MSC Napoli was a United Kingdom-flagged container ship that developed a hull breach due to rough seas and slamming in the English Channel on 18 January 2007.

[4] On 27 March 2001, then named CMA CGM Normandie, she was en route from Port Klang in Malaysia to the Indonesian capital, Jakarta when she ran aground on a reef in the Singapore Strait and remained stuck for several weeks.

[7] While en route from Belgium to Portugal on 18 January 2007, during European windstorm Kyrill, severe gale-force winds and huge waves caused serious damage to MSC Napoli's hull, including a crack in one side and a flooded engine room.

[11] The flotilla proceeded up the English Channel; with MSC Napoli increasing its list and with strong winds forecast refuge was taken in Lyme Bay.

Middleton said that the environmental sensitivities in the Lyme Bay area were fully assessed before the decision to beach MSC Napoli was made.

He said, "The beaching location was selected based on minimising the impact of any spillage and enabling salvage work to remove the vessel and cargo to take place.

[12] Julian Wardlaw, who spoke for the Environment Group, an umbrella organisation for local green agencies, said Middleton had contacted it and asked where in Lyme Bay was the best place to beach MSC Napoli.

[14][15] This area of the coastline where MSC Napoli was beached is a part of Britain's first natural World Heritage Site, the Jurassic Coast.

The move came amid questions about the decision to take MSC Napoli to an area of protected World Heritage Site coastline.

[citation needed] Items from MSC Napoli began to make landfall all along the south coast of England as far east as the Isle of Wight.

In August 2007 the bow section of the ship's hull was taken to the Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast, Northern Ireland for disposal and recycling.

HM Coastguard placed a 500 metres (1,600 ft) exclusion zone around the wreckage while it was anchored in Belfast Lough, while awaiting entry to the yard.

[citation needed] A plan to tow the stern section as well to Harland and Wolff was abandoned in March 2008 in favour of cutting it up in situ in the English Channel and removing the pieces.

[citation needed] The 2009 album Arrogance Ignorance and Greed by West Country folk duo Show of Hands features the track "The Napoli" which comments on the subsequent looting of the wreckage.

[43][clarification needed] One of the BMW motorcycles salvaged from the wreck became part of a 2018 public artwork by Christian Kosmas Mayer, sited on the bank of the River Danube in Austria.