Project Description
On 5 December 2012 car carrier vessel Baltic Ace had a collision with a container vessel near to the shipping lanes in front of the Dutch Coast. After the collision the Baltic Ace capsized and sunk within 15 minutes. Unfortunately with the tragical loss of 11 crewmembers.
The Baltic Ace had 1417 new cars on board at time of the accident. She also carried approximately 540.000 liters of fuel oil. The 150m long vessel was laying in one of the busiest shipping lanes of the world. Therefor, she was a danger to navigation. Both the cargo and the fuel oil post as an environmental risk which needed to be eliminated.
Rijkswaterstaat, part of the Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management of the Netherlands, awarded the contract for the salvage of the vessel to Royal Boskalis Westminster (Smit Salvage) and Mammoet (Salvage) in March 2014.
Clients challenges and questions
The safe remove of the vessel and the pollutants from one of the worlds busiest shipping routes and safeguard the environment.
Operation
Dutch Marine was asked to be part of the technical team of Rijkswaterstaat. Our scope of work consisted off:
- Involvement in the tender process
- Assessors of technical questions
- Providing technical advice on alternative salvage methods during the execution of the wreck removal.
During the execution of the wreck removal, Dutch Marine was also active as observer for Rijkswaterstaat.
Resources
Dutch Marine’s vast expierence in salvage and wreck removal projects.
Duration of the project
The whole salvage operation took place from 03-2014 till 09-2015. Dutch Marine was involved from 01-2014 till 12-2015.
