The X-Press Pearl was a container ship of the type Super Eco 2700 . It was built by the Zhoushan Changhong International Shipyard and delivered on February 10, 2021.
The ship caught fire on May 20, 2021 off Colombo , the capital of Sri Lanka, and sank on June 2, 2021 while attempting to pull it into deeper waters.
Loss due to fire in 2021
In May 2021, the ship caught fire just around three months after being commissioned in the Indian Ocean . The fire broke out on May 20, 2021 in the forward area of the ship loaded with 1,486 containers in a container loaded below deck. The ship, which left the port of Hazira in the west Indian state of Gujarat on May 15, 2021 , was at that time around ten nautical miles off Colombo, Sri Lanka, in the roadstead . The fire was fought initially with on-board resources and, from May 21, also by tugs who had come to the rescue, and a few days later with the help of specialists from the rescue company Smit Salvage . Twelve crew members were taken from board on May 23rd and twelve fire-fighting specialists were brought on board in their place. The rest of the crew and the twelve specialists were taken off board on May 25 for safety reasons. Despite the fire fighting on board and by the ships that came to help, including three tugs, ships and helicopters of the Sri Lankan Navy and ships of the Indian Coast Guard, the fire was further fanned by the strong wind and spread over the entire ship. This sometimes led to explosions. On June 1, 2021, the Navy announced that the fire had been finally extinguished after 13 days.
During the fire, several containers went overboard, some of which, or their contents, were washed up on the coast of Sri Lanka. The ship has, inter alia. 349 containers of synthetic resins, 46 containers of plastic granulate , 42 containers of caustic soda and 300 tons of heavy fuel oil on board.
On June 2, the Navy tried to tow the largely burned-out ship in the deeper water to avoid the wreck becoming an obstacle at the port. However, the stern of the ship, which had been destabilized by the large amount of extinguishing water, sank to a coral reef until it touched the bottom, so that the tow attempt failed.
