A ship at the mercy of the waves, for hours. It ended up stranded on the coast of Rometta, to the amazement of the inhabitants of the Tyrrhenian center who did not know what exactly had happened and who also feared the worst. This night the tug “Tedy”, sailing from Naples towards Turkey, near the island of Stromboli, broke the tow cable with which it was transporting the motor ship Lider Prestij, Cameroonian flag, owned previously to the Tirrenia company with the name «Beniamino Carnevale».
The Coast Guard, following the report, immediately activated the emergency cell, sending its patrol boats to the site and, in order to verify possible pollution in the vicinity of the unit, ordered the dispatch of Coast Guard divers to the area. Messina and the overflight of the Manta Atr42 aircraft, equipped with instruments suitable for detecting any pollution. Also in the area was a Coast Guard helicopter and Dattilo vessel.
The shipping company was notified of the warning to remove the ship, a procedure necessary for the activation of the tugboats that will carry out the ungrounding operations of the unit. From the information acquired by the Coast Guard, the unit appears to have no fuel on board. Technical investigations by the Coast Guard have also been activated to understand the dynamics and responsibilities of the incident, in order to guarantee navigation safety.
It is probably precisely due to the sea conditions of these hours, lashed by strong gusts of wind, that the two boats became uncoupled, causing the cargo to end up adrift on the Messina coast. The competent coast guard for the area is that of Milazzo which immediately intervened to carry out the appropriate assessments. We will now need to bring the ship to a safe port. However, before freeing the ro-ro ship, which had no one on board because it was driven by the tug, it will be necessary to evaluate whether the hull has suffered any damage. Therefore, careful monitoring of the divers will also be necessary to avoid the worst, that is, the ship from sinking.
Another episode made the vessel the protagonist of the news a couple of years ago. After being used in 2020 and 2021 on the Livorno-Cagliari and Naples-Cagliari lines, at the beginning of 2022 a fire on board, extinguished by the crew, put the engine room out of action.
The ro-ro ship Beniamino Carnevale which until now belonged to Cin – Tirrenia was sold at auction as part of the composition with creditors of Compagnia Italiana di Navigazione (subsidiary of Moby). From the information reported on the official portal of the procedure, only one bidder came forward by 1pm on 3 October and the award price (equal to 3.25 million) is in fact just higher than the base price of 3.2 million euros . It would have been bought by a Turkish company, it is not clear whether to send the hull for demolition or to put the ship back into business. As part of Moby’s composition with creditors, last year the ro-ro ships Eliana Marino (taken over by the MSC Group for 12.5 million euros, renamed Mayar and now used between Gioia Tauro and Tunis) and the ro-ro Giuseppe Sa (purchased for 4.6 million euros and currently operating between Lebanon and Turkey under the name Med Star).
