You will also see and hear that I refer to a ship as “she” and not “it”. A ship can be either “she” or “it” in English. And, no, I don’t know why!

　　Last week a fierce storm swept over England. It was in fact the worst storm for 17 years. Thirteen people in Britain were killed by falling trees and other accidents, and many more in other countries in Europe. At sea, off the south west coast of England, the storm damaged a large container ship, the MSC Napoli. Water broke into her engine room, and the captain decided to abandon ship. A helicopter came to take all the crew to safety. Two tugs then towed the ship to shallow water, where she went aground on a sandbank.

　　Then two more problems arose. Oil started to leak from the Napoli into the sea. Conservation experts feared that the oil would damage the sea birds and other wildlife along this beautiful stretch of coast. Thousands of sea birds have already been affected by the oil. A salvage company has now started to pump the oil from the Napoli into a small tanker, but it may take two weeks to complete this work.

　　The other problem was that the Napoli, stuck on the sandbank, was listing heavily. About 100 of the containers on her deck slipped into the sea. The salvage company has started to unload the remaining containers onto a barge alongside the Napoli. It is important that this is done quickly as some of the containers contain dangerous chemicals.

　　Meanwhile, many of the containers which had fallen into the sea floated to the shore. People walking along the beach at Branscombe found containers full of cosmetics, babies’ nappies, pet food, BMW motorbikes, car parts and many other things. The news spread, and soon hundreds of people arrived to loot the containers. In centuries gone by, it was common for people living near the coast in south west England to take things from ships which were wrecked on this rocky coast. But we did not think it was possible today. However, in England, you are legally allowed to take things from a shipwreck, provided that you tell the authorities, and you return them to the owners if they ask for them. How many of the looters will tell the authorities what they have taken? How many will hide their loot and sell it on eBay after a few weeks when the fuss has died down? However, if you think you would like to come to Branscombe beach and join in the fun, you are too late. The police have now closed the beach to stop further looting.