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Modern Scavengers Snatch Sea's "Bounty"
• Looters race to Boscombe Bay to scavenge wrecked container ship
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By
Roxsana, Environment Editor
Monday,
22 January, 2007
For centuries England’s rugged western coast line with its sheltered bays and gullies was a haven for smugglers and their most sinister counterparts, wreckers, men who lured hapless ships onto the rocks off shore to steal their cargo.
English literature is full of tales of smugglers and wreckers, “Jamaica Inn” by Daphne du Maurier is a masterpiece of the genre.
But sometimes the notorious weather and rocky coasts of the British channel can wreak their ill work unaided by man. Then when ship breaks up and its cargo washes ashore, the beachcombers come out in force.
This has happened this week as the containers on the stricken 62,000 tonne MSC Napoli have started to wash ashore as the ship breaks up.
The ship was deliberately scuttled off Branscombe Bay, when as it showed signs of structural fatigue, to enable environmental agencies to safely remove the oil and other hazardous cargo on board. What the authorities did not bargain for was the public.
Spurred on by reports of £12,000 BMW motorbikes and barrels of wine, looters have been racing to Branscombe Bay in Dorset to retrieve the spoils in large numbers. So far around 200 of the 2,400 containers are believed to have come ashore. Looters are reported to be setting fires on them to break them open.
The press have been out in force to capture photographs of motor bikes being wheeled ashore and bemused members of the public debating how to load the barrels of wine stranded on the beach, into their cars. In some cases matters have turned nasty as rival gangs have fought over the motorbikes.
Strewn debris now litters the beach and will be swept out to sea again increasing the environmental impact.
So where were police in all this? As so often in Modern Britain, standing on the side watching. Nor in the early days were there any Customs and Excise men. They are thinly spread these days and in any case watching out for illegal immigrants not shipwrecked cargo. Belatedly the police have drafted in extra men, closed off the beach and sealed to the local village.
One potential problem with arresting anyone is that under British law it is not illegal to remove items washed up by the sea, from the foreshore, only to fail to declare them.
"We caution the public that they are allowed to remove items from the beach, which is private property but will need to fill in a form to report their finds to the authorities and return them to their legal owners,” a police spokesman explained airily to the press. Oh Yeah.
Update 23 January 2007 (from BBC News website)
Looters increase environmental impact of wrecked container ship.
Members of the public who have been taking goods washed ashore from stricken container ship MSC Napoli have been accused of "crass greed". The Maritime and Coastguard Agency said scavengers who have descended on Branscombe beach in Devon were making the clean-up more difficult. It said the scenes were a "nightmare" and "deeply upsetting".
Under the Merchant Shipping Act 1995, it is an offence for people to remove items from a wreck if they conceal or keep possession of cargo and refuse to surrender it.
But some of the items plundered from the container ship have already been listed on the internet auction website eBay. BMW steering wheel airbags - advertised as coming from the Napoli - were up for sale online.
MCA spokesman Mark Clark said had warnings not to touch the containers been followed, they would have been removed and the beach returned to normality quite soon.
"They have quadrupled our task," he said. "People are lighting fires beside the containers, getting on top of them ripping stuff out, and not heeding our warnings. The MCA is deeply upset and angry because all the stuff which has been ripped out of the containers will be swept out to sea and have an environmental impact," he said.
"In 11 years I have never seen anything like it, it is sheer greed."
The coastguard also said it may take a week to pump 3,500 tonnes of oil from the ship to stop more leaks of oil.
The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds has reported 600 seabirds had been found suffering from the effects of oil between Chesil Beach and Portland in Dorset, sparking fears environmental damage was worsening.
Onthe Lam 2007
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