Container Ship Collided With Barges and Sinks One

A Cosco-owned container vessel was involved in a collision with four barges in Vietnam, with one of them later sinking.

The incident involving the 9,471-gt Hutuohe (built 1997) occurred on Monday on the Saigon River as the barges were loading rice onto a vessel bound for Indonesia.

The captain of one of the barges, each weighing about 700 tons and capable of carrying 350 tons of rice, tried to manoeuvre away from the oncoming boxship but, before it was struck, ordered the crew overboard.

The vessel, which was loaded with rice, sank within an hour reportedly spilling 3,000 litres of fuel oil into the river.

The three other barges were also damaged, one of them believed to have been holed in two places.

Source: Seanews