Eleonora-Maersk

The Eleonora Maersk container carrier (15,500 TEU) entered the port of Antwerp on Thursday morning with a record draught of 15.65 metres, thus breaking the previous record of 15.50 m With this new milestone the port of Antwerp once again demonstrates that it is perfectly accessible even for the very largest container carriers in the world. In the Deurganck dock, where the ship is moored, more than 5,000 container movements have been carried out, including 4,300 unloading operations. The vessel is due to leave the port around 1400 hours and then head to Bremerhaven.

A boat with over 200 migrants that was expected to be brought to Malta ended up in Italy after the migrants did not want to be brought to Malta. On Oct 23, 2014, Malta’s Rescue Coordination Centre was informed that a fishing boat carrying around 200 migrants was in distress and requesting assistance 285 miles South East of Malta. The Maltese Rescue Coordination centre immediately diverted the "Eleonora Maersk" which was underway from Tanjung Pelepas to Rotterdam and that was in the vicinity, to investigate further. Upon closer inspection and considering the worsening weather conditions with winds of force 6-7 Beaufort, it was decided to take the migrants on board the vessel. Subsequently the vessel headed in a North Westerly direction towards Malta. Vessels from the AFM’s Maritime Squadron should the migrants on board and land them at Hay Wharf Base. As the AFM patrol boats were trying to conduct the transfer of migrants from the "Eleonora Maersk", migrants on board refused to be transferred since they repeatedly requested to go to Italy. After discussions with the Italian Authorities it was agreed that the migrants would be disembarked in an Italian port. The "Eleonora Maersk" headed North with all the migrants on board.