Tuesday 6 July 2010

Yeoman Bontrup - Local Gossip

Yesterday's local gossip - feeding on a woeful lack of solid news in the media - suggested that the Yeoman Bontrup was sitting on the bottom by Glensanda pier, and that she was taking in water; today there are suggestions that the Bontrup has been refloated. Some news is a little more firm: the Maritime and Coastguard Agency has imposed a one-mile exclusion zone round the ship, and the AIS site, here, shows the tugs Anglegarth, Svitzer Musselwick and Anglian Sovereign in attendance.

There is also talk that one of the other Yeoman boats is coming in to Glensanda, but this isn't correct. The AIS system shows the Yeoman Bridge to the north of Holland bound for Norway and the Yeoman Bank (shown above, coming up the Sound of Mull a week ago) off the NE coast of England heading for Germany.

The lack of firm news suggests that the authorities have preferred to cover up this incident rather than keep both press and local communities informed, something that has been possible because of the remote location of the site and the poor weather conditions.

Glensanda is operated by Foster Yeoman, a British-founded company acquired in 2006 by the Swiss Holcim Group.

3 comments:

  1. Jon

    Thanks for keeping folk posted, I live in Stornoway and watch the Yeomans passing by and am interested to know whats happening but it seems the press have lost interest because theres no "big" story to report. Keep the information coming.

    D

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  2. The way the information has dried up is almost uncanny. Even local gossip is struggling. Yet the salvors must have a dreadful task on their hands.

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  3. I live on the South Coast (not far from Brighton) hence my interest in all things maritime. Thanks for all the pictures and comments as a follow up to what seemed a fairly important news item on the BBC over last weekend. It did however die very quickly as the flames were brought under control.
    Thanks Again from another AIS watcher
    Alan

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