There appears to be little hope for the bulk carrier that went aground near Barra de Navidad, Jalisco, during Hurricane Patricia. The director general of the Merchant Marine said Los Llanitos, a 38,000-tonne freighter , has broken in half and is beyond repair. Pedro Pablo Zepeda Bermúdez also said the ship is carrying more than 11,000 liters of oil and 500 cubic meters of diesel.

But the maritime news website gCaptain says no attempt has been made to put a boom in place to contain leaked oil, despite the ship showing signs of serious structural damage. The report says the environmental agency Profepa has been monitoring the ship since it went aground near Punta Graham on Friday.

How it came to be caught in the hurricane is not clear, because it was one of seven ships instructed to leave the port of Manzanillo, some 40 kilometers away from where it now sits, on Thursday and proceed to Lázaro Cárdenas to avoid the storm. The other six vessels arrived safely in the Michoacán port but Capt. Jorge Zepeda delayed leaving for 11 hours and headed in the other direction — northwest — instead.The ship was unable to handle the winds of more than 200 km/h and waves of six to 10 meters and was driven aground near Barra de Navidad.

Despite the ship’s woes, it never made a distress call, said Zepeda Bermúdez. All 27 crew members have been evacuated from Los Llanitos, including the eight who remained on board to help with salvage after a Navy helicopter made a first evacuation landing on the ship’s deck.

Source: gCaptain,Televisa (sp), mexiconewsdaily