''Castillo de Salas'' was a Spanish

bulk carrier A bulk carrier or bulker is a merchant ship specially designed to transport unpackaged bulk cargo — such as grains, coal, ore, steel coils, and cement — in its cargo holds. Since the first specialized bulk carrier was built in 1852, econom ...

that was launched in Ferrol on 20 December 1979 and completed in August 1980. It measured over 50,000

gross tons Gross tonnage (GT, G.T. or gt) is a nonlinear measure of a ship's overall internal volume. Gross tonnage is different from gross register tonnage. Neither gross tonnage nor gross register tonnage should be confused with measures of mass or weig ...

, and had a deadweight of over 100,000 tons, measured approximately in length, across the

beam Beam may refer to: Streams of particles or energy *Light beam, or beam of light, a directional projection of light energy **Laser beam *Particle beam, a stream of charged or neutral particles **Charged particle beam, a spatially localized grou ...

, and in

draft Draft, The Draft, or Draught may refer to: Watercraft dimensions * Draft (hull), the distance from waterline to keel of a vessel * Draft (sail), degree of curvature in a sail * Air draft, distance from waterline to the highest point on a vessel ...

. It required a crew complement of 32.

Wreck and salvage

During the morning of 11 January 1986 ''Castillo de Salas'', owned by the Spanish company Elcano, ran aground over rocks north northwest of

Gijón Gijón () or () is a city and municipality in north-western Spain. It is the largest city and municipality by population in the autonomous community of Asturias. It is located on the coast of the Cantabrian Sea in the Bay of Biscay, in the cent ...

. The ship was anchored outside Gijón's seaport (

El Musel El Musel is a seaport located in the north of Spain in Asturias, and in the middle point of the Cantabrian Sea coast, it is the Port of Gijón as a gateway to Europe through the Autovía A-66, A-66 and Autovía A-8, A-8 highways, allowing direct a ...

) when the ship's anchor came loose in bad weather. Efforts to re-anchor, self-propel and even tow the ship away from the coast failed due to harsh seas. The cargo was nearly of

coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal is formed when dea ...

loaded in

Norfolk, Virginia Norfolk ( ) is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. Incorporated in 1705, it had a population of 238,005 at the 2020 census, making it the third-most populous city in Virginia after neighboring Virginia Be ...

as well as over of

fuel oil Fuel oil is any of various fractions obtained from the distillation of petroleum (crude oil). Such oils include distillates (the lighter fractions) and residues (the heavier fractions). Fuel oils include heavy fuel oil, marine fuel oil (MFO), bun ...

used for propulsion. On 15 January 1986 the hull broke in two during efforts to bring the ship afloat, therefore releasing a spill of

diesel oil Diesel fuel , also called diesel oil, is any liquid fuel specifically designed for use in a diesel engine, a type of internal combustion engine in which fuel ignition takes place without a spark as a result of compression of the inlet air and t ...

and coal ore. On 23 February 1986 the bow half of the hull was refloated, towed into the sea and scuttled in waters of in depth. Officials stated that no diesel oil was left in the bow section of the hull. During the following spring, the company Fondomar was tasked with salvaging the remainder of the

stern The stern is the back or aft-most part of a ship or boat, technically defined as the area built up over the sternpost, extending upwards from the counter rail to the taffrail. The stern lies opposite the bow, the foremost part of a ship. Ori ...

portion of the hull.

Second salvage of the stern section

Small balls of decomposed oil were found sporadically since until 2001, when a major find of these balls was confirmed to be from fuel remaining in the

double bottom A double hull is a ship Hull (watercraft), hull design and construction method where the bottom and sides of the ship have two complete layers of watertight hull surface: one outer layer forming the normal hull of the ship, and a second inner hull ...

fuel tank of the stern section that was not removed in 1986. This led to a second salvage operation to remove the fuel during 2001–2002 and the complete the removal of the remainder of the wreck in 2003 due to public out-cry.

Trophies

On 15 November 2003 Gijón artist Joaquín Rubio Camín's sculpture "Memoria" (''Memory'') was unveiled on the Camino del Cervigón overlooking the sea. The sculpture was made using part of the remains of ''Castillo de Salas'' which sank off Gijón and were recovered earlier in the year. One of the ship's anchors is displayed in the

Philippe Cousteau Anchor Museum The Philippe Cousteau Anchor Museum ( es, Museo de Anclas Philippe Cousteau) is located in Salinas, a town within the Castrillón municipality of Asturias, Spain. It is reached by the N-632. The open-air museum is situated on La Peñona peninsul ...

in Salinas beach, Spain, west of Gijón.

Side effects

Since the incident, it is common to find dark sand contaminated with coal on the beaches in the Bay of Gijón, particularly after rough sea conditions. The amounts recovered continue to reduce over time, but patches of dark coloured sand, high in black coal particles, can be seen at low tide.

References

External links