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Ship traffic through the Istanbul Strait was reopened after a Malta-flagged chemical tanker that suffered an engine failure and drifted toward the shoreline off the Kanlica district was towed to a safe anchorage, Türkiye’s Coastal Safety General Directorate said.
The 110-meter vessel, named Ivyan, had been traveling from Bulgaria to Italy when it broke down while passing through the strait. Traffic on the waterway was suspended during the incident.
The tanker was carrying about 6,000 tons of vegetable oil. Reports said it had been headed from Bulgaria’s Varna Port to Italy’s Monopoli Port when the failure occurred.
After losing power, the ship drifted close to the coast, coming near the Kanlica Ferry Pier and the historic waterfront wooden mansions, known as yalis, that line the shore. It was reported to be at risk of running aground or striking structures on land.
The crew dropped anchor, which halted the vessel and prevented contact with the shoreline. Precautionary measures were taken in the area to head off a possible accident.
Following a notification, the Coast Guard and teams from the Coastal Safety General Directorate were sent to the area. The directorate’s rescue tugboats Kurtarma-7 and Kurtarma-11 and the Tahlisiye-9 lifesaving boat were dispatched, according to the Turkish-language account.
The directorate said the tanker was later moved to the Kucukcekmece Anchorage and anchored safely. The operation was coordinated by the Istanbul Vessel Traffic Services Center, with a pilot captain aboard and the Kurtarma-7 tug escorting the ship. Strait traffic was reopened once the tanker had been towed.
Early reports said the cause of the drift had not been determined, and an official statement on the cause and the ship’s condition was still awaited. The directorate’s statement attributed the incident to an engine failure.
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The Bosphorus links the Black Sea with the Sea of Marmara and is one of the world’s busiest and narrowest waterways. Its dense traffic and strong currents make navigation by large vessels a delicate task, particularly in the sharp bends along the shoreline.
Chemical tankers that stray toward residential shorelines pose a risk to the marine environment and to coastal safety in the event of a collision or grounding.
The incident came days after another accident on the strait. On Oct. 7, an excursion boat named Bosfor, traveling off the Vanikoy shore in Uskudar, struck a yacht moored in front of the historic Kazasker Necmettin Efendi Yali and then hit the mansion’s pier.
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