The captain of the Portuguese-flagged Solong, the 59-year-old Russian Vladimir Motin, has been charged with gross negligence, manslaughter and been remanded in police custody to appear at Hull Magistrates Court on Saturday, the police said in a statement.

Stena was loaded with more than 200,000 tons of highly flammable jet fuel for US warplanes, while both vessels were powered by heavy fuel.

Fears of an environmental disaster eased on Wednesday, two days after a container ship ploughed into a stationary U.S. fuel tanker off northeast England, as the vessel's owner said the detained captain was a Russian national.