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Third ship in three weeks collides into same pier     18/2/14

A third ship has hit the same pier in Stornoway harbour within the last three weeks.

Further repairs are now required to the port’s number one pier after the incident.

The live salmon carrier MV Ronja Viking apparently lost rudder and steering control as she was trying to berth around 4am on Saturday morning.

The disabled Norwegian-registered six-year-old ship bounced off and collided into another berthed vessel.

Roger Halsebakk, chief executive of Alesund-based Sølvtrans ASA which manages the Ronja Viking, which works round Western Isles fish farms, said minor damage was sustained.

The Sea Truck-owned freight ferry MV Clipper Ranger crashed into the pier at the end of last month and required crumpled steel plates replaced in drydock in Liverpool. She resumed her run on Monday after an absence of nearly three weeks.

Caledonian Macbrayne’s MV Hebridean Isles was pulled off the Islay run to cover her absence on the Stornoway to Ullapool run.

But she also smashed into the same pier and was taken out of service overnight until the badly buckled and cracked section on her internal portside cardeck was repaired.