Transport Malta is confident that a positive breakthrough will be made in the coming days regarding the removal of a ship that ran aground in Qawra on 10 February, which is the feast of St Paul Shipwrecked. 

The vessel ran aground during a violent storm and has been left on the rocks at Fra Ben ever since. The beached vessel has become something of a tourist attraction.

There were fears that oil and fuel from the vessel could seep out of the vessel but the authorities had said that there were no leaks or contamination.

“Transport Malta is maintaining discussions with all the parties concerned in line with international obligations in respect of wreck removal on the related logistics, costs of removal and proper disposal of the wreck,” a spokesperson for Transport Malta told The Malta Independent.

Asked what was being done towards the removal of the vessel from the rocky beach, Transport Malta stated that wreck removal operations are “a delicate, logistically challenging and costly operation with very legally complex connotations.”

“Particularly sensitive are the liability issues and the relationship between the various parties as also emanating from the international conventions in place, especially those of and with the owner.”

The crew of the ship which was made up of five Bangladeshis and two Russians, left Malta at the end of February. They had been at sea for four months before the shipwreck. After the shipwreck, they were offered shelter at the Seafarers’ Centre, in Floriana. This newspaper had interviewed the captain and crew shortly before they left Malta.

The Togo-registered vessel, the 885-tonne Hephaestus, ran aground in Qawra not far from the site where St Paul and St Luke, according to the Bible, were shipwrecked about 2,000 years ago. The ship ran aground in a thunderstorm and northerly Force 6 to winds when it was approaching Malta.