The Panamanian containership that dropped 18,000 gallons of a poisonous chemical into the Atlantic Ocean during Saturday's coastal storm left the Dundalk Marine Terminal early yesterday after its decks were scrubbed of the spilled chemicals.

U.S. Coast Guard officials continued to search the ocean between New York and Baltimore with airplanes for four missing containers of arsenic trioxide, which they believe could have floated after they fell off the side of a ship during the storm.

The HU-25 Falcon jet searched 5,600 miles from just north of the entrance to the Delaware Bay south to along Maryland's coast yesterday afternoon, but found no evidence of the drums.

A search of the shoreline by helicopter also continued. The Santa Clara I, a 492-foot vessel of Panamanian registry, left New York Friday and faced 64-knot winds.

Arsenic trioxide can be fatal to humans and toxic to fish.