Cargo ship towed from Canadian coast

PRINCE RUPERT, British Columbia – A large tugboat was pulling a disabled Russian cargo ship along British Columbia’s coast late Saturday, ending fears that the vessel carrying hundreds of tons of fuel would drift ashore, hit rocks and spill.

Lt. Paul Pendergast of the Canadian Forces’ Joint Rescue Co-ordination Centre said the tug Barbara Foss reached the Simushir on Saturday evening and the tow was going well.

Pendergast said authorities will wait until the Simushir is comfortably north of Haida Gwaii before they make a decision on where it will be towed. Prince Rupert is the nearest container ship port, 93 nautical miles away.

The Simushir lost power late Thursday off Haida Gwaii, also known as the Queen Charlotte Islands, as it made its way from Everett in Washington state to Russia.

The Coast Guard ship Gordon Reid earlier towed the disabled ship away from shore, but a towline got detached and the ship was adrift again for six hours Saturday.

The 10 crew members were trying to repair the broken oil heater that has left the vessel disabled, Royal Canadian Navy Lt. Greg Menzies said.

The Simushir, which is about 440 feet long, was carrying a range of hydrocarbons, mining materials and other related chemicals. That included 400 tons of bunker oil and 50 tons of diesel fuel.

The vessel is not a tanker but rather a container ship. In comparison, the tanker Exxon Valdez spilled 35,000 metric tons of oil after running aground in Alaska’s Prince William Sound in 1989.

A spokesman for Russian shipping firm SASCO, the owners of the vessel, said it is carrying 298 containers of mining equipment in addition to the bunker oil diesel fuel for the voyage.

The Simushir is registered in Kholmsk, Russia. The company’s website says the ship was built in the Netherlands in 1998.