Missing ship: Tow lines snapped

As people wonder how the ill-fated M V Faiz, which was being towed in by merchant ships M V Atif and M V Solomon, could have been lost, the ...

As people wonder how the ill-fated M V Faiz, which was being towed in by merchant ships M V Atif and M V Solomon, could have been lost, the managing director of T T Shipping Private Limited, Pervez Rahman, offers an explanation: the towing lines which connected the three ships got disconnected.

8216;8216;On Sunday afternoon, the towing lines from the M V Atif and M V Solomon got disconnected, leaving the M V Faiz adrift at sea once again. We informed the Coast Guard, they tried to re-attach the towing lines but in vain8230; since the weather was bad and the sea had become rough. Eventually the M V Faiz drifted away and the Coast Guard8217;s aircraft could not locate the ship even by Monday,8217;8217; Rahman told Newsline.

He added that the company, which owns the three ships, was now presuming M V Faiz had sunk. 8216;8216;The ship was tilting to one side when the Coast Guard handed it over to us. So it is possible that the Faiz took on water and consequently sunk,8217;8217; explained officials of T T Shipping Private Limited.

Sources in the Coast Guard, however, said that the sailors of T T Shipping Private Limited 8216;8216;did not follow the correct towing procedure, resulting in the ship being lost.8217;8217;

Coast Guard officials told Newsline: 8216;8216;It is dangerous to tow an unmanned ship, and the procedure for towing is to have a few sailors on board the ship that is being towed. But nothing of the sort was done. The Faiz was being towed in its unmanned condition.8217;8217;

The Coast Guard added that when they found the ship, it had, indeed, taken in some water, but not enough to result in the ship sinking.

Rahman defended the sailors of MV Atif and MV Solomon. 8216;8216;The sea was rough and the weather going from bad to worse. It8217;d have been extremely risky to put more lives at stake by putting them on the M V Faiz,8217;8217; he said.

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Meanwhile, P.B. Shyam, brother of the late Captain Shelley, said he was unaware that T T Shipping Private Limited had defended the action of its 10 sailors, who had survived the fire on board the M V Faiz and were brought to Haldia on Sunday by the Coast Guard. 8216;8216;I have no idea about any change in the company8217;s stance regarding those sailors,8217;8217; he said.

Rahman8217;s stand on the issue, however, appeared contradictory. He defended the 10 sailors of his company, saying 8216;8216;they the 10 survivors had attempted to douse the flames but supported Captain Shelley8217;s brother, who suspects that there is something fishy about the entire incident.

Sunk ship could cause oil slick

Haldia: MV Faiz, believed to have sunk, could cause an oil slick though none has been found till today, Coast Guard sources said on Tuesday. Stating that the abandoned cargo vessel had 40 kl of high speed diesel and machine oil on board, the sources said 8220;the possibility of an oil-slick exists if it sank but we have not detected any till now8221;. 8212;ENS