An ordinary Sunday at the Leverick Bay dock in Virgin Gorda sprung to life when a Meridian tug boat encountered mechanical problems and sunk to the ocean’s floor, setting off a major diesel oil spill.

According to dock manager, Nick Willis, the incident occurred shortly after 9:00 am and within minutes the vessel had sunk. Willis said that the boat which has been in the Territory for only a few months would usually be docked at Leverick Bay , as Meridian Construction was conducting works at the nearby Necker Island .

He said that luckily no one was onboard at the time, but once the boat went under, the only concern was to minimise any damage that would have resulted from the oil spill.

“We were very worried, but luckily we had some guys come over from nearby Mosquito Island with canoes and they also brought along some soaking rags to mop up the oil. About two hours later they were joined by officials from Conservation and Fisheries who really did a good job,” Willis stated. 

Officials estimated that any sooner, the large pool of oil could have drifted along the rocks and beaches between Leverick Bay and Blunder Bay .

Mopping from the canoes, and later with the aid of a boom provided by Conservation and Fisheries, the spill was cleaned up before 3:00 pm.

Officials believe that that the tug’s exhaust system gave way allowing seawater to flood the vessel.  According to Willis, Speedy’s Ferry was summoned to assist in mobilising Meridian ’s barge and crane, which were anchored inside of Prickley Pear Island , to avoid the heavy north swell at Necker Island where Meridian is building a dock.

Speedy’s positioned the barge to raise the sunken tug boat which was hoisted and pumped dry before it was towed to Tortola for repairs.

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