The Fremantle Highway’s burned-out carcass made its way to Eemshaven after traveling 64 kilometers (40 miles) from its starting point north of the island of Schiermonnikoog.
Fire started on the ship on July 25 as it was sailing to Egypt from Bremerhaven, Germany.
In the fire, one crew member perished.
Seven of the other 22 people who made it out alive dove into the water to get away. Except for two, the crew was entirely Indian.
The fire on board the 200-meter-long Fremantle Highway, registered in Panama, raged for almost a week.
The Wadden Sea, which is a World Heritage Site on the edge of the North Sea, was feared to be in danger of an environmental catastrophe if the ship sank.
The 11-deck ship’s fire’s source is unknown, the Dutch coast guard emphasized, and authorities are being careful not to make any assumptions. However, a rescue worker was heard on an audio tape saying that “it appears an electric vehicle exploded too” and that it may have started in the battery of an electric vehicle.
There were 3,783 cars on the ship, 498 of which were electric cars.
Salvage experts reported that while four of the ship’s decks were largely unharmed in the hull due to the fire’s origin on an upper level, the eighth deck had partially collapsed due to the fire’s ferocity.
The Dutch infrastructure agency declared two days earlier that it thought the fire had been put out for good. Authorities then decided that because to impending poor weather, it should be brought into port as soon as possible.
The local mayor, Henk Jan Bolding, said he understood the government’s decision to bring it to Eemshaven: “To avoid environmental disaster the ship had to be brought into a safe harbour and this was nearby.”
There was a great deal of satisfaction that the ship was finally secure, according to harbour master Pieter van der Wal, who oversees seaports in the area.
We’re pleased that we’ve prevented pollutants from reaching the Wadden Sea and the Wadden Islands.
Work on the salvage may start now that the ship is in port safely.
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