Lloyds List Monday 17 February 2014 by Janet Porter
AT least 200 to 300 containers were lost from the 7,200 teu Svendborg Maersk late last week when the ship was caught up in atrocious weather conditions as it crossed the Bay of Biscay.
The full tally could be higher, with the exact number of boxes swept overboard not yet known. The ship arrived in Malaga on Monday evening where officials from Maersk Line and the P&I club, plus stowage and lashing experts, are waiting to assess the losses and investigate exactly what happened.
Many more containers are damaged after the stacks in at least six bays tilted over during the hurricane force winds that lashed much of Europe on Friday. Svendborg Maersk was reported to have been rolling at up to 40 degrees.
The 1998-built ship was heading from Rotterdam to Sri Lanka at the time of the accident, and some of the lost containers were probably empty on the backhaul leg.
None of the crew was injured but will be given counselling.
This is thought to be the biggest loss of containers in a single incident that Maersk Line has ever suffered.