A salvage team of six was mobilised from Titan's UK salvage response facility, travelling via Palma in Spain where the salvage tug Posejdon had been diverted to collect them.

The vessel was on site in Algeria within 60 hours of a contract being agreed.

The Titan team found the Spruttenberg hard aground with heavy surf and swells slamming the port side. Boarding was achieved via a beachside accommodation ladder made accessible by a build-up of sand along the vessel's starboard side.

Once on board, the vessel was found to be listing 7º with many tanks flooded, the main engine disabled and the engine room leaking.

Knowing additional equipment would take time to mobilise over the water from Europe, senior Salvage Master Captain David Stirling calculated he could refloat the vessel with the limited equipment present. Simply de-ballasting to refloat was not an option so a survey was conducted to plan an exit route.

With shallower water and rocks off the bow and stern, the salvage plan involved de-ballasting as much as possible, shifting all hatch covers as far aft as possible, connecting the Posejdon on the bow and pulling the vessel's head around to face the channel.

Having the vessel in this position would only be half the challenge, to fully extract it the team would need to await another storm.

Much preparatory work was done and the crew endured considerable hardship living on board the battered freighter.

When 25 knot winds and 8ft seas materialised, the vessel was finally pulled free of the beach. Only tank tops kept the vessel afloat and salvage pumps continuously pumped the engine room.

After maintaining the vessel afloat under salvage conditions for five days, the vessel was cleared by Algerian authorities and towed to dry dock in Cartagena, Spain.

MJ Information No: 18369