A Norwegian man woke up in the early morning to find a giant container ship grounded in his backyard. On Thursday, at 5 a.m., a 135-meter long cargo ship accidentally veered towards the shore and ended up stranded in front of Johan Helberg’s garden, just 5 meters away from his house.
What surprised him even more was that he had no idea about it until he was awakened by the urgent doorbell of his neighbor. The incident took place in Byneset near Trondheim, Norway. Witness and neighbor Jostein Jorgensen said he was startled awake by the loud noise of the ship speeding towards land and hurried to Helberg’s house to knock on the door.
He thought Helberg had also seen the large vessel like him, but after ringing the doorbell several times with no response, he had to make a phone call to reach him. Helberg recalled hearing a series of urgent doorbell rings but didn’t like to get up early to answer the door.
After receiving the phone call from his neighbor, he went to the window and was dumbfounded. “I went to the window and was surprised to see a large ship,” he told The Guardian. “I had to crane my neck to see the top of the ship. It was like something out of a movie!”
“If the ship had moved another 5 meters to the south, it would have entered the bedroom,” Helberg told Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation. “But at that time, I didn’t hear any noises at all.”
Helberg added that he was sleeping in his bedroom, only 7 meters away from the bow of the ship, at the time of the incident. His neighbor informed him that there was a loud noise when the ship hit, but he was not startled awake at all.
The “NCL Salten” with the Cyprus flag, carrying 16 crew members, was involved in the accident, but fortunately, no one was injured. It was reported that the ship veered off course for unknown reasons and directly hit the shore while crossing the Trondheim Fjord on its way to the port of Orkanger.
Norwegian police have sent officers to board the ship for a preliminary investigation. Bente Hetland, the head of the Dutch royal shipping company (NCL) which chartered the ship, described it as a “serious accident” and expressed relief that no one was hurt.
“At present, we are not clear on the cause of the accident and are awaiting the results of the investigation being conducted by the relevant authorities,” he said.
According to reports, the ship had a grounding incident in 2023 but managed to free itself with the ship’s own power. Helberg mentioned that he would be glad to see the ship removed, but it appears that there is still a lot of work to be done in the aftermath.