Storm Herminia, raging over western Europe, threw a cargo ship off course in Italy late on Tuesday and sent it crashing into a pier in a picturesque Tuscan sea resort.
Thirteen seafarers safely evacuated the 10,000-dwt Guang Rong (built 2001), which grounded at Marina di Massa on the Ligurian coast.
Italian coastguards, who sent a helicopter to monitor the operation, reported no casualties or spillage from the incident and attributed it to “bad weather”.
According to local media, the Guang Rong went adrift at about 21:00 local time on 28 January.
The ship was half-loaded with marble debris when winds pushed it slowly against a narrow wooden pier stretching out into the sea.
According to the website Il Tirreno, the situation was complicated by an onboard crane that may have destabilised the vessel.
“Unfortunately, part of the pier has already collapsed,” Il Tirreno cited the city’s mayor, Francesco Persiani, as saying.
Marina di Massa is touted as a fashionable holiday resort on the Ligurian coast, with the Apuan Alps massif forming its backdrop.
Despite its Chinese name, the Guang Rong is listed under Italian ownership and flies the Cypriot flag.
Il Tirreno says the ship is employed in shuttle trades carrying waste from Carrara — a famous quarry region producing high-quality marble since Roman times.
According to the website, the ship had only one engine functioning and may also have had a problem with one of its anchors.
According to Paris MoU data listed on Equasis, Italian authorities detained the Guang Rong three times between September 2022 and September 2024, for a total of 69 days, over 49 different deficiencies.
