Tale of two ships - one beached, another sinks

London

SEEN from some angles, tilting at a crazy angle in shallow water, it might almost resemble a huge plaything discarded by capricious giants.

Since the weekend, a 57,000-tonne, 590-foot car transporter, the Hoegh Osaka, has been aground on Bramble Bank, a well-marked sandbank off the British port of Southampton, beached deliberately by its crew to prevent the vessel from capsizing after it began to list on Saturday.