Irish Sea ferry RIVERDANCE grounds at Blackpool beach
An Irish Sea ferry, the mv RIVERDANCE, has grounded on the North Shore, Blackpool....

An Irish Sea ferry, the mv RIVERDANCE, has grounded on the North Shore, Blackpool.

The vessel had sent out a mayday last night at 1943 GMT and initially four passengers and ten of her crew were winched to safety. The ship had developed a list of 60 degrees after some of her cargo of lorries and trailers shifted.

Nine of her crew stayed aboard and the ship grounded on Blackpool's North Shore. Despite their efforts they were unable to get the vessel refloated under her own power and they too were airlifted to safety.

Winds up to Force 10 were experienced and the situation had echoes of the PRINCESS VICTORIA disaster, the 55th anniversary of that tragedy being last night (31st January). She foundered during a storm after her car deck was flooded and 136 people lost their lives.

The RIVERDANCE first got into difficulties ten nautical miles off Fleetwood and encountered waves of 7 metres high in the fierce conditions.

The mv RIVERDANCE runs twice a day between Warrenpoint and Haysham and is operated by Seatruck Ferries, a subsidiary of Clipper Group. She was built in 1977 and has a gross tonnage of 6041 tons. She was built at the Rickmers shipyard in Germany as the MASHALA and was operated by Gilnavi Line and has under a variety of owners/operators since 1986. Her work in the Irish Sea started in 1991 with Belfast Freight Ferries until 1993. Seatruck purchased her in 1996.

Seatruck defended their decision to put the vessel to sea. Speaking to the BBC Kevin Hobbs, the chief executive of the company said there was 'no cause for concern' when the vessel left port and that there were many ships out at sea at the same time. He said they had just been 'extremely unlucky'.

Attempts to refloat the vessel are expected this morning.

The rescue operations involved helicopters from the RAF in Wales, the Royal Navy in Scotland as well as the Irish Coastguard plus RNLI vessels from Lytham and Fleetwood, a tanker, the STEERSMAN and two offshore support vessels, CLWYD SUPPORTER and HIGHLAND SPRITE. Liverpool Coastguard co-ordinated the operations.