Conventional approaches to refloating stranded merchant ships could not be applied in this project and using cranes to lift the vessel was excluded because of the warship's structural profile and sophisticated on board equipment.

Tsavliris' alternative salvage plan was based on providing additional buoyancy to enable refloating to take place without further damage to the warship.

Initial preparations for the project included patching and dewatering the frigate's flooded forward engine room, underwater inspections, and the outfitting of barges with bollards and equipment for securing slings.

Two barges were then mobilised, the submersible deck cargo barge Sete 21 and the Tahlia , to participate in the attempted refloating. They gradually applied tension to a sling arrangement of 16 steel wire cables of 56 mm diameter passed under the warship's hull.

These had to be repositioned according to load pressure analyses. Forces were further controlled through load distribution plates in order to protect the vessel's hull. In theory, deballasting the barges could free the frigate but in practice further buoyancy was required.

The buoyancy was provided by attaching buoyancy pontoons to the bow and stern of each barge as well as binding cylindrical tanks to the bow of the vessel.

Buoyancy was eventually achieved sufficient to allow the Tsavliris operated salvage tug SB-408 to gently pull the frigate from the reef and tow it to Jeddah for redelivery.

At the same time as the operation in the Red Sea was proceeding, Tsavliris was also enjoying a busy start to 2005 in terms of its traditional Lloyd's Open Form work, with operations spanning the Far East, the Atlantic and the Mediterranean.

This included the rare opportunity to perform a salvage operation in its home port when exceptional bad weather in February damaged a number of yachts in Piraeus.

Contracted under LOF (SCOPIC invoked) to salve the sunken motor yacht Surf , Tsavliris deployed two floating cranes, a dive support vessel and a tug for the operation. After deployment of booms and the removal of pollutants from the yacht, Tsavliris' 100 ton floating crane Dias lifted the casualty, which was then towed to Elefsis Shipyards.

MJ Information No: 20512