Aramis - Donzère english summary

On Saturday 28 September 2019, the sea-river vessel ARAMIS, flying the Lithuanian flag, was sailing up the Rhône, on ballast, from Naples to Villefranche-sur-Saône (69) where she would load wood. The river pilot embarked at Port-Saint-Louis-du-Rhône on 27 September in the early afternoon, where he took over the shiphandling of the vessel. After stopping for part of the night, moored to a dolphin near Avignon, the vessel set sail on Saturday 28 September at around 4 am and resumed her upstream sailing. At around 9.10 am, ARAMIS was preparing to pass under the RN7 road bridge located at KP 174.680 on the Donzère-Mondragon diversion canal. The vessel then stroke the deck of the road bridge with her wheelhouse, the top of which tore off and fell into the canal. Then, the port side of her forecastle hit the right bank pile of the railway bridge 200 m further on. The crew managed to stop the vessel 700 m after the bridge. At the beginning of the afternoon, the vessel was moved with the help of a pusher to be brought to safety at a wharf 2 km further upstream. After having been interrupted until 6.00 pm, river navigation was resumed with an alternation for the passage of the bridges, to be re-established on Monday 30 September at around 5.30 pm. The river pilot and the vessel’s master were slightly injured. The vessel was towed on 25 October to the port at Portes-lès-Valence, where repairs were carried out. Then she resumed operations on 18 December 2019.