Boskalis Annual Report 2018

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FIREFIGHTING OPERATION The team chartered a large number of auxiliary vessels and coordinated the frefghting from an offshore supply vessel. Two anchor handling tugs with frefghting equipment were deployed, as well as several other tugs and a working vessel. “The main focus was on getting the fre under control and making sure it didn’t spread to the holds behind the bridge,” Van der Jagt explained. “So the tugs were constantly moving the Maersk Honam to the right position with respect to the wind, and that also stopped the rudderless ship from drifting further.” In addition to fghting the fre, the freboats were constantly at work cooling the remaining cargo. “It was important to monitor the draft of the ship constantly,” Van der Jagt said. “Due to the enormous amount of frefghting water in the holds, there was a risk of too much pressure being placed on the structure of the vessel and of the vessel cracking or even breaking as a result.” CRATERS “Even our most experienced salvage specialists told us that they had never seen a fre this big. There had been explosions and the temperature on board was so high that the holds at the front of the vessel had been transformed into craters and many containers had completely melted,” Van der Jagt said. It took two months before the fre was suffciently under control to tow the Honam to Jebel Ali in Dubai. “Because an enormous amount of frefghting water had ended up in the vessel, it was too deep in the water to enter the port,” Van der Jagt explained. “The water that we pumped out of the holds to raise the vessel was so polluted that it had to be collected in a large tanker for cleaning later.”

NO STANDARD SOLUTIONS A caretaking contract was signed for the salvage follow-up. “In Jebel Ali, we provided trim and ballast assistance during the unloading of the containers from the stern section, and removed the contents of the three burnt-out holds,” Van der Jagt said. “We were then instructed to remove and dispose of the burnt and heavily contaminated remnants, which amounted to more than 28,000 tons. That was an extremely diffcult job: the 20-meter-deep holds were a complete chaos full of burnt materials and a sort of toxic chemical soup consisting of heavily polluted liquids. There are no standard solutions for this kind of extreme operation,” he continued. “We mobilized two jack-up barges and positioned them alongside the wreck. Operating from the barges, we removed the burnt and carbonized debris from the holds, using cranes with spider grabs and excavators with pressurized cabins. Our people wore special clothing and pressure suits as protection from toxic fumes,” he added. UNIQUE JOB The Honam was transferred to a dry dock in Dubai in November, where it was cut in half. The rear section was then taken elsewhere for ftting out with a new bow. “We carried on emptying the three holds there,” Van der Jagt said. “Separating the enormous amount of burnt material is extremely labor-intensive. At a yard elsewhere in Dubai that was specially ftted out for the purpose, we are investigating all the different parts separately, categorizing them and, if necessary, cleaning them or packaging them safely, and sending them to processing companies. This part of the project is also unique in terms of logistics and environmental technology.”

Salvage operation of the Maersk Honam