Chinese cargo ship sank off Somalia coast, 12 crew left the ship, SAR under way
2 Egyptian sailors were lost in the sinking of a dilapidated ship in the Indian Ocean where general cargo ship CHANG HE reportedly sank in the Indian Ocean off the eastern Somalia coast, on Jul 15 or 14. 12 crew abandoned the ship, ( 6 Syrian +5 Egyptian ) no news of rescue yet. Understood tanker HAFNIA BEIJING (IMO 9856634) interrupted her voyage from Turkey to Cape Town, and as of 0710 UTC Jul 15, is engaged in SAR.
General Cargo CHANG HE is currently located at WCI – West Coast India at position 04° 09′ 38.2″ N, 073° 23′ 31.7″ E as reported by MarineTraffic Terrestrial Automatic Identification System on 2022-07-05 16:42 UTC (15 days, 22 hours ago)
In the story of this cursed ship as Cap Sayed Hakal published on his account on Facebook which the Syrian national, Dhafer Al-Fahal, bought it from Japan 5 months ago as scrap boats ٍ that is Unseaworthy without experience/skills
Cap Sayed Hakal posted: The ship with its crew, which at the time of sinking consists of 8 Syrians + (4 Egyptian nationals, including 3 marine students from the Jordanian Academy and the Arab Academy + one marine)
The ship was loaded with iron and white cement from the port of Changying in China to reach its cargo to the port of Misurata in Libya Despite the leakage of water into the dilapidated ship,
Despite the crew’s warning to the owner of the danger of this, he insisted on sailing to continue the journey to Libya via the Suez Canal Because of the deterioration of all parts of the hull and the entering water to the ship from every side, in addition to the movement of goods with its hatches to open them
He added: Until the boat sank on the evening of July 13 in the Indian Ocean, western Somalia, for the crew had to leave the ship for the dilapidated rescue boat, which was the last resort to save their lives. Together” in light of the failure of their rescue without a jacket/immersion suit they were wearing, as the nearest ship that received the distress was more than 10 hours to reach them…
The incident against the owner was included and criminal proceedings were taken for this grave danger caused to the crew and the cause of death and neurological trauma to the rest of the crew especially the first captain warned the owner that the boat should be brought into a Dry Dock because of its danger
IMO: 8865494
Name: CHANG HE
Vessel Type – Generic: Cargo
Vessel Type – Detailed: General Cargo
Status: Active
MMSI: 667001756
Call Sign: 9LU2559
Flag: Sierra Leone [SL]
Gross Tonnage: 1994
Summer DWT: 4000 t
Length Overall x Breadth Extreme: 88.38 x 12.8 m
Year Built: 1992
Home Port: –
Classification Society:
On the other hand, General Cargo CHANG HE is currently located at WCI – West Coast India at position 04° 09′ 38.2″ N, 073° 23′ 31.7″ E as reported by MarineTraffic Terrestrial Automatic Identification System on 2022-07-05 16:42 UTC (17 days, 1 hour ago)
The vessel departed from SHANGHAI, CN on 2022-05-01 15:00 LT (UTC +8) and is currently sailing at 7.1 knots in Southwest direction
