DIVERS CHECK HULL OF LNG TANKER RAMMED BY U.S. SUBMARINE
LNG carrier 'Norman Lady' was anchored at Gibraltar Friday while divers checked damage to the ship’s hull following a collision with a U.S. submarine, said Thor Jorgen Guttormsen, president of Leif Hoegh & Co. of Oslo, the vessel's owner.
Seawater had breached the ship’s double-bottom dry tank area, Guttormsen said, but no oil leak occurred.
A legal representative of the shipowner told Shippers NewsWire the vessel had been sailing empty in ballast.
The U.S. Navy said the 'USS Oklahoma City,' a nuclear-powered attack submarine, had struck a ship on Nov. 13 as it reached periscope depth in waters off Gibraltar.
Leif Hoegh said the next day that the 'Norman Lady' had been hit by a “submerged object” in the Strait of Gibraltar, which the Navy subsequently said was the 'Oklahoma City.'