North Sea: Tanker hired by US military hit by cargo ship

A cargo ship hit an oil tanker off the eastern coast of the United Kingdom on Monday, causing a large fire on both vessels and triggering a rescue operation.

The incident occurred in the North Sea near the city of Hull, and the alarm was first raised at 9:48 a.m. (UTC/GMT).

Local lawmaker Graham Stuart said 37 crew members aboard the two ships had been brought to shore and assessed by ambulances.

The office of British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said details surrounding the cause of the collision "are still becoming clear."

The cargo ship was carrying 15 containers of sodium chloride, a flammable gasImage: Bartek Smialek/dpa/picture alliance

Lifeboats, firefighting vessels, a helicopter and a fixed-wing aircraft were deployed to respond to the incident.

Oil tanker was carrying jet fuel

The oil tanker involved in the collision was US-flagged chemical and oil products carrier MV Stena Immaculate, which is managed by maritime company Crowley.

The ship was carrying jet fuel for the US military at the time of the collision.

"The Stena Immaculate sustained a ruptured cargo tank containing Jet-A1 fuel ... crew abandoned the vessel following multiple explosions onboard," Crowley said in a statement.

A spokesperson for the US Navy's Military Sealift Command confirmed that the civilian-crewed ship was "on a short-term charter" at the time of the incident.

The other vessel involved in the crash was the Portugal-flagged container ship Solong, which was sailing from Grangemouth in Scotland to Rotterdam in the Netherlands.

It is owned by German shipping company Reederei Koepping.

Maritime data provider Lloyd’s List Intelligence said the Solong was carrying 15 containers of sodium cyanide, a flammable gas.

The MV Stena Immaculate is one of several civilian ships chartered by the US military [FILE: June 30, 2019]Image: Dietmar Hasenpusch/dpa/picture alliance

How will marine life be impacted?

Environmental group Greenpeace said it was too early to judge what kind of cleanup might be needed.

"The magnitude of any impact will depend on a number of factors, including the amount and type of oil carried by the tanker, the fuel carried by both ships, and how much of that, if any, has entered the water," a spokesperson for the group said.

Tom Webb, senior lecturer in marine ecology and conservation at the University of Sheffield, said the area was known for its rich wildlife including wading birds and waterfowl.

"Chemical pollution resulting from incidents of this kind can directly impact birds, and it can also have long-lasting effects on the marine food webs that support them," he said.

Mark Hartl of the Center for Marine Biodiversity and Biotechnology at Scotland's Heriot-Watt University said that although the images of the ships "look worrying," the impact on the aquatic environment won't be as damaging as crude oil would have been, "because most of the jet fuel will evaporate very quickly."

Edited by: Natalie Muller