Atlantic Towage salvages Dutch tall ship

The complex salvage saw the 42m vessel lifted from the rocks onto a floating barge, all completed ahead of schedule in just several hours, helped along by the fair weather.

Sean Harrington of Atlantic Towage told Maritime Journal that he was pleased with how the salvage went. “This was one of our largest ever contracts and we completed it in good time,” he said.

The main vessel involved in the salvage was Atlantic Towage’s 33m Voith tractor tug Ocean Bank, which usually serves the oil tanker traffic in Bantry Bay.

Operations were supported by Atlantic’s new multi-purpose tug, Trojan, a twin-screw highly manoeuverable workboat ideal for working with marine construction projects, dredging and coastal towage.

Further support came from Atlantic’s pilot boat Ocean Lad, which was used as a oil pollution response vessel, and the high speed crew transfer vessel and safety RIB, Ocean Runner.

Atlantic hired the sheerlegs Atlas from GPS Marine to carry out the lift. Divers cleared loose rigging from the Astrid, fixed heavy duty straps to the vessel’s hull and sealed fuel lines and tanks to prevent tonnes of diesel spillin.

The Atlas, which has a 400 tonne ligting capacity, brought the 300 tonne Astrid to the surface and then made its way to Kinsdale with the vessel suspended from its boom. It has since been scrapped.

Atlantic Towage is no stranger to high profile marine salvage operations. The company was previously involved in raising the €18m racing yacht Rambler 100, which sank during the 2011 Fastnet Race.