San Francisco Frontiers - UK salvage teams board North Sea crash vessels

Small pockets of fire were still burning on the top deck of the Solong cargo ship after it crashed into the US-flagged Stena Immaculate on Monday, but both ships were "stable" at sea, according to the coastguard.

"Salvors have been on board to carry out initial damage assessments to secure future safe access to both ships," chief coastguard Paddy O'Callaghan said.

It came after police extended the detention of the Solong's captain for a further 36 hours.

Officers want more time to question the 59-year-old Russian arrested on suspicion of manslaughter following the crash, which left one crew member missing and presumed dead.

Authorities are investigating how the Portuguese-flagged Solong ran into the Stena Immaculate tanker, which was anchored about 13 miles (20 kilometres) off the northeastern English port of Hull.

The tanker was chartered by the US military and carrying thousands of barrels of jet fuel. Earlier this week the UK government ruled out foul play.

The crash triggered huge fires aboard the two ships, which required a massive high-seas firefighting effort to bring them under control.

In an update on Thursday, the coastguard said that the Solong had been towed to a safe place, while the Stena Immaculate remained at anchor.

The fires on the deck of the Solong were "being contained and monitored closely", O'Callaghan said.

He added that surveillance flights had shown that "there does not appear to be any pollution" leaking from either of the vessels.

The blaze on the Stena Immaculate had been extinguished by Wednesday, according to its US-based operator.

- 'Reasonably contained' -

The UK coastguard rescued 36 people on Monday, including the Stena Immaculate's entire crew, but police say a missing member of the Solong vessel crew is presumed dead.

On Thursday, Prime Minister Keir Starmer said that the situation was now "reasonably contained", but he stressed: "We have to get to the bottom of it."

The UK's Marine Accident Investigation Branch said on Thursday that it would seek to analyse devices that record voyage data from the vessels.

It said it had already established that the Solong was taking a regular route between Grangemouth in Scotland and Rotterdam in The Netherlands on Monday.

But it "altered course" at around 0130 GMT and struck the Stena Immaculate at 0947 GMT.

At least one tank containing some of the 220,000 barrels of jet fuel on board the Stena Immaculate was "ruptured", the tanker's US-based operator Crowley said.

While the financial costs incurred from the incident are not clear, the Morningstar DBRS credit ratings agency estimates that total insured losses could range from $100 million to $300 million.

A.Clark--SFF