A tanker that ran aground off the Cumbrian coast has been freed.
The cargo vessel carrying molasses - a thick, dark, heavy syrup - unexpectedly ran aground on a sandbank at Silloth at about 10am yesterday. It was trying to reach Silloth harbour.
The tanker, called Zapadnyy, started out from Workington early in the morning but its flat bottom became stuck just outside Silloth harbour.
It then had to wait all day for high water at 10pm to start to free herself off the bank on the Southside of Silloth dock entrance.
After a lot of manoeuvring and assistance from Silloth RNLI Lifeboat, using ropes, port personnel and the ships crew managed to free the vessel.
A large fishing boat had tried earlier to pull it off the sandbank but could not get the tanker, which weighs about 1900 tons, moving.
Zapadnyy, a Belize-registered tanker, was built in 1988 and is 78m long. In September alone it has travelled to Denmark and Germany.
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