BARGE HIGH AND DRY

LEWES TODAY readers have been out with their cameras over the weekend taking pictures of the 300ft unmanned fuel barge which ran aground near Seaford on Thursday.

By The Newsroom

Published 11th Dec 2006, 10:34 BST

Updated 7th Jun 2018, 22:50 BST

The barge fetched up some 400m to the west of the Hope Gap steps.

A Polish tug which had been trying to tow the vessel towards the Isle of Wight contacted Dover coastguards to say the tug had engine problems.

The vessel then lost the barge 14 miles south of Shoreham.

Two crew members of Shoreham lifeboat climbed aboard the drifting barge and tried to anchor it. Due to weather conditions, the anchor only slowed the barge down. The tug continued at 2 knots towards the west.

The lifeboat crew members were unable to get off the barge and had to be airlifted by helicopter. They were dropped off at Tidemills.