#DublinBay - A containership on a voyage from Liverpool, UK when bound for New York, USA, was forced to turn around off the Wexford coast and divert to Dublin Bay on Tuesday, has finally departed this morning, writes Jehan Ashmore.
Afloat.ie sources said last night that the containership MSC Ela had experienced engine trouble and was awaiting parts while at anchorage in Dublin Bay. The ship is operated by the Mediterranean Shipping Company S.A. (MSC), the second-largest shipping line in the world in terms of containership capacity.
The 4,900TEU capacity containership was first tracked on Tuesday afternoon during routine monitoring for Afloat.ie, when located offshore of Wexford . At that stage the 54,000 gross tonnage vessel was in the St. Georges Channel but before reaching the shipping lanes that involve a traffic separation scheme (TSS) off the south-east coast.
It was while in waters off Wexford when MSC Ela turned around in the opposite direction before heading offshore of the Irish eastern seaboard as far as the Kish Bank Lighthouse, marking the approaches of Dublin Bay. The ship's anchorage compared to other neighbouring ships at anchor, involved a position further south in the bay, with the nearest landfall between Sandycove and Bulloch Harbour, Dalkey.
At almost 300m MC Ela is around the same length of the giant cruiseships that call to Dublin Port from where apparently only pilot cutters engaged with the ship's unexpected arrival. Almost three-days later MSC Ela departed this morning. A pilot was on board to guide the 13.5m draft containership before disembarking offshore of The Muglins Lighthouse, located on a rocky islet in the south of the bay off Dalkey Island.
MSC Ela then proceeded to turn around almost completely, but set a course for the Kish Bank Lighthouse. From there the ship retraced its passage towards the Wexford coast to begin the long voyage across the Atlantic Ocean.