The crew on board the Thorco Cloud did not have many minutes in which to react when the ship collided with tanker vessel Stolt Commitment on Wednesday night, local time, at the entry point to the Singapore Strait. The collision allegedly happened with such force that Thorco Cloud was virtually split in two and sank a few minutes later.

A video on Youtube, posted by Vessel Finder - which tracks ships in real time across the globe - shows the the ships colliding.

Source: Vessel Finder

Thorco Cloud was fully loaded with railroad tracks from Japan headed to Brazil, while another project cargo on board the vessel was headed to West Africa. The ship was carrying its cargo from the Indonesian island of Batam on to a loading port in West Africa. However, the ship and its 12 Ukrainian and Philippine crew members did not make it more than seven nautical miles off the Indonesian island before the collision with the Norwegian tanker vessel occurred. The Stolt Commitment escaped with minor damages.

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