Dermot Mulgrew is currently awaiting news of his freight on board the stricken vessel, Riverdance. "It could have been a lot worse because usually we have more on these sailings," he said. The vessel got into difficulties on Thursday evening, 10 nautical miles off the coast of Fleetwood, Lancashire, over a bank known as Shell Flat.


Three 45 feet long trailors, carrying a variety of mercandise for his company, Mulgrew Haulage Ltd, had been on board when the ship ran into difficulty. He said most of the freight on board the ship, which has a capacity for 55 trailors, was owned by Northern Ireland businesses.


"The main disruption now is the effects of this in the following weeks because all the other routes are now affected by this," said Mr Mulgrew. "Essentially now nothing is moving between Ireland and England on any shipping lines: everything has come to a standstill. "We have lorries in England waiting to get back and we'll be lucky to get the backlog cleared up by the middle of next week," he said.
"I think the main thing is that thank God nobody was killed or injured which could easily have happened," added Mr Mulgrew.


SALVAGE COMPANY
A Dutch salvaging company were today investigating the stricken vessel with the aim of coming up with a plan to re-float it. The Riverdance was carrying 23 passengers and crew when it was hit by a huge wave as it crossed the Irish Sea, causing it to run into difficulties off the coast of Fleetwood, Lancashire, last night.


The 6,000 ton ship had left Warrenpoint for Heysham earlier and its cargo shifted causing it to start listing at 60 degrees at around 7.30pm. A spokesman for Seatruck Ferries, which operates Riverdance, said the vessel had been carrying trucks and trailers from Warrenpoint to the Lancashire port. It's not known at this stage if the ferry has been damaged.


A rescue operation involving helicopters from the RAF, Royal Navy and Irish Coastguard last night sprang into action, as 60 mph winds raged and waves reached 30 ft in height. The conditions were described by the RNLI, which sent lifeboats from Fleetwood and Lytham St Annes to assist, as "horrendous".


CREW SAFE
All but nine essential crew members were winched to safety when the roll-on roll-off vessel ran aground off the north shore of Blackpool beach, and the rest of those on board were evacuated as well. Seatruck Ferries spokesman Tony Redding said that it was hoped that the salvage operation would get underway this afternoon.


At that stage, the ferry was about 400 miles off shore and listing at a 35 degree angle. But he said that it was on soft sand and there was not believed to be any leakage. He said that Seatruck a contract with a Dutch salvaging company called Smit, who are based in Rotterdam. Eleven experts arrived at Blackpool Airport at around 1pm and planned to board the vessel later in the afternoon for an inspection.


"The salvage master, a salvage naval architect and salvage supervisor will all be flown out to it by helicopters to board it," he said. "After they have inspected it they will put together a salvage plan and it will be presented to the Maritime and Coastguard Agency."


PRAISE FOR RESCUE
Seatruck Ferries Chief Executive Kevin Hobbs yesterday praised the efforts of everyone who had been involved in the rescue operation.
"I pay tribute to the helicopter crews and have the greatest admiration for them," he said. "They rescued all 23 people on board, flying them to Blackpool Airport, where they had no serious injuries. "This was a remarkable achievement."


Mr Hobbs also praised the captain and crews on board the Riverdance, revealing that they had succeeded in reducing the vessel's list from over 60 degrees to around 20 degrees. "Their courageous action allowed the helicopter evacuation to proceed," he added.


* To see video footage of the drama click on the green box at the top of this story.

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