A very elderly livestock carrier laden with sheep and lambs grounded off a Greek island early on Friday.
The 998-gt Lady Maria (built 1965) got stuck for several hours on the northern shore of Pserimos — a Greek island in the eastern Aegean Sea.
The coastguard confirmed the vessel was carrying 6,800 animals and that it also had 15 crew members and a passenger on board, all Syrian nationals.
“Everyone on board is in good health,” the coastguard said.
The crew was never in any immediate danger on the boat amid winds reaching 5 on the Beaufort scale blowing in the region, which is equivalent to a fresh breeze.
Vessel trackers showed the 100-dwt tug Pothitos (built 1992) nearby and two coastguard boats were also sent to provide assistance.
After carrying out an initial inspection that showed no serious damage to the hull, a refloating operation was successfully completed and the Lady Maria was towed to the nearby island of Kalymnos.
The vessel, which was flying the flag of Tanzania, was underway from Batum in Georgia to Jeddah in Saudi Arabia.
Equasis lists the Lady Maria under the management of Lebanon-based Mina Group Shipping.
The ship was detained for four days in February over several deficiencies during an inspection in Constanta, Romania.
However, the Lady Maria was not detained in any other of its 17 inspections since the beginning of 2020 in Romania, Lebanon, Georgia and Ukraine.
Livestock carriers are a regular source of negative headlines over incidents relating to their age and the poor animal welfare conditions.
Last month, a disease outbreak reportedly killed at least 100 cattle travelling on a Vroon livestock carrier between Australia and Indonesia.
In January, more than 15,000 cattle and sheep were stuck on a sweltering livestock carrier in South Africa, which was then ordered to return to Australia after rerouting from the Red Sea.
