Container ship threatens California coast

Point Reyes, CA (April 10, 2022) – The Wan Hai 176, a 564-foot container ship that lost engine power off the Northern California coast on April 8, hasn’t yet been secured, the U.S. Coast Guard said today.

The ship lost engine power while 12 miles offshore and went adrift during the afternoon with rough weather hampering efforts to rescue the ship. It is now located approximately seven miles off the coast of Point Reyes, a headland 30 miles from San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge.

None of the 21 people aboard are injured, but the ship is a carrying approximately 39,000 gallons of fuel. Due to the rough seas the towing vessels have been unable to deploy lines to tow the ship, the Coast Guard said.

The Singapore-flagged vessel began experiencing engine problems around 1:00 pm while en route to Seattle from Oakland, with the captain initially reporting that they were unable to properly anchor and were moving closer to shore at 3:45 pm The ship now remains at anchor as the rescue attempts continued.

Built in 2016, details of cargo are not available but video shows a load of container boxes.