Maanav Star went aground on the very shallow beach in Force 6-7 winds and a heavy swell and came to rest only a few metres from the promenade. Coastguard officers reported that all of the crew were taken safely ashore and there was no pollution.

Klyne and Smit undertook the salvage operation as a joint venture under a Lloyds Open Form agreement and immediately mobilised equipment to carry out the difficult task of retrieving the vessel from its precarious position during subsequent high tides.

The salvage operation attracted massive public and media interest in the area and the first refloating attempt, carried out in almost a carnival atmosphere on 16 September, was attended by several hundred people.

A special lightweight, highperformance, 1300m towline was flown in from Holland to enable a towing connection to be made to the anchor-handling tug Anglian Earl . The towline was connected with the help of the small tug-workboat Gray Test and a small RIB. Earthmoving equipment was used to remove large quantities of shingle that had built up around the ship during the bad weather. Unfortunately the high tides did not reach the predicted figure and the attempt had to be postponed until the next suitable tidal period 10 days later.

Maanav Star was finally refloated on 27 September using exactly the same method, and considerably higher tides, by the chartered Belgian tug Alphonse Letzer .Additional earthmoving was carried out immediately prior to the attempt and on the preceding tide the ship's head was moved seawards using a buried anchor and the vessel's own windlass.

The ship had suffered no serious damage and was taken in tow to Flushing to be inspected and reunited with her owners one day later.