An international sea transport company attempting to dislodge an 800-foot tanker stranded in the Lower New York Bay last night planned to unload about 100,000 of its 556,000 barrels of oil, officials said. The company was hoping that, combined with the evening’s high tide, the lighter ship would be lifted off a hard sandbar. The White Sea ran aground in the Ambrose Channel at about 6:30 a.m. yesterday after its steering mechanism failed, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Coast Guard, Petty Officer 3rd Class Annie Berlin, said. It had just left Bayonne, N.J., and was headed for Singapore. When the tanker hit the sandbar, it sustained two breaches in the front part of the hull but none of the low-sulfur fuel oil was leaking, Petty Officer Berlin said. The tanker was also listing about five degrees to port.

Coast Guard vessels were standing by with “boom” — material that floats on the water and prevents oil slicks from spreading — should any of the oil leak from either the hull breaches or during the off-loading to another tanker. The New York City police and fire departments and the Office of Emergency Management were also monitoring the situation, officials said.

The director of fleet operations for Tanker Pacific Management, Captain Anil Singh, told Bloomberg News that the ship was commanded by 35-year-old Satish Dhawde, who has 17 years’ experience at sea, five of them in charge of oil tankers.

The long, black profile of the tanker, with several Coast Guard boats surrounding it, could be seen by beachgoers at Coney Island.