TOWLINES April 2023

Abeille Normandie was mobilised from Boulogne after the ferry Isle of Innisfree, with 183 passengers and crew on board, reported an engine room fire while sailing between Dover and Calais. Three Royal National Lifeboat Institution lifeboats were also tasked from the UK. The ferry’s crew extinguished the fire and Abeille Normandie towed the ferry clear of the traffic lanes to a position off the French coast, where local port tugs later safely berthed the vessel in Calais.

Schiedam, the Netherlands-based Marine Masters B.V, has completed a complex salvage operation on a sunken 1,000t salmon feed barge in Scotland.

Decomposition of salmon feed with high concentrations of toxic H2S gasses followed the barge’s sinking in 2021 and Marine Masters was contracted to purge the storage spaces with nitrogen and refloat the barge. The crane barge Matador 3 was mobilised from Rotterdam and using an in-house developed concept of steel slings integrated in steel spheres and with marine chemists monitoring the atmosphere, the barge was safely refloated.

Damen’s innovative Elevation Series Construction Service Operations Vessel (CSOV) has won an award in the Offshore Renewables category at the annual Offshore Support Journal conference and awards show.

The Elevation Series CSOV was designed by Damen Shipyards in cooperation with Windcat and CMB. TECH and in Damen’s words “truly embraces” the future with integrated hydrogen-powered propulsion, a battery hybrid system and further power available via a deck connection, whether green shore power, offshore charging, additional batteries or green fuel power generation systems. The 87m long design has accommodation for 120 people.

The ever-present dangers of day-to-day marine operations were highlighted with sad news of the loss of two crewmembers of the tug Biter in the Firth of Clyde off Greenock, Scotland.

Biter was reportedly escorting a small cruise ship into harbour when it overturned suddenly. A rescue operation was immediately launched without success, the bodies of the two crew later being recovered and the vessel itself raised some two weeks after it overturned. The UK’s Marine Accident Investigation Branch has started an investigation into the accident and we pass on our condolences to the family and friends of the two crewmembers who were lost.