About 90 containers have been lost in heavy seas from an AP Moller-Maersk-chartered panamax off Russia.
The Costamare-owned, 4,506-teu Dyros (built 2008) was heading to Seattle when the accident happened, KUOW reported.
Nine of the lost boxes contained flammable lithium-ion batteries and are considered dangerous cargo.
The Liberia-flagged Dyros had left Yantian in southern China when the weather worsened on Sunday night off Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula.
Another 100 containers on board were damaged, the Danish charterer said.
“Besides losing containers, there are damages to the vessel’s deck,” the company added. “It needs inspection/repairs.”
Insurance cover for the vessel is provided by the Swedish Club.
“We view this as a very serious incident which will be investigated thoroughly,” Maersk said.
The site of the loss is 600 miles south-east of Russia and 600 miles south-west of Attu in Alaska’s Aleutian Islands.
Two days of storms
The Dyros was said to have met with winds approaching 50 miles per hour on both 19 and 20 March, according to MarineTraffic.
The company said the vessel continued east for more than 1,000 miles after the spill, then made a turn to starboard after nearing Unalaska Island.
The Dyros was scheduled to reach Seattle on 27 March, but its destination is now set as Lazaro Cardenas in Mexico, arriving on 3 April.
In January, an Ocean Network Express (ONE) container ship suffered a container collapse in the Atlantic.
The 13,900-teu Madrid Bridge (built 2018) lost or damaged more than 140 boxes in a storm as it headed to the US East Coast from Asia via the Suez Canal.
According to the World Shipping Council, vessels carried 226m containers internationally in 2019, but less than 0.001% were lost.
