The coast guard said all three vessels had tried to movefurther out to sea from anchorages off Ulsan on Monday, but were forced ashore.
The 6,700-dwt bulker Zhou Hang 2 (built 2010), operated byZhejiang Huale Ocean Shipping, was pushed off course by strong winds and hitrocks about 320 meters from land in the early hours.
Then the 11,300–dwt tanker CS Crane (built 2007) grounded near the same spot.It is operated by Doriko of South Korea.
Finally, Bum Jin Shipping’s 3,600-dwt tanker Bum Jin 5(built 1997) got stuck an hour later.
Eleven men were rescued from one ship, with operationsunderway to bring the other 35 crew to shore.
"All the ships were grounded because they wereunsuccessful in moving to a new anchorage further out to sea," a coast guardofficial told the Yonhap news agency.
Wind speed was up to 20 metres per second, with waves risingto four metres at the time.
