An Apex Marine bulker has rescued 16 survivors at sea after a fire on the 6,000-dwt, 840 lane-metre Transmodal (built 1991) off Brazil, just two years after another ghastly fire and explosion ravaged the same ship.
E-mails from the US-owned bulker the 47,000-dwt Quinn J (built 1987) to its owner Apex Marine in New York show that the bulker rescued 16 survivors from lifeboats and liferafts yesterday following the fire.
After receiving a distress signal at 1550 local time on Sunday, the Apex bulker had arrived and taken all 16 survivors on board by 1820. The rescued seafarers were delivered to pilot boats later that night at the port of Itajai some 50 nautical miles away, according to the e-mails, which TradeWinds has seen.
Almost exactly two years ago, the same ship had to be evacuated and towed to Buenos Aires following a fatal fire.
After a fire and explosion on 9 July 2005, 22 crewmen were rescued by the 2,361-teu MOL Strength (built 1995) rescued and carried to the Brazilian port of Rio Grande, where 14 were hospitalised according to local reports at the time, several with critical third-degree burns.
Survivors of the 2005 casualty were described as looking like photographs of napalming victims because of the severity of their burns.
