Stricken ferry still beached (From The Westmorland Gazette)

Stricken ferry still beached

6:33pm Sunday 3rd February 2008 in

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A HEYSHAM-bound ship grounded after it was hit by a freak wave may be stranded off Blackpool for another week because of bad weather.

Hugh Shaw, the Secretary of State's Representative for Maritime Salvage and Intervention, said the salvage operation for Riverdance is being hampered by the weather.

And, with forecasters predicting more gales, he added: "I certainly think we're looking at a week, not the next few days."

The last of the crew were winched off early Friday after the ship ran aground near Blackpool.

A team of salvagers were winched on to the ship on Saturday morning and spent around 90 minutes assessing the state of the vessel and its cargo.

Mr Shaw said: "It was good news, the vessel is intact. The ramp of the vessel is intact and there's no problem we can see with the fuel tanks."

An exclusion zone of 400m is still in place around the ferry and part of the esplanade is closed.

Thousands of packets of McVitie's biscuits have washed up from the ferry.