On the 9 July 2025, the cargo ship 'Saaremaa' was due to arrive into the Port of Sunderland having travelled from the Port of Karlsborg at the very northern end of the Gulf of Bothnia in Sweden.

The ship met the pilot vessel offshore and proceeded past Roker lighthouse into the River Wear channel. A couple of hundred metres past the lighthouse and entering the trickiest part of the route, the ship appeared to lose power and drift off course towards Starboard (right). This meant it was now headed for Roker Marina, as well as the undredged edges of the shipping channel. The photo shows the Saaremaa drifting off course:




Thankfully, the crew onboard the Saaremaa appeared to regain manouverability of the ship and managed to stop it prior entering the Marina or grounding the vessel. The picture below shows the ship after having come to a stop.


The ship then reversed back to main channel and very slowly made its way through the sealock to the Hudson Dock. I suspect there may have been a few choice words on the bridge!

The map below shows the intended (green) and actual (red) course of the Saarema into the Port of Sunderland. While the course was also plotted on ship tracking websites, these were not granular enough to show the incident.