Chinese ship stranded at sea safe: Port Officer

Mangalore, Sep 12 (UNI) The work on salvaging the Chinese merchant vessel Cheng Le Men stranded in the sea near Old Mangalore Port, was continuing with the deployment of two more excavators to speed up the work for shifting iron ore fines from the ship.

Old Mangalore Port officer Mohan Kudri told UNI today that the excavators from Mumbai, were put into service to speed up the shifting of the 16,100 tonnes of iron ore fines, in cargo holds on the starboards to the port side along with pumping out water that had seeped into the holds.

''With the shifting of the cargo, the vessel which was tilted to at 13 degrees could be brought to even position,'' he informed.

Claiming that the ship was currently in safe condition, Mr Kudri said the calm weather prevailing at the moment was also helping the salvaging team in their operation.

It may be recalled that the merchant vessel, with 28 crew members on board and 16,100 tonnes of iron ore fines, developed a technical snag after leaving New Mangalore Port last week, nearly seven nautical miles away from the port and started tilting.

The captain of the ship, who attempted to manoeuvre the vessel back to the port after realising the danger, stationed the vessel about 1400 m away form Tannirbavi coast to avoid further tilting.

UNI