The Maritime Safety Directorate has issued a second detention order on a 31 year-old merchant ship which sprang a leak after it had attempted to sail from Cork at the weekend. Lorna Siggins, Marine Correspondent, reports.
The Irish Coast Guard was called to assist the MV Lady Hesen, formerly the MV Seebrise, when it was reported to be in difficulty off the Cork coast in the early hours of Saturday morning.
The emergency arose barely two months after the vessel, then known as MV Seebrise, ran aground off Kinsale, Cork and was detained for safety reasons. The 1,990-tonne ship, built in 1974, had changed ownership and switched registry from Belize to the People's Republic of Korea in the interim. Its owners had undertaken to carry out repair works after a survey by the Maritime Safety Directorate - a division of the Department of Communications, Marine and Natural Resources.
However, the ship got into difficulty again when it set sail on Friday, and the International Transport Federation's Irish branch has raised serious concerns about the level of repair work carried out.
At about 2.57 a.m. on Saturday, Valentia Coast Guard was informed the vessel, with eight crew on board, was taking water and listing four to five degrees to port. Sea conditions were moderate.
Valentia, which was assisted by the Marine Rescue Co-Ordination Centre in Dublin, tasked the Sikorsky helicopter at Waterford and Ballycotton lifeboat.
The Kinsale gas field support vessel, Peril, also arrived on scene. Two pumps were put on board the ship, and it eventually managed to make its way into Cobh.
The vessel has now been detained for a second time by the Maritime Safety Directorate, and will not be permitted to sail until it is seaworthy.
Mr Tony Ayton, of the International Transport Federation's Irish branch, paid tribute to the Irish authorities and to the Irish Coast Guard for its response. He has been in contact with representatives of the vessel's owners, TMB Shipping in the Lebanon, warning that there could have been serious loss of life.
Mr Ayton said that he had confidential information that the work carried out on the ship was a temporary job, designed to allow the vessel to leave Irish and European waters.
The ship's owners could not be contacted yesterday.