MSC ship loses containers in bad weather in North Sea

A containership operated by UK-based Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) lost some of its onboard cargo containers while sailing through heavy weather in the North Sea on Wednesday, January 2.

The 395- by 59-metre MSC Zoe was en route to Bremerhaven when difficult sailing conditions caused no less than 270 of its containers to fall overboard.

Some of the containers have reportedly washed ashore on the Wadden Islands in the northwestern Dutch coast and on Borkum Island in Germany.

The vessel eventually proceeded to Bremerhaven for cargo discharge operations.

MSC has appointed a salvage company to coordinate the retrieval of cargo and beach clean-up operations. Specialised ships equipped with sonar have also been deployed to search for the missing cargo at sea.

MSC is currently collaborating with local authorities in analysing the causes of the incident.