Tanker freed in New York harbor

Tanker freed in New York harbor    A tanker grounded near the main shipping channel leading in and out of New York harbor was freed Friday afternoon by three tugs.
   The tugs were able to pull the grounded 800-foot tanker ship White Sea from the sandy bottom at 6:20 p.m. during high tide after 121,000 barrels of its cargo of fuel oil was offloaded onto a barge.
   There were no reports of fuel from the ship in the water, and the ship proceeded to Stapleton Anchorage off Staten Island for an inspection by divers.
   The White Sea was en route Singapore from Bayonne, N.J., with 556,000 barrels of low-sulfur fuel oil when it lost steering and ran aground by buoy 14 in the Ambrose shipping channel, about four miles north of Sandy Hook, N.J., at 6:30 a.m. Thursday.
   The ship suffered breaches to two ballast water tanks, but the product compartments inside the double-hulled ship remained intact.
   The location of the grounded ship caused no delays to other incoming and departing shipping.
   The White Sea is owned by the Singapore-based Tanker Pacific Management on a time charter to United Arab Emirates-based Westport Shipping Services. Its local agent is Atlantic Shipping Co.