Møn
insula-moenia.dk
insula-moenia.dk
Thursday the 29th of March 2001 at 00:15 at night, two ships collided in the
Baltic Sea in what is called "Kadetrenden".
One of the ships was "Baltic Carrier", an oiltanker which was on its
way from Tallinn to England with 33.000 tons of fuel oil and the other was "Tern",
a bulkship on its way from Cuba to Latvia with 5.000 tons of unrefined sugar.
It was "Baltic Carrier" that got some trouble with its steering and
as it was passing "Tern" it suddenly steered in front of it and "Tern"
crashed right into "Baltic Carriers" side and tore up a big hole in
one of its tanks which contained 2.700 tons of fuel oil.
The weather made the situation worse, the hard wind and the currents in the
area made it impossible for the ships to hold the oil at sea and Thursday afternoon
the oil had made it to Grønsund between Møn and Falster. The oil then reached
the seashore and the areas with forests of reed, and because it was at the beginning
of the birds´ nesting period many birds were gathered in these areas.
It is presumed that more than 4.000 birds died.
The oil hit the hardest at the coasts of Farø, Bogø and parts of Møn around
Hårbølle Harbour. It took hard work to "dig" up the oil and transport
it away from the area for destruction. The clean-up after the catastrophe
would, according to a newspaper in the area, cost approximately 70 million danish kroner.
corrections made:12/9-2003
