‘Höegh Osaka’ discharged from Solent
Höegh Autoliners’ pure car and truck carrier (PCTC) ‘Höegh Osaka’ has been righted and towed back to the UK Port of Southampton, after nearly three weeks of sitting on the Bramble Bank.
The vessel was deliberately grounded after it developed a 52° list back in early January. Southampton-based Svitzer Towage was appointed as the salvor.
Crew were able to lift the Alpha anchor earlier than expected, and on 22 January, the list was reduced to 5° by pumping out most of the 3,000 tonnes of water on the cargo decks, and re-ballasting.
Two Svitzer tugs and two further Solent-based tugs then helped bring bring Höegh Osaka in to Southampton Port, and the salvor was assisted by two pilots and the ship’s master.
During the towing operation, a Restricted Airspace (Temporary) (RAT) was placed one mile either side of the navigation route and up to 2,000ft. This was to provide essential safety during the towing operation.
According to Höegh Autoliners, inspections of the vessel revealed that the majority of the work to bring the vessel back to “seaworthiness” was in cleaning of lower car decks which had water ingress. Due to the list of the vessel, only a limited number of vehicles on these decks were affected by the water ingress. Repair of smaller structural damages due to movement of cargo and salvage operations were also carried out.
One crew member has been injured as a result of the incident/ He was airlifted to Queen Alexander Hospital in Portsmouth, UK, with non-life threatening injuries.
Now, it’s time to see whether the cargo onboard will be scrapped or not. When Mitsui OSK Lines’ PCTC Cougar Ace developed a heavy list back in July 2006, cargo owner Mazda scrapped all 4,703 of its vehicles that had been on board, reportedly to avoid the risk of litigation by future owners.
By Rachael Doyle
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