Container ship Napoli to be beached due to cracks

LONDON, July 13 (Reuters) The container vessel MSC Napoli will be beached off the coast of southern England after inspections showed she had a three-metre wide crack in her hull, salvagers said.

The vessel was floated on Monday so divers could evaluate the extent of the damage caused when the crew deliberately ran the vessel aground off Branscombe.

She had become holed in January during storms, an event that triggered a seaside looting spree when cargo containers washed up on shore. Looters from miles around made off with items ranging from BMW motorcycles to dog food to disposable nappies.

Nearly six months later, salvagers said the cracks in the ship were so bad that the vessel could not be towed and will be beached at high tide yesterday in shallower waters about half a mile north of where she was originally sitting.

Robin Middleton, the Transport secretary's maritime salvage representative, said ''the wreck is in a worse state of deterioration than previously thought, with the crack of the hull being some three-metres wide in places.'' It seems likely that the vessel will now be dismantled where she is beached, a spokesman for the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) said.

''We had been hopeful after she was successfully refloated on Monday, but the crack is all the way around the vessel,'' said Mark Clark, spokesman for the MCA.

''We have 20,000 tons of metal we have to get rid of.'' It had been hoped that MSC Napoli could have been towed somewhere else for dismantling, such as Norway, he added.

About 58,000 tons of water were pumped out of the vessel when she was floated, and more than 2,000 containers and 3,000 tons of fuel oil had earlier been removed.

REUTERS SW HS0956