NEW YORK (AP) – A tanker carrying home heating oil ran aground in an inlet on the Atlantic coast of western Long Island early Friday, but luckily didn’t spring a leak.
The ship, the Kristin Poling, was about 450 yards from shore when it got stuck on the sandy bottom of East Rockaway Inlet shortly after midnight, the Coast Guard said.
Coast Guard officials said the ship’s operator intended to lighten the ship and then use tug boats to pull it free.
The 281-foot-long vessel was still aground at 2 p.m., but its hull was intact and authorities were making plans to refloat it at high tide.
The ship was carrying 672,000 gallons of oil at the time of the accident, the Coast Guard said. Precautions were made to contain any fuel that spilled if the single-hulled vessel sprang a leak, officials said.
The Coast Guard said it is investigating the cause of the mishap
This isn’t the first time the Kristin Poling has wound up on the bottom. It ran around in the same inlet in December 2004 and got stuck in the sand of Newark Bay in November 2004.
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