Salvors battle blazes and spills as new ISU leader takes the helm

Smit Salvage had two fires to deal with, the first a 15,000TEU container ship Marie Maersk, whose cargo caught fire while she was on passage off Liberia travelling from Rotterdam to Asia.

Fire-fighting tugs, portable fire-fighting equipment and salvage specialists including a marine chemist were dispatched and the tugs arrived within two hours, containing the blaze and preventing its spread with help from the vessel’s crew.

Additional vessels and specialised equipment arrived in the following days and the vessel was able to continue its voyage to Cape Town, where following a crew change its original passage to Malaysia resumed.

A Smit salvage team and equipment had to remain on board until arrival at Tanjung Pelepas while there was still potential for reignition, and salvors then assisted with unloading damaged and intact containers.

Salvage teams from Smit’s Singapore base had been called in a few weeks before to respond to when a series of explosions in a cargo hold in the Strait of Malacca.

In this case a 14,000TEU ship – containing dangerous cargo – suffered the blasts while transiting the Strait of Malacca between Port Klang and Penang, Malaysia.

The fire was put out in time to allow the ship to reach Port Clang safely, with Smit assisting with the removal of affected containers.

Environment protection

As the world has become more environmentally aware, salvors’ priorities following groundings and collisions are to remove potential pollutants.

Following a collision off Kupang, Indonesia a cargo ship capsized and sank, the vessel settling on its starboard side and on a slope with the aft end in around 40m of water. Around 70m³ of hydrocarbons was reported in 15 tanks in the engine room.

US-based Resolve Marine has its headquarters in Florida while maintaining a worldwide presence including in Amsterdam, IJmuiden, Athens and London. It was called in by the vessel’s P&I Club to assist in removal of the pollutants.

A supply tug was fitted out with diving and oil removal equipment from Resolve’s Singapore depot and the ‘hot tapping’ method of fuel removal was used to transfer the pollutants.

Oil was pumped out of all of the vessel’s 15 tanks and stored in ISO containers on the supply tug before it returned to Batam for demobilisation and oil disposal.

Resolve has also been involved with container vessel cargo fires including where an 8,500TEU capacity ship suffered a fire among containers on deck while around 150nm east of Nha Trang, Vietnam.

A nine-man Resolve salvage team arrived on a chartered AHTS vessel and assessed the fire-affected containers with periodic monitoring to ensure there was no reignition.

Environmental testing including levels of any atmospheric toxicity was carried out and the casualty vessel was safely brought to an anchorage off Nha Tang, whereafter it transited to Hong Kong for cargo offloading.

Finally to Greek salvor Tsavliris, which regularly coordinates towage assistance to disabled ships. One of its tasks was to assist a 6,086dwt cargo ship that had it lost its rudder off Recife, Brazil.

Nearer home, one of its own tugs was mobilised when a general cargo vessel laden with steel pipes lost power off Kefalonia Island, Greece. The vessel was towed to Patras Port, Greece in an operation completed successfully on the same day.

New hand at the helm

Captain Leendert Muller, managing director of Multraship Towage & Salvage, was made president of the ISU at its annual general meeting on October 2.

An experienced mariner and salvage master, Muller heads a family-owned company whose recent activities include the high-profile salvage of the container ship Solong following its allision and subsequent conflagration with the anchored tanker Stena Immaculate off the UK east coast in March.

“I look forward in particular to enhancing the reputation of the industry and strengthening our relationships with shipowners and insurers” said Muller.