A Maersk container ship that lost power on the evening of July 14 about seven miles north of Akutan on the Aleutian chain was towed to Dutch Harbor on July 15, the U.S. Coast Guard said.
No injuries were reported among the 24 crew aboard the Laura Maersk and there was no spill of some 51,000 gallons of fuel oil and other oil products, Coast Guard officers said.
Coast Guard officials had no immediate information on the destination of the vessel, which is homeported in Denmark.
While initial reports indicated that a fire in the engine room caused the ship to lose power there was no fire and cause of the power loss is unknown at this time.
The vessel lost power at about 5 p.m. in patchy fog with seas of four feet, which increased to five feet later in the evening.
The Coast Guard federalized the response and deployed air support and the cutter Midgett to the distressed vessel.
The Coast Guard also contracted Resolve’s M/V Makushin Bay and the tugs Millenium Falcon and Gretchen Dunlap, with the state’s emergency towing system on board.
The Millenium Falcon was able to arrest the Laura Maersk’s drift at about 5.5 nautical miles from landfall in Akutan. The state’s emergency towing system was deployed and the Gretchen Dunlap towed the Laura Maersk to Unalaska, arriving at the mooring buoy in Broad Bay at about 7:45 a.m. on July 15, the Coast Guard said.
