A massive container ship ploughed into a Norwegian man’s front garden after running aground, he discovered this when he awoke.
The ship ground adrift at approximately 5:00 local time (03:00 GMT) on Thursday. The container ship which was 135m (443ft) in length, narrowly missed Johan Helberg’s house by meters.
A concerned neighbour in Byneset, close to Trondheim, was the only one who told Mr. Helberg about the disturbance; the ship had been heading directly for land.
For Mr. Helberg, “the doorbell rang at a time of day when I don’t like to open,” when speaking to TV2. “I went to the window and was quite astonished to see a big ship,” he added, in an interview in a newspaper that he could only make out the deck of the ship when he craned his neck back.
It seemed unbelievable. He informed the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation that had it been five meters further south, it would have reached the bedroom. “I didn’t hear anything.”
According to Jostein Jorgensen, a neighbour, he hurried to Mr. Helberg’s house after being startled awake by the sound of the ship’s engines as it sped towards land. I was expecting to see him outside by now, but alas, there was no pulse.
The doorbell was unanswered despite my repeated rings, Mr. Jorgensen lamented. “And it was only when I called him on the phone that I managed to contact him,” he told the network.
The NCL Salten, a cargo ship flying the Cypriot flag, was en route to Orkanger from Trondheim Fjord in the southwest when it lost its course. The ship was carrying sixteen people.
Fortunately, nobody got hurt. The Norwegian authorities are reportedly looking into the crash, but the cause is still unknown. “The new, large neighbour will be gone soon”, Mr. Helberg continued.
Despite the serious incident “we are grateful that nobody was injured,” the head of NCL, the company that chartered the ship, released a statement.
“We are waiting for the relevant authorities to finish their investigation before we can determine what caused the incident,” managing director Bente Hetland stated.
The ship reportedly became aground in 2023 but managed to free itself on its own.