PUMPER BARGE LEAVES ROTTERDAM FOR WRECKED ?TRICOLOR?

PUMPER BARGE LEAVES ROTTERDAM FOR WRECKED ôTRICOLORö    The 'Asian Hercules II,' a barge with pumps and holding tanks, has left the port of Rotterdam, heading to the sunken car carrier 'Tricolor' in the English Channel.
   “We expect to have the barge on site and pumping bunker oil from the 'Tricolor' by Saturday morning,” said Per Ronnevig, a spokesman in Oslo for the carrier’s owner Wilhelmsen Lines on Thursday.
   “The idea is to anchor the barge so that it will act as a wave-breaker for divers,” Ronnevig said.
   Tanks aboard the Asian 'Hercules II' will more than hold the 2,000 metric tons of bunker oil remaining in the 'Tricolor,' which is lying on its side 30 miles east of Ramsgate, Kent.
   Wilhelmsen is considering bids for removing the 49,792-ton Tricolor from the Channel once all of the oil has been pumped out, Ronnevig said.
   The 'Tricolor' carried 2,862 luxury cars when it capsized last Saturday after colliding with the 'Kariba,' a 20,829-ton containership. No one was hurt on either vessel.