It's a dangerous time on the ocean this January. As well as the highly publicized Costa Concordia cruise ship running aground off the coast of Italy, a number of cargo ships have been involved in incidents around the world. Just off the coast of Istanbul, Turkey, a Sierra Leone-flagged freighter carrying empty containers, tilted on its right side after colliding with two anchored vessels during severe weather. Last week a Philippine-registered freighter ran aground off the coast near Wijk aan Zee in the Netherlands, after it broke loose in an overnight storm.
More seriously, two cargo ships in the Philippines sank in separate incidents this past weekend. Firstly a Panamanian-registered cargo sank in the central Philippines on Sunday. The ship was carrying 9,970 metric tons of iron ore sand bound for China and sank in the waters near the island of Catanduanes. Reports say that the sand got wet and shifted which caused the ship to sink. Secondly, a Philippines registered cargo ship carrying 35,000 bags of cement sank off the Antique coast when it hit rocks and took on water. In both incidents there was no loss of life.
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