Modern Express: last-ditch attempt to rescue listing cargo ship

A drifting cargo ship carrying more than 3,000 tonnes of supplies is set to crash into the French coastline unless a final attempt to tow it is successful. If rescue efforts fail, the Modern Express is expected to run aground between Monday night and Tuesday morning, the BBC reports. So what happened to the ship and why are authorities concerned about a crash?

How did the ship end up adrift?

The freighter was heading from Gabon to the French port city of Le Havre with 3,600 tonnes of timber and construction machinery aboard when it ran into trouble in a busy shipping lane in the Cantabrian Sea, north of Spain, last Tuesday. It is thought that some of the cargo shifted during a heavy storm, resulting in a dangerous list now estimated to be between 40 and 50 degrees.

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What happened to the crew?

The ship's captain put out an SOS when the Modern Express's engines began to fail and the angle of the list became dangerous. A Spanish search and rescue team airlifted the 22 crew members to safety, turning the 538ft-long freighter into a ghost ship.

Why hasn't the ship been halted?

Several attempts have already been made to rescue the Modern Express, which is on course to run aground in south-west France, but have been foiled by bad weather conditions. "As of today, the sea is stronger than us," Emmanuel de Oliviera, the head of France's Atlantic Maritime Prefecture, told reporters after high winds forced a salvage team to turn back on Sunday.

However, a "favourable window" today offers a final chance to tow the ship safely into port. At around 8.30am local time (7.30am GMT), the Prefecture tweeted that four members of a specialist salvage team had made it on board.

What will happen if the ship crashes?

The cargo of 3,600 tonnes of timber and machinery will obviously be at risk in the event of a crash. More worryingly, however, is what might become of the 300 tonnes of fuel in the ship's tank. De Oliviera told the press that, as of Sunday, there were no signs of a fuel leak but the ship will be escorted and monitored for any signs of spillage.

While this would be at the low end of the scale for oil spills, which at their worst have seen hundreds of thousands of tonnes of oil lost, a leak could still be disastrous. In 2009, when two Russian warships accidentally released around 300 tonnes of fuel near the Irish coastline, a Friends of the Earth spokesman said the spill would cause "serious damage" to marine life.