THE STRICKEN Cypriot-flagged tanker Castor, still carrying four fifths of its 29,500 tonnes of unleaded petrol, is on its way to the island, the Merchant Shipping Department said yesterday.
Cyprus is the only country in the Mediterranean that appears willing to give shelter to the damaged ship, under certain conditions, to allow salvors to transfer its cargo safely to another vessel.
But a political decision will have to be taken by the government on whether the salvage will be allowed to go ahead in Cypriot waters, senior surveyor Captain Andreas Constantinou told the Cyprus Mail yesterday.
Weather conditions in open seas in the western Mediterranean, where the Castor has been seeking shelter since New Year’s Eve when the crew reported a serious deck crack, have proved unsuitable for transfer of the cargo.
Fears that the petrol might ignite prompted several countries in the region to refuse shelter to the Greek-owned Castor, which is now in international waters some 40 miles off Malta, heading eastwards.
Salvage had to be suspended last week due to bad weather after only 6,300 tonnes of the petrol were transferred. The salvors moved the ship in the hopes that conditions might be better in the eastern Mediterranean.
But Constantinou said so far suitable conditions had not been found to finish the transfer.
“She is moving very slowly,” he said. “The idea is that if they find calm weather they will continue the salvage.”
He said the ship would continue to be taken in an eastwardly direction and that the decision would be that of the salvage company, Tsavliris.
“If it comes to Cyprus it will be a matter for the government,” Constantinou said. “We on the technical level have made our recommendations to stabilise conditions for the ship if the political decision is made.”
Moves have already been made in this direction, he added. “But we still have time.”
But Lloyds List has quoted salvage manager Nam Halfweeg, speaking on Channel 4 news on Sunday night, as saying that the Castor would probably sink before it reached the island.
“If we are forced to become a maritime leper, if we are forced to keep going in circles around the Mediterranean for an indefinite period, eventually the ship will deteriorate its condition and break up,” he said.
Last week, Cypriot authorities were toying with the idea of blowing up the Castor in a worst-case scenario if the ship looked likely to sink or explode.
However, it was decided to go ahead with the salvage to prevent the threat of pollution to the marine environment.
A disaster was only narrowly avoided last week after a ship cut through the 750-metre line linking the Castor to its main tug off the coast of Spain. The rogue ship has been identified as a Turkish-flagged vessel, but the chances of a successful outcome to the investigation are minimal as there are no bilateral relations between the two countries.
The Turkish ship failed to heed warnings from the salvage tugs, which say they were well lit at the time. Spain, which identified the ship as Turkish, said it had also issued navigational warnings to all ships in the area, but admitted that infractions did occur.
The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.
