Around 1,500 tonnes of sawn timber has been spilt into the English Channel, little more than a year after 2,000 tonnes of Swedish softwood was lost from the Ice Prince.
The Russian-registered Sinegorsk cargo ship was heading from Oskarshamn, Sweden to Alexandria in Egypt when it developed a 15º list 14 nautical miles south of Newhaven. The ship is now headed for shelter towards the Isle of Wight, the Maritime & Coastguard Agency has said.
The Dover Coastguard has been alerted to the spill, with the Solent Coastguard to takeover the incident as the vessel and debris move west.
The Greek-registered Ice Prince was also bound for Alexandria when it ran into trouble off the coast of Dorset in January 2008, spilling timber from its deck before sinking. The resulting clean-up operation lasted months and affected beaches along the Sussex coast.
