Salvage round-up

When six of the eight crew on board the cargo vessel April were reported as having been poisoned while their vessel was laden with 1,540t of ferrosilicon in the Azov Sea, International Salvage Union member, Russian Federation Maritime Rescue Service responded and its tug Mercury arrived on scene within an hour of notification. April’s chief engineer had sadly lost his life and urgent medical evacuation for the other victims was requested.

Adverse weather precluded evacuation until the vessel reached a sheltered anchorage, the remaining two crew now also showing symptoms of poisoning and requiring evacuation. Toxic gases from the cargo, emitted when improperly stowed or wetted was suspected as the source and with the ship listing a salvage team wearing chemical protection suits and breathing apparatus boarded the vessel where safe gas concentrations were ‘significantly exceeded’.

Water was pumped out of the vessel using power supplied by Mercury and a crack and small hole in two of April’s ballast tanks were patched by divers, the tug now connected by tow line to the vessel. April was taken to a safe anchorage, the incident illustrating how salvors must be prepared for anything.

Terneuzen, the Netherlands-based Multraship Towage & Salvage has completed a wreck removal following capsize and sinking of the trawler Riemda UK160, 18 miles northwest of Dieppe late in 2020. The vessel’s crew were rescued and Multraship was contracted to remove the wreck which was in 44m of water. Early in 2021 Multrasalvor 4 attended the site along with a salvage and dive team where inspections and preparatory work was carried out in what was described as ‘changeable local weather conditions.’

In March after pausing for a weather window the heavylift vessel Cormorant and tugs Multratug 17 and 18 returned to the location and the trawler was successfully lifted and refloated following which it was towed to Flushing by Multratug 17, Multraship’s FRC Brandaris providing additional pumping capacity for the passage.

Resolve Marine is based in the US but maintains response bases globally, a strategy proving of value in a number of recent incidents. When storms forced a general cargo vessel against a breakwater after dragging its anchor in Tripoli, Resolve was engaged under Lloyd’s Open Form including SCOPIC to assist. Portable salvage equipment from its European response depots was mobilised to Malta and dispatched on a chartered tug to Libya along with a salvage team.

The casualty’s engine room and cargo holds were flooded and under ‘challenging conditions’ electrical power was restored including to the casualty’s cranes. After preparing for air pressurisation and potential lightering through cargo removal the vessel was refloated and towed to Tripoli by the tugs Sea Juliett and Asso 24 where cargo was discharged with further stabilisation work before passage to Turkey where the vessel was redelivered to its owners.

Earlier this year Resolve, along with Svitzer Towage UK were tasked to assist when a drillship broke free without power from its moorings at Hunterston in Scotland. Grounding was avoided when the drillship’s reduced crew dropped anchor, another drillship moored in tandem also in danger of breaking adrift in the adverse weather. Five tugs in total from Svitzer and Briggs Marine along with a UK-based salvage team worked for seven days to bring both vessels back safely to their moorings.

Illustrating the importance of a global casualty response, on the same day but 7,000 miles away in Argentina another ship was in trouble, in this case being unable to avoid grounding for reasons unknown. MJ’s salvage round-ups often recount vessel groundings in the Parana River and on this occasion the casualty was a 74,000dwt bulk carrier laden with 47,000t of maize that ran aground in the river’s Puerto San Martin area.

Resolve teamed up with its Argentinian partner Servicos Maritimos in a contract to refloat the vessel and a 60tbp tug along with a Resolve salvage master were mobilised to assist. Under the direction of the salvage master and with the salvage plan approved by the Argentine Naval Prefecture the vessel was safely refloated and after inspection by the authorities allowed to resume its voyage.

By Peter Barker