Tanker admits trawler collision

LES SABLES-D'OLONNE, France -- The owners of a chemical tanker at the centre of an inquiry into the sinking of a French fishing boat have said it was involved in a collision.

Norwegian shipowner Odfjell confirmed on Wednesday that the 15,829-tonne Bow Eagle tanker collided with a trawler on Monday.

The company said in a statement on Wednesday: "This morning the Master of Bow Eagle received verbal information from personnel on watch-duty at the time, that Bow Eagle was in fact involved in the collision with a fishing vessel.

"This is contrary to the information the Master received (on Tuesday)."

French prosecutors are investigating the loss of the trawler Cistude which sank on Monday with the loss of four lives.

Three survivors from its seven-strong crew spent nine hours in the sea before being rescued. They said their vessel had been in a collision.

They told how three of their crewmates were killed instantly killed, while a fourth was pulled under the sea after trying to cling onto a buoy.

A link between the sinking and the Bow Eagle was suspected after the tanker began spilling chemicals into the sea near the Channel Islands, close to where the trawler sank.

The Bow Eagle, en route from Brazil to the Dutch port of Rotterdam, spilled 200 tonnes of ethyl acetate in a stretch of sea some 30 nautical miles west of the Channel Islands.

Odjfell senior vice president Hans Lund said the tanker is in Dunkerque to establish whether it hit the French trawler.

"The ship has just arrived in Dunkerque and there we expect the same coastguard team which investigated the ship yesterday to come aboard shortly," he told Reuters.

"There is a tremendous pressure from the French side. This has been brought up on the highest level in France and this is of course no easy situation to be in."

Maritime authorities said ethyl acetate was easily soluble and biodegradable and the spillage did not endanger wildlife.

"The product is volatile and non-polluting in the quantities that have been leaked. There are quite strong northeasterly currents which should allow it to disperse in the water," a spokesman for the coastal authority said.