MSC container ship adrift enroute to Montreal

The Canadian Coast Guard says the MSC Kim is adrift off the west coast of Newfoundland.

The agency said in an email Wednesday the 265-metre-long containership reported engine problems and the vessel was approximately 92 kilometres from Port au Port, N.L.

The vessels engines failed on March 7th, about 66 nautical miles east of Perce Quebec. The ship is 14 years old.

It was enroute from the Port of Halifax to Montreal, where it had been expected to dock on March 7, according to VesselFinder.com.

It departed Malaga, Spain, on February 15, with calls in Gioia Tauro and Napoli, Italy, and Sines, Portugal, before crossing the Atlantic to Halifax.

The email says there are no reported injuries or pollution events and coast guard environmental response specialists are working with the ship’s owner to develop a response plan.

It says the ship’s owners have hired a tow vessel in the nearby town of Stephenville to retrieve the ship.

The coast guard ship Terry Fox is in the area to help the tow vessel make its way out of the Stephenville harbour.

Marine traffic websites say the MSC Kim is sailing under the flag of Panama and it’s owned by Switzerland-based Mediterranean Shipping Company.

This is not the first time the MSC Kim has made the news. According to vesseltracker.com, Belgian police in Antwerp found 500 kilograms of cocaine aboard the ship in November 2015. The drugs were hidden in rolls of plastic film in the containerized cargo. The ship had arrived in Belgium from Ecuador.