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Cason

History
Name: Finn-Leonhardt
Builder: Flensburger Schiffbau-Gesellschaft, Flensburg, Germany
Completed: 1969
Identification: 6916976
History
Panama
Name: Cason
Route: Antwerp - Shanghai
Acquired: 1978
Fate: lost: grounded and broke up
General characteristics
Type: Cargo ship
Tonnage: 9,191 tonnes (9,046 long tons; 10,131 short tons)
Tons burthen: 15,250 DWT
Length: 136.84 metres (449.0 ft)
Beam: 21.06 metres (69.1 ft)
Crew: 31

Cason (until 1978 Finn-Leonhardt) was a cargo ship, under a Panamanian flag, carrying 1,100 tonnes of various toxic and flammable chemicals. On 5 December 1987 the ship caught fire off the coast of Galicia, Spain. 23 of the 31 crew died, including the captain. The ship grounded off Cape Finisterre and broke up.

Cason was en route from Rotterdam to Shanghai with a cargo of various chemicals loaded at Hamburg, Rotterdam and Antwerp. The ship was owned by a Hong Kong company and registered in Panama. Of the 31 crew, the captain and chief engineer were from Hong Kong and the remainder Chinese. Shortly before dawn on 5 December 1987 an explosion occurred 23 miles off the Spanish coast at Cape Finisterre, setting the ship on fire. The captain broadcast an SOS about an hour later, and those crew not caught by the flames jumped into the sea to escape. All but eight died, including the captain and one woman. The ship grounded on rocks 150 metres (450 feet) offshore, still burning, and broke up.

Initial reports were that the deaths were mainly from drowning and hypothermia; the local hospital later reported that one drowned but the remainder died of carbon monoxide poisoning. Survivors said that the lifeboat mechanism failed to work, as a result of which many crew members jumped into the water wearing lifejackets. The initial explosion was said to have been caused by the cargo shifting in heavy seas.

The Finisterre Red Cross launch and helicopters from the local air rescue service, the Spanish Navy, and Madrid were all involved in recovering bodies and searching for survivors. In addition British, Italian, and Danish ships rescued some survivors. One crew member who remained missing until the search was suspended at nightfall was found dead the next day. The weather remained stormy, complicating efforts to tow the ship; in the evening it ran aground on Punta do Rostro, an offshore shoal. The bottom of the ship was holed such that it was not feasible to refloat it. Because of the presumed risk of further explosion, tugboats and cranes were then ordered to remain clear. After it was determined that the cargo included inflammable gas, inflammable liquids and a poison, three tugboats and two specialised cranes on floating platforms were assembled to attempt recovery and precise identification of the cargo. Cargo recovery began on the afternoon of 9 December, with drums of ortho-cresol and formaldehyde, but the weather became stormy again, stopping the work and causing more drums containing sodium to break and catch fire, some of them after being washed overboard. No evacuation of residents of the coastal area was initially ordered, but hundreds left, especially after the weather worsened, and after further explosions in the hold beginning on 10 December caused a toxic cloud, thousands fled and school buses were provided as transportation. Ultimately 15,000 or 20,000 people evacuated.


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Wikipedia

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