Cargo ship stuck in the Humber refloated
A cargo ship that was stuck on a sandbank in the Humber Estuary has been successfully refloated.
H&S Wisdom became lodged on a sandbank on 2 March and was waiting for suitable tide conditions to free it from the bank.
The crew had offloaded thousands of tonnes of cargo after several attempts to refloat the large vessel failed.
Humber Rescue said the vessel was refloated at about 19:00 GMT on Saturday, "after careful coordination and determined efforts".
The vessel became stuck near Brough as it made its way to Gunness Wharf Port near Scunthorpe.
Cranes were used to remove a large quantity of steel from the vessel which refloated without any intervention when the tide came in.
Humber Rescue, which has been supporting the operation, said: "Since Thursday, our crew has been assisting with the transfer of surveyors to and from the vessel.
"The crew aboard the H&S Wisdom has worked tirelessly to offload cargo, giving the vessel the best possible chance of refloating."
Several bystanders gathered on the bank in the dark to watch it float off.
One woman told the BBC: "When we're older, we'll say 'Do you remember when that boat got stuck on the Humber? We were there when they got it off'."
Listen to highlights from Hull and East Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, watch the latest episode of Look North or tell us about a story you think we should be covering here.
Three attempts to refloat cargo ship unsuccessful
Food deliveries for crew stuck on ship for a month
Humber Rescue

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
14 hours ago
- Yahoo
Ocean damage unspeakably awful, Attenborough tells prince
Sir David Attenborough has told Prince William he is "appalled" by the damage certain fishing methods are wreaking on the world's oceans. The Prince of Wales interviewed the TV naturalist ahead of a key UN Oceans conference which kicks off on Monday. The world's countries are gathering for the first time in three years to discuss how to better protect the oceans, which are facing growing threats from plastic pollution, climate change and over-exploitation. The UN's key aim is to get the High Seas Treaty - an agreement signed two years ago to put 30% of the ocean into protected areas - ratified by 60 countries to bring it into force. William to address Monaco forum in bid to help world's oceans Attenborough at 99 delivers 'greatest message he's ever told' Oceans suffer from record-breaking year of heat "What we have done to the deep ocean floor is just unspeakably awful," said Sir David. "If you did anything remotely like it on land, everybody would be up in arms," he said in the interview released on Saturday. It was conducted at the premiere of his new documentary, Ocean, last month. The documentary draws attention to the potential damage from some fishing practices, like bottom trawling, for marine life and the ability of the ocean to lock up planet-warming carbon. Governments, charities and scientists will come together at the UN Oceans Conference (UNOC) in Nice to try and agree how to accelerate action on the issues most affecting the world's seas. Sir David said he hopes the leaders gathering for the UN conference will "realise how much the oceans matter to all of us, the citizens of the world". The ocean is crucial for the survival of all organisms on the planet - it is the largest ecosystem, is estimated to contribute $2.5 trillion to world economies and provides up to 80% of the oxygen we breath. The key aim for the UN is to galvanise enough support to bring the High Seas Treaty into force - including commitment from the UK. Three years ago countries agreed to protect 30% of the world's oceans by 2030, across national and international waters. International waters - or high seas - are a common resource with no ruling country so nations signed the High Seas Treaty in 2023 agreeing to work together to put a third of them into Marine Protected Areas (MPAs). Since then only 32 countries have ratified the treaty - 60 are needed to bring it into force. But many scientists and NGOs are worried MPAs will not be effective whilst practices like bottom trawling are still allowed within them. "Our ocean is 99% of our living space on the globe, we have huge dependency on the ocean in every possible way, but bottom trawling does a lot of damage," Dr Amanda Vincent, Professor in Marine Conservation at The University of British Columbia told BBC's Inside Science. Bottom trawling or dredging is currently allowed in 90% of the UK's MPAs, according to environmental campaigners Oceana, and the Environment Audit Committee (EAC) has called for a ban on it within them. What is the UN High Seas Treaty and why is it needed? But some fishing communities have pushed back on the assertion that certain fishing practices need to be banned in these areas. "Bottom trawling is only a destructive process if it's taking place in the wrong place, otherwise, it is an efficient way to produce food from our seas," Elspeth Macdonald, CEO of Scottish Fisherman's Association told the BBC. Scientists point to evidence that restricting the practice in some areas allows fish stocks to recover and be better in the long term for the industry. The conference had been called after concern by the UN that oceans were facing irreparable damage, particularly from climate change. The oceans are a crucial buffer against the worst impacts of a warming planet, absorbing excess heat and greenhouse gases, said Callum Roberts, Professor of Marine Conservation at the University of Exeter. "If the sea had not absorbed more than 90% of the excess heat that has been added to the planet as a result of greenhouse gas emissions, then the world wouldn't just be one and a half degrees warmer it would be about 36 degrees warmer. "Those of us who were left would be struggling with Death Valley temperatures everywhere," he said. This excess heat is having significant impacts on marine life, warn scientists. "Coral reefs, for the past 20 years, have been subject to mass bleaching and mass mortality and that is due to extreme temperatures," said Dr Jean-Pierre Gattuso, senior research scientist at Laboratoire d'Océanographie de Villefranche and co-chair of the One Ocean Science Congress (OOSC). "This really is the first marine ecosystem and perhaps the first ecosystem which is potentially subject to disappearance." The OOSC is a gathering of 2,000 of the world's scientists, prior to the UN conference, where the latest data on ocean health is assessed and recommendations put forward to governments. Alongside efforts on climate change the scientists recommended an end to deep sea activities. The most controversial issue to be discussed is perhaps deep sea mining. For more than a decade countries have been trying to agree how deep sea mining in international waters could work - how resources could be shared and environmental damage could be minimised. But in April President Trump bypassed those discussions and signed an executive order saying he would permit mining within international waters. China and France called it a breach of international law, although no formal legal proceedings have yet been started. Scientists have warned that too little is understood about the ecosystems in the deep sea and therefore no commercial activities should go forward without more research. "Deep sea biology is the most threatened of global biology, and of what we know the least. We must act with precaution where we don't have the science," said Prof Peter Haugan, Co-chair of the International Science Council Expert Group on the Ocean. A simple guide to climate change Four ways climate change worsens extreme weather What you can do to reduce carbon emissions Sign up for our Future Earth newsletter to keep up with the latest climate and environment stories with the BBC's Justin Rowlatt. Outside the UK? Sign up to our international newsletter here. UNOC 'Ocean darkening' a cause for concern - scientists UK sea temperatures soar after exceptionally warm spring
Yahoo
a day ago
- Yahoo
East of England news quiz of the week
From unusual food bank donations to angry parents after a school rule change, how much East of England news can you remember from the past seven days? Follow East of England news on X, Instagram and Facebook: BBC Beds, Herts & Bucks, BBC Cambridgeshire, BBC Essex, BBC Norfolk, BBC Northamptonshire or BBC Suffolk. East of England news quiz of the week 24 - 30 May East of England news quiz of the week 17 - 23 May East of England news quiz of the week 10-16 May East of England news quiz of the week 3-9 May East of England news quiz of the week 26 April-2 May East of England news quiz of the week 19-25 April East of England news quiz of the week 12-18 April East of England news quiz of the week 5-11 April East of England news quiz of the week 29 March-4 April East of England news quiz of the week 22-28 March East of England news quiz of the week 15-21 March East of England news quiz of the week 8-14 March East of England news quiz of the week 1-7 March East of England news quiz of the week 22-28 February East of England news quiz of the week 15-21 February East of England news quiz of the week 8-14 February East of England news quiz of the week 1-7 February East of England news quiz of the week 25-31 January East of England news quiz of the week 18-24 January East of England news quiz of the week 11-17 January East of England news quiz of the week 4-10 January
Yahoo
a day ago
- Yahoo
The decades-old intrigue over an Indian guest house in Mecca
As the annual Hajj pilgrimage draws to a close, a long-settled corner of Mecca is stirring up a storm thousands of miles away in India - not for its spiritual significance, but for a 50-year-old inheritance dispute. At the heart of the controversy is Keyi Rubath, a 19th-Century guest house built in the 1870s by Mayankutty Keyi, a wealthy Indian merchant from Malabar (modern-day Kerala), whose trading empire stretched from Mumbai to Paris. Located near Islam's holiest site, Masjid al-Haram, the building was demolished in 1971 to make way for Mecca's expansion. Saudi authorities deposited 1.4 million riyals (about $373,000 today) in the kingdom's treasury as compensation, but said no rightful heir could be identified at the time. Decades later, that sum - still held in Saudi Arabia's treasury - has sparked a bitter tussle between two sprawling branches of the Keyi family, each trying to prove its lineage and claim what they see as their rightful inheritance. Neither side has succeeded so far. For decades, successive Indian governments - both at the Centre and in Kerala - have tried and failed to resolve the deadlock. It remains unclear if Saudi authorities are even willing to release the compensation, let alone adjust it for inflation as some family members now demand - with some claiming it could be worth over $1bn today. Followers of the case note the property was a waqf - an Islamic charitable endowment - meaning descendants can manage but not own it. The Saudi department that handles Awqaf (endowed properties) did not respond to the BBC's request for comment, and the government has made no public statement on the matter. That hasn't stopped speculation - about both the money and who it rightfully belongs to. Little is known about the guest house itself, but descendants claim it stood just steps from the Masjid al-Haram, with 22 rooms and several halls spread over 1.5 acres. According to family lore, Keyi shipped wood from Malabar to build it and appointed a Malabari manager to run it - an ambitious gesture, though not unusual for the time. Saudi Arabia was a relatively poor country back then - the discovery of its massive oil fields still a few decades away. The Hajj pilgrimage and the city's importance in Islam meant that Indian Muslims often donated money or built infrastructure for Indian pilgrims there. In his 2014 book, Mecca: The Sacred City, historian Ziauddin Sardar notes that during the second half of the 18th Century, the city had acquired a distinctively Indian character with its economy and financial well-being dependent on Indian Muslims. "Almost 20% of the city's inhabitants, the largest single majority, were now of Indian origins – people from Gujarat, Punjab, Kashmir and Deccan, all collectively known locally as the Hindis," Sardar wrote. As Saudi Arabia's oil wealth surged in the 20th century, sweeping development projects reshaped Mecca. Keyi Rubath was demolished three times, the final time in the early 1970s. That's when the confusion around compensation appears to have started. According to BM Jamal, former secretary of India's Central Waqf Council, the Indian consulate in Jeddah wrote to the government back then, seeking details of Mayankutty Keyi's legal heir. "In my understanding, authorities were looking for the descendants to appoint a manager for the property, not to distribute the compensation money," Mr Jamal said. Nonetheless, two factions stepped forward: the Keyis - Mayankutty's paternal family - and the Arakkals, a royal family from Kerala into which he had married. Both families traditionally followed a matrilineal inheritance system - a custom not recognized under Saudi law, adding further complexity. The Keyis claim that Mayankutty died childless, making his sister's children his rightful heirs under matrilineal tradition. But the Arakkals claim he had a son and a daughter, and therefore, under Indian law, his children would be the legal inheritors. As the dispute dragged on, the story took on a life of its own. In 2011, after rumours swirled that the compensation could be worth millions, more than 2,500 people flooded a district office in Kannur, claiming to be Keyi's descendants. "There were people who claimed that their forefathers had taught Mayankutty in his childhood. Others claimed that their forefathers had provided timber for the guest house," a senior Keyi family member, who wanted to stay anonymous, told the BBC. Scams followed. State officials say in 2017 fraudsters posing as Keyi descendants duped locals into handing over money, promising a share of the compensation. Today, the case remains unresolved. Some descendants propose the best way to end the dispute would be to ask the Saudi government to use the compensation money to build another guest house for Hajj pilgrims, as Myankutti Keyi had intended. But others reject this, arguing that the guest house was privately owned, and so any compensation rightfully belongs to the family. Some argue that even if the family proves lineage to Mayankutty Keyi, without ownership documents, they're unlikely to gain anything. For Muhammed Shihad, a Kannur resident who has co-authored a book on the history of the Keyi and Arakkal families, though, the dispute is not just about the money - but about honouring the family's roots. "If they don't get the compensation, it would be worth openly recognising the family's and the region's connection to this noble act."