Notices by Dreadnought Holiday (dreadships@mastodon.me.uk)

Breaking - it looks like the search wasn't a false alarm at all. This is incredibly sad news given the reports earlier that everybody was safe.

And given the shitshow of alleged seamanship from Solong's bridge team today, it sticks the absolute tin lid on things that they couldn't apparently confirm how many crew should have got off the vessel until this afternoon (search efforts were definitely wound down for a while).

I hope they have the book thrown at them.

Further update - looks like the Humber is open for business again. A lot of this is tugs etc returning, but there's ro-ro vessels and bulkers in here too.

Update late this evening - the ships are still burning, according to the coastguard agency. Pretty much everything else has left the scene although Trinity House's Alert is now on station and I'm watching a couple of tugs that are possibly going back.

The tanker is likely still anchored securely but it's been windier here in York this evening and I guess at some point Solong might detach itself.

Ok, so the news from today. Firstly, and unsurprisingly, the plod have declared their suspicion that somebody might have been a dickhead...

Solong remains on fire, and there are reports it might sink at some point.

I'm not sure what has sparked those reports, but I will note ALL ships leak, there's not going to be any working pumps in this mess, and they might occasionally be damping down with more water.

At least they can try to get it to sink somewhere that's not too inconvenient.

On which note I'm pretty sure they've moved it south of the accident site to [checks notes] the point the entrance channels converge.

Er, maybe not letting it sink right there, lads?

Stena Immaculate meanwhile looks surprisingly healthy, considering its imminent reduction to razor blades. You can see how deeply Solong cut into it - double hulls are great and all, but they're never going to withstand this.

It remains at anchor, at a location that had probably been briefed on every passage plan going right now, with heavy amounts of underlining saying "do not hit"

It's accompanied by a tug, presumably as insurance, and also the pollution control vessel Mellum, which has come over from Germany.

I've not heard much about pollution so far - it's going to depend on what has burnt off, what has already spilled, and what remains in breached tanks.

Finally for now the concern about sodium cyanide has abated.

I'm not entirely sure what's going on there, but it's possible it took some time to confirm which containers had been loaded and what they contained. There's a long history of contents and weights being utterly different to the manifest too - potentially dangerous for both stability and not going spontaneously on fire.

And even without the sodium cyanide there'll be plenty of other things in there that you don't want in your sushi.

Further update for anybody who cares...

Solong continues to drift generally southwards, attended by various tugs. Given the AIS tracks I suspect they've not got a brilliant tow on it and don't want to shove it around too much. It's now well clear of both the approaches and the Lincolnshire coast though.

Stena Immaculate remains at anchor - you can see how far Solong has now drifted.

As for Stena Immaculate itself, the owners said yesterday there's seems to be no current pollution being released and no sheen around the vessel, which is encouraging. I've no reason to expect they'd be bullshitting as they're not on the hook for it. It's also no longer on fire at all.

I did hear scuttlebutt that they want to get people aboard today if possible to assess its condition and hopefully get it moved so it can offload and be surveyed properly.

In that context it's possibly significant that the seriously meaty and brilliantly Chris Foss-esque Brage Viking is currently alongside.

An Anchor Handling Tug Supply vessel, it's an ice-capable beast with about four times the pulling power of the smaller harbour tug that's also on scene still. If Stena Immaculate moves today I wouldn't be surprised.

Also, incredibly, it appears the accident was captured on video by a nearby ship. I don't think this adds much - it shows how bad visibility was though, as the operator switches to infrared to see it.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/videos/crlxe8yg33xo

It's been confirmed that salvors were able to board Immaculate today to start assessing damage and ensure the ship is safe.

Once that's complete and they know what they're dragging with they'll then work out a plan for towing and salvaging it.

Not much of an update today - everything is more or less where it was in terms of position. In a further sign of confidence that neither vessel is in danger of sinking Alert and Pharos (of Trinity House and the Northern Light Board) have been released. Pharos had come south as THV Patricia is going into dry dock for planned maintenance, as I understand it.

Here's Alert's track on its way home to Harwich - it did pop over to one of the wrecks to say for a bit of Solong and goodbye on the way...

Breaking (late Friday 14th) - the master of Solong has tonight been charged with gross negligence manslaughter

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cp3y400xe2ro

Must admit I'm slightly surprised by the speed of this, just in context of how reluctant the police and CPS generally are to prosecute this particular offence.

This also means certain commentary is now sub judice, which is awkward because a few people have mentioned the pressures and demands on seafarers from shipowners etc.

Ignoring this case for a moment, all I'll say is that it's possible for the maritime industry to have major issues AND for individual seamanship to be bloody awful.

Saturday update - Solong and Stena Immaculate remain more or less as they were, and there's been no news released that I've seen. An insurer yesterday suggested that less than ten percent of the jet fuel aboard Immaculate had been lost, with just two tanks damaged.

But you might remember H&S Wisdom, which had unwisely stranded itself in the upper reaches of the Humber - she whilst everyone was looking the other way it's quietly been dragged back off!