Fishermen find abandoned barge 30m south of Wight
A Poole fisherman has found an abandoned 60-foot barge some 30 miles south of the Isle of Wight.
Chris Mowlam, a crab and lobster fisherman, found the abandoned vessel in the middle of the shipping lanes. One of the fishing boat’s crew boarded it mid-channel to find a broken towing chain. He said, ‘I thought there might be illegal immigrants on there.’ The fishermen towed it back to Poole Quay.
The barge, Ditte Calpan, was owned by a Norwegian firm but was sold to a Nigerian company. It was last spotted being towed out of a Dutch port by a fishing vessel.
Police were due to inspect the ship yesterday. Chris told the Bournemouth Echo that the authorities are ‘very interested’ in the vessel.
Danish shipping records show it was involved in a collision near Copenhagen in 1978.