The Fremantle Highway was carrying thousands of cars, including 498 electric vehiclesImage: Peter Dejong/AP/picture alliance
How was the ship towed?
The operation to bring the vessel to the port began early on Thursday. Salvage specialists and oil response vessels were also deployed.
"I can confirm the ship has arrived in Eemshaven," a spokesperson for the regional safety authority told the AFP news agency on Thursday afternoon.
A fire first broke out on the ship — which is owned by a Japanese shipping company — on July 26, shortly after it set sail from the German port of Bremerhaven on its way to Singapore.
The ship sustained extensive damage from the fireImage: VINCENT JANNINK/ANP/IMAGO
The battery of an electric car is believed to be responsible for the blaze. One crew member died during the evacuation of the freighter.
The blaze on the freighter sparked serious concerns over the risk of pollution in the North Sea. The German Environmental Ministry said that the ship was carrying 1,600 tons of heavy fuel oil and another 200 tons of marine diesel oil.
This is what authorities want to prevent by cautiously towing it to port.
Burning cargo ship threatens North Sea with major pollution
The Fremantle Highway cargo ship is still burning off the Dutch coast. Rescue workers are trying to prevent it from sinking, a potential environmental disaster. But the firefighting efforts have proven difficult.
A Dutch Coast Guard boat approaches the car carrier cargo ship Fremantle Highway. The ship caught fire early Wednesday morning just under 27 kilometers (16.8 miles) off the coast of the northern Dutch island of Ameland. But containment of the flames on the 200-meter-long ship is slow, and the coast guard expects the freighter to burn for several more days.
Image: JAN SPOELSTRA/ANP/AFP
Difficult work
Boats with water cannons are cooling the ship from both sides. The fire cannot be extinguished directly at the moment because rescue forces cannot reach it. A Coast Guard aircraft still needs to take pictures from the air and check whether the temperature has dropped. Only then can special forces board the ship.
Image: Flying Focus/ANP/AFP
Ready to fly
Rescue workers at Rotterdam Airport prepare for their mission on the Fremantle Highway. The cargo ship had loaded 3783 automobiles, Kisen Kaisha, a spokesman for Japanese shipping company Kawasaki, said Thursday. Among them, he said, were electric cars whose lithium batteries are complicating the firefighting operations. The Dutch coast guard had previously spoken of just under 3000 automobiles.
Image: MARCO VAN DER CAAIJ/ANP/AFP/Getty Images
Danger to the Wadden Sea
Too much water from the firefighting operations could also cause the ship to capsize. The Coast Guard said on Thursday that the ship was stable for now. Should the Fremantle Highway sink, fuel, oil and, of course, the loaded cars would enter the water, which would threaten the Wadden Sea, the largest tidal flats system in the world, with large-scale pollution.
Image: Netherlands Coastguards/AFP
30-meter jump for crew members
An injured crew member of the Fremantle Highway is brought ashore in Lauwersoog. The 23 crew members had to leave the cargo ship head over heels, several of them jumping from the ship from a height of 30 meters. One crew member died and the rest were brought to safety by helicopter with minor injuries, according to Dutch media.
Image: PERSBUREAU METER/ANP/AFP
Environmental disaster feared
The Panama-registered ship had left the German port of Bremerhaven with full fuel tanks. 1,600 tons of heavy fuel oil and 200 tons of diesel could to enter the North Sea. So far, according to the authorities, no oil has spilled out of the burning cargo ship. Environmental protection organizations fear an environmental disaster if the Fremantle Highway sinks.
A man looks with binoculars in the direction of the burning cargo ship from the island of Ameland. According to the Dutch government, the risk of an oil spill in the Wadden Sea islands is low. Escaping fuel would disperse northwards in the open sea, the responsible Dutch Minister for Infrastructure and Water Management Mark Harbers said on Thursday.
Image: Jan Spoelstra/ANP/picture alliance
"Serious danger"
The German Central Command for Maritime Emergencies is supporting the operation. The emergency tugboat Nordic (pictured above) sprayed water onto the Fremantle Highway on Wednesday. On Thursday, the German government offered further help: "Germany will provide anything that can help," said German Environment Minister Steffi Lemke. The unique Wadden Sea National Park is in serious danger, she said.
But this operation was hampered as the fire continued to burn for several days, in part due to the lithium-ion batteries in the EVs, which are particularly difficult to extinguish once they catch fire.
Experts have warned that ships are not usually equipped with the necessary equipment to deal with the risks associated with lithium-ion batteries even as they become ever more common cargo on the world's waterways.
