Haldia, June 11: MV Fortune carrying a cargo of logs from Malayasia to Kolkata which had been abandoned in choppy seas off the Sandheads sank at 12.15 pm today, coast guard commander R K Wadhwa has said. All the 20 crew members of the vessel, abandoned yesterday, who were picked up by naval ship INS Betwa on sea trials off the Sandheads at Sagar island in South 24 Parganas district last night, were brought to Haldia by a Dornier aircraft this morning, Wadhwa told here.
All the crew members were well, he said adding that their passports had been lost in the sea water.
Besides 1728 pieces of Malaysian logs, the vessel was also carrying 100 mt fuel oil, but no leakage of oil was so far detected by the coast guard hovercraft h-186 in the area. The value of the logs would be around Rs 1.5 crore, Wadhwa added.
The ship was abandoned after it developed an irreparable crack in the hull which flooded the engine rooms.
The vessel, which left Penang in Malayasia on June four and was to enter the Kolkata harbour on June 9, could not reach its destination as it came across very rough seas.
Wadhwa said that the coast guard had urged the Kolkata Port Trust Authority to remove the floating or sunken logs as it might affect the navigational channel in the area. Bureau Report