The Sten Somi, a Norwegian-flagged vessel, ran aground Monday near St. Zotique, southwest of Montreal, a St. Lawrence Seaway spokesperson confirmed. The ship was not damaged and there was no spillage, as it's cargo holds were empty. Photograph by: Courtesy of, Marinetraffic.com
A tanker ship ran aground Monday morning in St. Zotique, about 70 kilometres southwest of Montreal.
There were no injuries, no spillage of the ship’s contents and no damage to the ship, said Marie Gaudreault, a spokesperson for the St. Lawrence Seaway Management Corp. The incident has not disrupted maritime navigation, she added.
The vessel is the Sten Suomi, a Norwegian-flagged ship that is 144.2 metres long and 23.2 metres wide, she said. It ran aground at 8:25 a.m. after it dropped anchor.
“I don’t know why it dropped anchor,” Gaudreault said. “Something must have happened and it needed to drop anchor. When it did that, its bow hit the river bottom slightly.”
The ship’s cargo holds were empty at the time. According to Marinetraffic.com, the ship was built in 2008 and its last known destination was New York.
Gaudreault said the location of the ship where it went aground was the Pointe au Foin area, a point of land just south of the town of St. Zotique. The riverbed at that point is mud and sand, she added.
A team of investigators was headed there at midday Monday to determine what happened.
It is expected the ship will be eased out of its position with the help of tugboats, Gaudreault said.