A Panamanian-registered cargo ship was listing dangerously more than 300km off the western coast of France in rough seas yesterday, maritime authorities said.
The 22 crew of the “Modern Express” were evacuated by helicopter in dramatic scenes on Tuesday, but their ship remains under close observation.
The 164m-long (538-foot) vessel, which was carrying diggers and 3,600 tonnes of timber, gave out a distress call on Tuesday when it was situated 270km from the northwest tip of Spain, but it is still not known why it ran into difficulty.
The ship does not appear to be taking on water for now, authorities said.
It is drifting eastwards at a speed of 1.3 knots (2.4kph).
A French frigate and a tug are at the scene and have been joined by two Spanish tugs sent by the ship’s owners after French authorities warned them to take action to prevent the ship posing a danger.
Salvage experts are in the area and will need to board the ship, but a swell of four metres made it impossible “to safely transfer on board the team required to prepare for a possible towing”, the French authorities said.