Drifting cargo ship docks at port

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A cargo ship which had been adrift in the North Sea in a Force 10 storm, narrowly missing two gas platforms, has docked safely.

The Vindo reached Alexandra Docks in Hull around 0245 GMT on Sunday - pulled by a rescue tug, which had been towing the vessel for 42 hours.

Poor weather conditions and high winds had hampered the rescue operation.

The 4,500-tonne Vindo suffered engine failure 75 miles (120km) off the Lincolnshire coast on Thursday.

It first began to drift towards the Murdoch gas platform - east of Theddlethorpe St Helen - forcing the RAF to winch the gas workers to safety.

The ship's crew dropped anchor in an attempt to slow the drift, but they were forced to raise it to avoid hitting gas pipelines in the area.

The nine-man crew then managed to restart the engines giving them sufficient power to avert the threat of a collision.

But the vessel again lost power and began drifting towards the Caister platform, which is unmanned.

A Coastguard spokesman said the ship cleared the second platform by 700 yards (about 650m) and it was "very lucky that it has missed two platforms".

In September last year the Vindo crashed into another large cargo vessel, Dealer, after failing to respond to radio messages.

Nobody was injured in the incident, which took place 17 miles (27km) off the coast of North Foreland, Kent.

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