Tugboats, crews try to refloat ship stuck in St. Lawrence River near Montreal

An attempt to refloat the vessel that ran aground on the St. Lawrence River near Verchères, in the Montérégie region, is due to continue until late on Friday, before resuming on Saturday morning.

The Canadian Coast Guard announced in an e-mail sent on Friday morning that the shipowner's refloating plan had been validated by Transport Canada and the other authorities involved.

The operation was launched at around 11 a.m. and involves three tugs and an officer from the Coast Guard's Environmental Response and Marine Hazards team. It is also being monitored by drones and a helicopter.

The MV MACCOA, which was sailing on the St Lawrence River, has been stranded since Christmas Eve following a widespread power cut.

The Canadian Coast Guard was informed of the vessel's grounding at 1:15 a.m. on Dec. 24. According to the Coast Guard, there were no injuries on board, no damage to the ship's hull and no pollution was observed.

The cause of the breakdown was not yet known on Friday, but Coast Guard spokesperson Eric Esclamadon explained that the breakdown caused the vessel to lose steering control and drift, before running aground in an area with a clay bottom.

"The clay has a very strong suction power, so the ship ran aground, but is also held back by the suction of the sediment," he said.

The first stage of the refloating process, according to Esclamadon, involves using the water jets produced by the tugs' propellers to remove the sediment accumulated along the ship's side. This is a slow process and efforts will continue until around midnight, before resuming on Saturday morning.

"This is plan A," said the spokesperson. If it doesn't work, the ship's cargo of corn will have to be emptied and transferred to a barge so that the lighter weight will allow the ship to float again.

Generators, heating systems and other supplies were delivered to the ship on the evening of Dec. 24. However, the ship was able to run its own generators and restore power shortly afterwards.

Experts boarded the ship the following day to assess the situation and put in place a salvage plan.

The vessel's position has no immediate impact on shipping traffic. However, a slow speed advisory is in place in the area for vessels passing close by.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French Dec. 27, 2024.