CP VALOUR - WRECK REMOVAL AT THE AZORES

on the 9th of December 2005 the 15,000 ton container vessel CP velu grounded in biood a praia do Norte on file island in the Azores in bad weather the vessels hull quickly began to fracture various attempts to refloat the CP value or failed and three weeks later she was declared CTL a constructive total loss Switzer Salvage obtained the contract to remove her the CP brother was on passage from Canada to Europe and she ran aground from the northwest coast of Phi L in the assault islands in December of 2005 tender was issued for invitation for tender was issued by the PNA club for a wreck removal in February of 2006 we mobilized the team for the last two weeks of february to go on the island itself and to try and get on board the casualty we spent 10 days on the island of which only two days we could get on board the CP for the due to adverse weather after that we put a plan together and our plan basically was getting to try and remove the ship the same way that she came in and that was to get the cargo off and the ship off and take everything out to sea the other option we considered was to cut her up Institute and bring her ashore piece by piece but we considered that that option was not viable mainly due to the location of the casualty and with the local infrastructure would not support that type of operation we were awarded the operation and we mobilized the team in April and that required us to mobilize barges from the Mediterranean Italy a jack-up rig which came down from Hamburg and Titus to support all of that we had one mini cargo vessel and she was loaded up with equipment in our maiden and that brought most of us always gear from Holland warehouse other equipment came from a South African warehouse and Cape Town and with the side of the Lisbon has been the main port for mobilisation and most of the equipment was loaded onto the barges in Lisbon and then towed out by take to the Azores but total loss it was perhaps not it was decided to try saving the wreck immediate action was needed in a mod in the Netherlands near the head office of Switzer salvage a coaster was prepared with necessary equipment such as generators pumps anchors fenders and diving gear at a sizzling salvage headquarters a team of specialists mobilized all and everything needed for an immense removal job being in the Azores which is almost halfway between America and Portugal in the mobilization obviously took about six weeks and the equipment started to arrive at the end of May it was actually the 20th of June before the first container was lifted by the jack up onto the Associated advisors so that's about six weeks ago the last six weeks have been pretty hectic daily toolbox talks allocating tasks of the day and after the casualty first problem was access to the casualty an ingenious 200-meter jungle bridge is constructed as safe access for daily work and saving time but the Atlantic Ocean left no one alone waves batter the vessel at regular intervals the hole receives ever more damage and starts to weaken further but as an ice class ship built in the late seventies she should hold at least for the time being but containers must be removed how to do that in these shallow waters a jack-up rig the gb1 with substantial crane capacities installed alongside the casualty at the same time the working barge p7 is brought into position to be moored alongside the casualty on the land side the Switzer salvors succeed in getting power on one of the aft winches to bring out the mooring line from the casualty to the barge careful maneuvering and bringing her in now the p7 is relatively safe from a incoming swells the next step is the more a storage barge for the containers in a way that a maximum of the 20 and 40-foot containers can be lifted off the CP velor the mooring procedure is explained to the Switzer tugboat captains the experienced salvage crew of Switzer Salvage untroubled by the days calm weather manages to get the barge into position offloading containers can start broken or still in good order they all need to be removed removal of the deck cargo means access to the cargo holds some are flooded and need to be pumped in the Reimann cannot skip does it have two containers in the are not familiar don't rottenness and Arkham he'll fail ruff what's to pay for a hijab lots of EFCA do then skip force plate and the particular all around is not an all around this from ship the gift of same analysis and dr. I made it on the thoughtless in a main classes sold out baby Byron will pay p.m. the parts per million Americans also receptor in the nurse T arteriotomy racial ideology mirror register in the Vatican but also inherent over a loop a peanut we say is that mental deep million hardest I prevent after a stop by see savable p.m. Dokdo local morning so everyone who has to work in the cargo holds has to carry compressed air we passed the halfway mark we've got with say listen 150 containers ago we've had two loads of containers from the pavetta first load was here in Horta which is still can be seen in the corner and the second load is on its way to Lisbon should arrive this weekend now we enter the most critical phase and that's the last phase which is to try and reduce some of the flooding and hold number to identify where the water ingress into the engine room the engine hopefully is not that substantial can be contained minimized or even stopped but number two is very critical we're going to remove the whole engine from the engine and all the associated machinery and that's going to recover almost a thousand tons of buoyancy at Switzer Salvage HQ in Horta calculations are made and checked and rechecked by the computer refloating models removing all machinery from the engine room reduces cargo weight by another 1,000 tonnes at this stage every ton less counts parts are cut into smaller pieces and removed a scrap the last container is lifted off and that means the gb1 jack up rig can be relieved from duty she will now be towed back to Horta here she will help rearranging the barges with containers for Lisbon the solvers continue under heavy pressure what is more the weather is going to change the Atlantic forecasts predict high swells and northwesterly winds not promising news all empty cargo holds on our flooded interestingly this hair gives the CP velour better stability against the battering waves generators and machinery are wrapped against the seawater they will have to wait until the storm passes Pete is worried and has to decide to abandon the casualty even Danny thinks it's getting dangerous now we're leaving this ship it's getting too dangerous to stay here hey guys not more than two on the bridge after a final check yon is the last person to leave the sea people or did you sure did this Raj Bhavan rocking Orica Cadell full of felt or up there we need a full film about between a disease of ethanol in the plan it is made on it's an assault very dark place and available Keiko of the storm if you take half of the school and half from the boat and yeah that I would abide is now Alex top part of a hitchhiker Kesava of nearby ponies and over newest pullback chrome attacks and flag for the baby the naval architect naturally wants to see the damage with his own eyes state-of-the-art diving equipment and a diving inspector monitor activities underwater over the humor they both have Sumter West glass roof and out existed and ever now Cano mm Wow usually I'll accept it off buddy now it sounds like they fly the stopcock table rules with Darla silly kid whose title and a bucket rider she drove overdramatize out Mitchell what a thorough debate about from an I mean and I'm try and the reason she doesn't offer prior brood out immediately after the dive inspection a meeting is held to discuss status a decision is made all plans for the refloating operation are set in motion before tensioning and towing the CP velour begins she has to be turned 90 degrees to face the open sea something that is easier said than done prepare the stern chain of the falou and now we're gonna pick up the staffers anchor this is 7 thong and then connected to the chain and stretch it out a little bit in like a 45° angle or preventing the stern to turn through the length once we start pulling on the bow this first phase is very important once bullying starts the CP value or may not move higher up the shoreline while turning under any circumstance a Steph press anchor must prevent this from happening who knew Google going 50 Boyle and left up at the station once we got the anger on the lower we need to go full ahead to float the anchor so we can still get up on the deck and then we come back pick this boy up with a chain I connect the ng panget of the chain and then drop it in position okay we're in the harbor of Porto on the prevention the large that's going to be the pulling barge for the whole operation as we call it and we just tested the strong jet machines this had a strand of machined it's just a cooling system which is going to hopefully pull the vessel from its place yeah well the testing actually went really well so we're really happy because it works and now we can go into the next step in the project to see after the tests thus it's a tugs bring the barge vivace with the Strand jacks to the casualty at the same time the Atalanta barge is loaded with the temporarily stored containers in the port of Horta captain Sloane guides the vivace into position for the pulling a delicate marine operation in which all available tugs participate the positioning of barge and anchors is a vital importance for success of the pulling operation the small tug boat upon Canadore proves very efficient she brings the two lines from the vivace to the bow of the CP velour the two strands a choirs are each connected to a D namer cable Dyneema is exceptionally strong this as a braking force of 400 tonnes but it must be handled with care one small defect and it loses its strength as they are still in the Azores with the promise of more bad weather at hand there is not a moment to lose the solvers must be ready for the first available spring tide yeah we've got the port strain Jack is now up at 70 tons tension the anchors were buried touchdown point for change that by yourself we've got the item Christ connected in fairly to toad 2010 power that Lexi's in between you know has just been connected now the room into connector on the main deck but as well starting to pick up too dangerous and main deck now on the break of the shoulder starboard side here by number one hole they'll switch the cable and in will so that about 30-40 percent power makes sure everything's good the plan is start the batter seen around about 2 or 3 o'clock in the morning so our 9 o'clock 10 o'clock that we completely fell asleep they like we're starting feature in the power and starboard strand jack they're working on the moment II provides the tension with you in the 19 and hopefully about ten o'clock tomorrow morning we have language Chinese and Australian text another hundred times on the tags completely developed and was thought the air pressurization it gives us about two three hours before the following morning everything is ready for the first turning attempt before she can be refloated from her present position the CP value ah must turn 90 degrees to face open C on command the tugboats increase their power she's moving orders are given to cut the jungle bridge but movement of the CP Vellore is ahead and the connection breaks the link with the shore is gone slowly the tugboats increase power to almost 100% then one of the tugboat towing line snaps slow motion clearly shows the forces at work the connection is immediately restored no chol people come and watch activities but not everybody is convinced of success I'm fishing fishing fish line there I know this place these are this offside the bar double the ship big rocks big rocks you know the big rocks stay in the ship in the air you know I don't believe this ship go out and your idea this ship I see I think better about fifty meters over there over there after run around pull out the naughty circle my elbow okay yeah basically the initial pull has gone quite well we've got up to 300 tons tension on the pull barge with a strange axis them the anchors are holding the tags are or well positioned we've replaced quite a few toads Springs which have parted now we have adequate strong points so we have well over 400 tonnes putting power at the moment the first high tide that we did the attempt we had not managed to D water at all of the holds since then we have reread bumps we arranged the pumping arrangements and capacities and now all but number two holders down the level that we went so the engine was dryer number five number one all drive number four was dry so number two is not as let's say D waters we once it but there's more water ingress the sandbank that we had identified months ago is still there we were hoping to do some proper washing before the actual pull started but the weather and most well conditions did not allow us so now that we have flat calm conditions we're keeping the tension up the ships rolling in their own bed and we continue with the proper washing operation we have two more tides before the swell picks up so we'll continue putting at each high tide and in-between maximize the time for proper watching Wednesday the weather picks up they forecast to maximum swell of 5 meters we don't want to be in the situation for them but we think Tuesday nights as a swell conditions pick up and the wheel there that time-lapse photography clearly shows the movement of the ship lady don't after five days of non-stop pulling the crew is exhausted but the CB velour is now facing open sea high-seas roll in and the decision is made on safety grounds to make the crew change by air the Portuguese Navy moves in her helicopter the experienced crew airlifts the salvers off and brings new men in now it's time for the real power one of the world's strongest tugboats has been chartered to perform the final phase the Maersk Achiever 90 meters long and 23 meters beam as an engine of twenty three and a half thousand brake horsepower and Abelard pull of 271 tons she starts pulling the casualty of her position where she has been for the last nine months in the late afternoon of the 20th of September 2006 she's afloat the Switzer solace achieved what many people felt was impossible but they kept faith and made it happen determine men in a determined business Switzer Salvage Global Salvage masters the CP valor is now run from the baton Raja and the Islander fail over 400 tons of oil and pollutants were recovered and of course this protected the rocks and the beaches from being contaminated the COG has been redeliver to owners and underwriters in Lisbon the last five months we've had 86 people continuously involved eleven nationalities from around up mobile operation all in all this can be considered a successful Switzer Salvage the producers would like to thank everyone who contributed in any way whatsoever to the attempted Salvage of the CP value er and in helping making this documentary thank you you

Channel: Svitzer Global

Views: 440,126

Rating: 4.7875385 out of 5

Keywords: CP Valour, Wreck removal, SVITZER, SVITZER Salvage, Salvage operation, salvage team, constructive total loss, CTL, removal, container vessel

Id: jfiJrSMaAcY

Length: 29min 21sec (1761 seconds)

Published: Mon Mar 24 2014