MV Pallas
M/V Pallas, callsign C6LO9, IMO number 7039206, was a 147 m cargo ship built in 1971. On 25 October 1998, owned by the Italian company Bogazzi Servizi Naval and running under the flag of Bahamas, its cargo of lumber caught fire while traveling the North Sea off the west coast of Jutland. The fire could not be contained and the crew was evacuated; one crew member died in the process. Several attempts to get the ship under tow were unsuccessful, and it ran aground on October 29 off the German island of Amrum, in the Schleswig-Holstein Wadden Sea National Park. 200-300 tons of fuel oil were lost overboard, killing approximately 16.000 sea birds, predominantly common eiders. Only parts of the wreck could be salvaged to date, and the hull is still visible off Amrum. The case led to political discontent over a lack of coordinated emergency tow capabilities on the German coast, and contributed to the creation of the Havariekommando.
