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An anchored tanker carrying jet fuel for the US military was struck by a container ship in the North Sea on Monday, triggering explosions and a rescue operation for the 37 mariners on board the vessels.
The collision, shortly before 10am local time, sparked large fires on both ships. The tanker, the Stena Immaculate, was carrying 18,000 tonnes of Jet A-1, a form of aviation fuel, and suffered a rupture to a cargo tank.
The UK’s Maritime and Coastguard Agency said it had sent rescue helicopters, lifeboats and firefighting vessels to the scene and it was assessing the “likely counter-pollution response required”.
It was not immediately clear what had caused the incident. Maritime safety has significantly improved in recent decades as navigational tools and vessels’ ability to withstand collisions have both improved.
The Stena Immaculate was on a short-term charter to the US Navy’s Military Sealift Command at the time of the collision, the command said.
The charter was on behalf of the Defence Logistics Agency (DLA) Energy, which procures and distributes petroleum products and services throughout the defence supply chain.
Since May 2023, the Immaculate has been one of ten tankers in the US’s strategic tanker programme of vessels flying the US flag and crewed by US citizens, kept ready to move fuel for the US military.
Tracking information from Marine Traffic, the vessel traffic information site, suggested the container ship, the Solong, had ploughed into the Stena Immaculate while the tanker was at anchor.
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Germany-based Ernst Russ, the shipping company owner of the Solong, said on Monday evening that a search for a missing crew member was ongoing after the collision left both vessels with “significant damage”. The other 13 crew members had been “brought safely ashore”, the company said.
Martyn Boyers, CEO of the Port of Grimsby East, told the FT that 32 crew members had been brought into his port with one remaining in hospital. He was not aware of the status of the other 5, with the possibility that they had been brought to another port.
He confirmed that the fire was still ongoing at 5pm, and added: “It would be a miracle if nobody had been killed.”
The Stena Immaculate is managed by Crowley, a Florida-based maritime logistics company. Its registered owner is Stena Bulk Marine Services, based in Gothenburg, Sweden.
Crowley said the Stena Immaculate had “sustained a ruptured cargo tank containing Jet-A1 fuel” after it was “struck by the container ship Solong” and that “fuel was reported released”.
“The Stena Immaculate crew abandoned the vessel following multiple explosions onboard. All Crowley mariners are safe and fully accounted for,” the company said.
According to Marine Traffic, the Stena Immaculate was carrying 18,000 tonnes of Jet A-1 from a refinery in Greece.
A report by Lloyd’s List Intelligence, a maritime information service, said that the container ship’s cargo included sodium cyanide, a potentially highly dangerous chemical.
The Department for Transport said in a statement it was working closely with the coastguard to help support the response to the incident.
“We are grateful to all emergency personnel for their continued efforts,” it said.
Alexander wrote on X that she had been “concerned” to learn of the collision and was liaising with officials and the coastguard.