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Chinese New Year for Rotterdam Salvors

21 Feb 2008

Severe gales around the coasts of Britain and western Europe late in January and early February presented the emergency services and salvors with a number unusual and potentially difficult challenges.
Salvage operations to refloat the grounded 'Zhen Hua 10' created a tourist attraction on the Maasvlakte earlier this month. Photo courtesy of Hans Hoffman.
Salvage operations to refloat the grounded 'Zhen Hua 10' created a tourist attraction on the Maasvlakte earlier this month. Photo courtesy of Hans Hoffman.

One of the most unusual and less well publicised concerned the Chinese heavy lift ship 'Zhen Hua 10', which ran aground in gale force winds on the popular North Sea tourist beach at Maasvlakte early on Saturday morning, 2 February. The ship, operated by Shanghai Zhenhua Shipping Co Ltd of China, was fully loaded with massive container cranes when it dragged its anchors while waiting in the nearby anchorage for Rotterdam and Europort.

The 45,323 dwt Zhen Hua 10 is 244m long with a 40m beam, and had a maximum draught of 8.3m at the time of the grounding. Originally built as a tanker in 1981, the ship was converted into a heavy lift carrier in 2005.

A salvage team from Smit Salvage and a number of tugs succeeded in pulling the heavily laden vessel off the sandy beach on the second attempt on 5 February. The local tugs 'RT Magic', 'Smit Humber' and 'Fairplay 21' were joined by the anchor handling tug 'JANUS' of Harms Offshore to refloat the ship, which was still able to use its own engines. Weather at the time was still less than ideal and Zhen Hua 10 was eventually brought into the Nieuwe Waterway in force 7-8 winds, presenting quite a challenge for the pilots and tugs.

By Jack Gaston

Images for this article - click to enlarge

Salvage operations to refloat the grounded 'Zhen Hua 10' created a tourist attraction on the Maasvlakte earlier this month. Photo courtesy of Hans Hoffman.

All images copyright © Mercator Media 2008

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