Boskalis_Annual Report_2017

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SMIT SALVAGE: EMERGENCY RESPONSE OPERATION LEADS TO WRECK REMOVAL

SMIT Salvage employees work on an average of fifty emergency response operations every year. In some cases this leads to follow-up projects for wreck removal. An example in 2017 was the removal of the stern of the cargo vessel Cabrera in Greek waters.

On Christmas Eve of 2016, SMIT Salvage was asked to conduct a salvage operation on the north shore of the Greek island of Andros, where the 100-meter-long cargo ship Cabrera had grounded on the rocks. The vessel was on its way from the Greek port of Larymna to Tornio in Finland with a valuable cargo of 1600 tons of ferronickel. “Initially, we were called in to remove about 70 tons of oil from the vessel,” says Thijs van der Jagt, global salvage operations manager. “We went to work immediately with a Greek partner.” The poor weather conditions meant that the salvage operation had to be suspended almost immediately. The storm subsided only a few days later. When the team returned, the vessel had already sunk. “Our surveys showed that the ship was in pieces on the sea floor at a depth of about 34 meters,” says Van der Jagt. “Our divers then started work immediately on removing the remaining oil using the hot tap method. We were also asked to remove the cargo of ferronickel from the hold. We managed to complete that work using grabs and suction equipment,” he continues.

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