Cargo ships are pretty enormous, so you’d have thought that they’d be easy things to miss when you’re sailing the seven seas. That didn’t stop the captain of one massive ship from clipping another huge vessel at anchor, however, as this dramatic footage shows.
Two enormous cargo ships have come together off the coast of Queensland, Australia, reports industry watchdog Trade Winds. The crash occurred on July 16 when the Korean-flagged HL Eco hit the front of the YM Serenity, which was moored off the coast of Australia.
The crew of HL Eco lost control of the vessel when it lost power, reports Trade Winds. The 179,070-ton ship then had no way of altering its course to avoid the anchored vessel and drifted into YM Serenity. When the two ships collided, the bow of YM Serenity scraped along the side of HL Eco and smashed through one of its huge liquid gas fuel tanks mounted at the rear of the vessel.
It’s a pretty dramatic crash that was all caught on camera by one brave crewmember who ran to the front of YM Serenity as HL Eco approached. You can watch the clip for yourself on Reddit right here.
Thankfully, it doesn’t appear as though any fuel leaked following the crash with the ship and its LPG tank. Instead, Trade Winds reports that most of the damage you see is just the insulation layers around the tank ripping open. As Trade Winds explains:
The HL Eco appears to have suffered damage to its aft port area and specifically one of its two rear-mounted type-C LNG bunker tanks.
What appears to be insulation material from the LNG bunker tank can be seen strewed on the bow of the YM Serenity at the point where the two vessels collided.
As yet, there has been no information as to whether any LNG leaked from the tank.
The captain of the HL Eco ship has now been charged for the collision, reports the Maritime Executive. Captain Jim Woo Jun of HL Eco has reportedly been charged with a criminal violation of Australia’s collision prevention rules, and was held before a $20,000 bail payment was made.
Such charges have never been brought against a ship’s captain in Australia before, but experts say that if convicted the Korean captain could face a fine of as much as $26,000.