Whereas most large ships were at sea when the killer waves made landfall, Sinar Andalas had just completed loading over 5,000 tons of cement in the port of Lhok Nga. The vessel was capsized at the pier and only four of its 19 man crew survived.

It remains in the same position more than six months later.

Last month Titan began mobilising a salvage team and equipment from their Batam, Indonesia salvage depot. The men and equipment are now on site and the full wreck removal is scheduled for completion by October.

The start of the Sinar Andalas wreck removal caps off the busy first half of a busy year for Titan. Most notable has been the completion of the Delta Conveyor wreck removal in the Mississippi River USA. Titan has worked on this project for three years and considers it their most challenging project to date.

Here in Europe, Titan's UK salvage depot responded recently to a request for assistance from the tug Maira , disabled in the English Channel on a voyage from the Netherlands to Tunisia.

With the breakdown occurring six miles off the coast from their depot, a Titan rescue team consisting of four men and a woman responded in a fast craft. In less than an hour, Titan's engineers were able to restart all on board machinery and delivered the tug under its own power to the port of Newhaven UK, where the owners undertook permanent repairs.

MJ Information No: 20841