Norwegian man wakes up to containership in his garden

Imagine the consternation of waking up to find a huge containership in your garden. This is what happened to Johan Helberg (pictured above) who woke up yesterday morning with a 135m-ship aground outside his house.

Helberg was alerted by his panicked neighbour who had watched the ship as it headed straight for shore, in Byneset, near Trondheim. Jostein Jorgensen says the sound of the ship woke him – the incident happened at around 5am local time. He ran to Helberg’s house.

“I was sure that he was already outside, but no, there was no sign of life. I rang the doorbell many times and nothing. And it was only when I called him on the phone that I managed to contact him,” Jorgensen told television channel TV2.

“The doorbell rang at a time of day when I don’t like to open,” Helberg says. “Five metres further south and it would have entered the bedroom. I didn’t hear anything.”

“I went to the window and was quite astonished to see a big ship,” he told The Guardian. “I had to bend my neck to see the top of it. It was so unreal.”

According to the BBC, the Cypriot-flagged cargo ship, the NCL Salten, had 16 people on board. No-one was injured in the incident and it is not yet known what caused the crash.

“It’s a very bulky new neighbour but it will soon go away,” Helberg says.

The Guardian reports the 16 crew members included Norwegians, Lithuanians, Ukrainians and Russians, on board the Cyprus-registered ship. There were no reports of injuries or oil spills. Police are investigating the incident and have identified one suspect.

“Normally ships turn left or right into the fjord. But this went straight ahead,” Helberg, who has lived in the house for 25 years, says. “It was very close to the house.”

The ship remained stuck aground on Thursday after the first attempt to remove it was unsuccessful.

Helberg told local media that he thought the ship had been sailing “on autopilot from the other side of the fjord and not to the right (west) towards Orkanger [the vessel’s destination], but straight ahead to Byneslandet, so someone has not been paying attention on board.”

Images of the incident are shown in this video below, however the commentary is at odds with other reports (weather is cited as the caused in this video, however that has not been mentioned elsewhere).

Images courtesy of BBC and Norsk Rikskringkasting AS