloy, Norway whilst en route from Bergen to Rotterdam. The 700 TEU capacity ship suffered a steering failure and ran aground in rocky shallows, suffering a large hull breach amidships. The 121m long ship was refloated and towed to Maloy the next day with no injuries to the crew of 12, nor oil spills being reported.

The Liberia-flagged oil/chemicals tanker Alia caught fire in the North Sea off Denmark following an explosion in her engine room on 20th October (above). The 23,676gt/2003 built tanker was carrying fuel oil from Malta to Gothenburg, Sweden. The crew of the 35,669dwt ship called the Danish rescue and support vessel operator Esvagt to assist in putting out the fire and the special service/standby rescue vessels Esvagt Gama and Esvagt Omega were deployed.

On the morning of 6th November the 2,415gt/2012 built multipurpose coastal vessel Schillig, owned by Germany’s Briese Schiffahrts, ran aground on the coast of Dalyan Burnu, Turkey, in the Dardanelles. The vessel was sailing from Constanta, Romania to Casablanca, Morocco and became stranded due to steering failure. Tugs were sent to the scene.