A container ship carrying nearly 1,300 tonnes of fuel is drifting east of Caribbean archipelago Guadeloupe after a fire damaged its engine, officials in nearby island Martinique said Tuesday. The fire tore through the engine room of the Danish shipping company Maersk's tanker on Sunday and was brought under control a few hours later, the Martinique prefecture said in a statement. "But the material damage meant the engine could no longer operate," the statement said. "The container ship was therefore adrift." The Maersk Vilnius ship is now 350 kilometres (220 miles) east of French overseas territory Guadeloupe and "drifting west at an average speed of 1.4 knots". The ship "contains nearly 1,300 tonnes of fuel and other pollutants", but they were not affected by the fire and "remain safe", the statement said. The company that owns the ship has sent the tug boat Alp Defender from Trinidad and Tobago. It is expected to arrive in the area of the drifting tanker on Wednesday morning to "take it safely to a repair site". caz/jk/dl/jxb