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 | | Tuesday, 5 February, 2002, 11:31 GMT Hazard warning over ship's cargo  Salvagers have delayed reboarding the Kodima Thousands of tonnes of timber washed ashore from a grounded cargo vessel has been declared a hazard to shipping. The Harbour Master in Plymouth has issued the warning to small craft after 4,000 cubic metres of timber spilled from the Kodima, stranded at Whitsand Bay in Cornwall. Salvage crews had hoped to board the cargo ship on Wednesday, four days after it ran aground, to investigate refloating the vessel but bad weather has delayed the plan until Thursday. Coastguard officials attempted to allay fears that some of the 450 tonnes of fuel oil onboard could leak saying that the ship is in a stable condition. Local warning Pine timber from the ship has spread over a mile of coastline, said a spokesman for the Maritime and Coastguard Agency. Tides have washed other timber round Rame Head and Penlee point into Plymouth Sound. The office of the Queen's Harbour Master in Plymouth, responsible for the waters of the Sound, said enough timber had appeared for a local navigational warning to be issued.
The agency said Thursday was the earliest a salvage operation could now be mounted in a bid to pull off the Kodima. But Barrie Evans, salvage expert for the agency, said the ship has a double skinned hull to combat ice and was unlikely to move. "The advantages we have are this ice-strengthened hull and the ship is full of water and is very stable in these very heavy seas," he said. The 16-strong Russian crew from the Maltese-registered cargo vessel were winched to safety on Saturday, the ship then drifted all day until running aground. | |    See also: Internet links: The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites Top England stories now:  Links to more England stories are at the foot of the page. | |||||||||||||||||||
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