Complex sentence: En route from the Persian Gulf to Le Havre, France when it encountered stormy weather with gale conditions and high seas and a seemingly minor failure in the ship's steering gear started a slow drift to the French coastline.
Split into simpler sentences: En route from the Persian Gulf to Le Havre, France, the ship encountered stormy weather with gale conditions and high seas. A seemingly minor failure in its steering gear started a slow drift to the French coastline.