Arrgghhh Matey! Ship sinks, BMW Booty in England

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Hundreds of scavengers flocked to the Devon shoreline to spend another day helping themselves to booty from the stricken MSC Napoli.


Matt Scott, 34, from Bradford, who drove six hours to Branscombe with his girlfriend Kelly Long, 19, said: "I have got a brand new gear box and some scrap metal which I thought would make the trip worthwhile."

John Williams, 40, from Exeter, who was trying to manhandle a £2,000 BMW gearbox off the beach with a friend, said: "We got one of the last gearboxes.

"It is very tiring taking it across the pebbles and we have no idea how we will make the three miles up the hill to our car.

Andy Jones, Hector Bird and Tom Stapley, from Branscombe, cheerfully posed with a BMW 1200cc motorbike they found on the beach.

Another bike was taken away by Gareth Topping, 32, a builder from Sidmouth, while Rob Bolton of Sidbury, Devon, recovered a toy tractor for his sons Edward and William.

The law entitles people to salvage goods from wrecks, although it is illegal for them to keep it. The 62,000-ton Napoli - damaged during the storms last week - was deliberately grounded at the weekend a mile off the village of Branscombe in Devon.

Listing at a crazy angle, more than 100 shipping containers worth £1.5 million toppled into the sea, about 40 of which washed ashore.

Overnight it turned into a golden mile of treasure trove, with BMW motorbikes, barrels of wine, perfume, TVs, nappies, cosmetics, car parts and even dog food spilling from the shipping containers, all eagerly ransacked by beachcombers in scenes reminiscent of the 1949 Ealing comedy Whisky Galore!

"In 11 years, I have never seen anything like it, it is sheer, crass greed. The beach now looks like a landfill site. Enough is enough - people were told to stay away from the beach on Monday but it was totally ignored."

East Devon MP Hugo Swire blasted the 'dangerous free-for-all' while Acting Receiver of Wreck Mark Rodaway added: "The actions of the looters are despicable and are increasing the environmental impact on Branscombe Beach by 800 per cent.

"There were more than 1,000 people there in gale force winds and rising tides, prising open containers and thus contributing to the environmental damage.

Beachcombers dragged their booty for miles along the pebble beach, and scores of newcomers were not put off by a five-mile-wide police cordon, using narrow country lanes and cliff paths to reach the shore.

Goods plundered from the Napoli's containers are already on sale on the internet auction site eBay.

Mobile phones and BMW steering wheel airbags are brazenly described as 'recovered from the beach at Branscombe', with one online seller adding: 'Not sure if they work or not, but expensive to buy new.'

Under the Merchant Shipping Act 1995, it is not a crime to recover items washed up by the sea - because it is regarded as saving them from the elements - provided they are later returned to the rightful owner.

In a bid to stem the looting, the 'appalled' Receiver of Wreck, Sophia Exelby, said she has now ruled that the containers on the beach were no longer at risk and therefore cannot be salvaged by the public.

The Maritime and Coastguard Agency said it would take a year to salvage all the Napoli's 2,300 containers.
 


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