Salvage of sunken car carrier Tricolor

[Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] the car carrier Trianon owned by the Norwegian shipping company will Wilhelmsen and operated by will Linnaeus Wilhelmsen logistics is more than the port of say Baraka in Belgium will Wilhelmsen is one of the largest companies in the RORO car carrier market the Trianon is the sister ship of the treacle or the ship that left the port of Zubrowka in December 2002 bound for Southampton in the early hours of 14 December 2002 the Tricolore set sail for Southampton there were more than 2800 brand new cars parked on the enormous ships car decks destined for the American market at 2:15 in the middle of the night disaster strikes the container vessel Kariba hits the treacle or witch capsizes and sinks within half an hour thanks to prompt and correct action and thorough training the ship's twenty-four crew members managed to evacuate the vessel in time everyone is rescued the 190 meter long treacle or sinks to the bottom of the channel where it comes to rest on her port side in this case I think we had everything against us the collision impact speed the fact that the vessels was turning because our captain obviously when he saw this vessel coming up on him on the port side he'd made a hard starboard maneuver in order to try to get away from and avoid the collision but unfortunately that was too late the treacle or is now almost entirely submerged in one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world it poses a serious danger to other vessels and it's also leaking Bunker oil the tricular sank in fact in not only in the middle of very dense traffic area in the North Sea but also in a place that was out of the protection of the Flemish banks and vulnerable to wind current and sea so the Asian Hercules was put in place with some empty barges to pick up the oil [Music] the owners top priority is to do all they can to prevent and minimize oil pollution the floating shear legs Asian Hercules 2 is sent to the treacle or the vessel serves as a stable work platform for the salvage team who are going to attempt to remove the oil that is still inside the ship divers are sent down to inspect the vessel this is dangerous work in addition to the extremely strong current the theorists December wind is really causing high waves and swell [Music] higher the fellated dick cause he did this this lump of coconut while the divers do their job preparations for the full removal of the wreck are already being discussed well the first idea was that this wreck has to be removed as quickly as possible and so we went out in the market with a request who can remove this wreck quickly and with also do care for the environment and in a feasible way despite the winter weather work continues to remove the bunker oil the salvage team has developed its own method to do this the vessel was on his side so we had access on the bottom to the tanks we drilled holes in it we bring a felf on that hole so that we can can close it off at the end and then we connect houses and a pump and in principle then we pump the oil out into an into another tank in two months the salvage team manages to pump over most of the 2,100 tons of oil from the vessel part of the oil remains out of reach in tanks in the engine room or is spread across the car decks unfortunately it cannot be avoided that some oil also escapes into the sea [Music] preparations for one of the largest wreck removal operations in history get underway immediately after the oil clean up the tree colores owners will will humson sign a contract with the combination tree coal or Salvage which involves the Dutch companies Schmitt salvage and Moltres ship together with scold us and urs from Belgium the consortium of the four companies is facing a tremendous task the 32 meter wide tree coal ore is resting on its port side on the bottom of the sea although the vessel is very strong when afloat it's far too fragile in its present position to be lifted in its entirety or even to be operated the salvage team decides to resort to a drastic method the Tricolore will be cut into 9 large pieces which will then be lifted one by one to commence the complex operation to work platforms are assembled on either side of the wreck these platforms have extendable legs which are placed on the sea floor at some 30 meters water depth so that a stable work platform is established [Music] [Music] never before has a vessel of this size been cut into pieces the salvage team will use a special type of cutting wire which they developed and used once before during the salvage of the Russian submarine Kursk but the treacle ore is much larger not to mention the fact that the ship must be cut into nine sections extensive testing shows that the unique cutting wire is effective enough to be used for this job following testing the real work begins the salvage teams plan is to make the cuts by moving the wire from the bottom up and back and forth between the two work platforms to do so the wire must first be placed underneath the rack this involves drilling under the treacle or with a flexible drill once the drill emerges from the seabed on the other side of the wreck a hollow tube is pulled back the cutting wire will then be guided through this tube from one side to the other [Music] cutting preparations have been completed the cutting experts go over the final details huge winches on the work platform still the cutting wire type before it will be manipulated back and forth for the first cut V make we used two wires be cutting until we reach the propeller shaft and then he ain't changed the wire with a new one but the other cuts the other severed coach views only one wire and every wire consists of approximately 900 mm bushings the cutting wire consists of a series of small cylinders over a steel wire the cylinders are coated with media a mix of special types of steel which is virtually as hard as diamond the green light is given the cutting wire is driven by huge winches installed on the platforms the wire travels through a number of different spools as it makes its way under the rack the cutting wire works its way through the steel rec which has a breadth of over 30 meters the speed of the saw why is average approximately one meter per second with a force on the holing end of 60 tons and on the other end and back tension of twenty to twenty four times during the cutting divers continuously inspect the vessel every change in position can be crucial at the same time the cutting wire is checked constantly the divers are assisted by other salvage team members at the surface who look over the shoulders with the help of cameras mounted on their diving hello [Music] you have a lot of tight difference that means that in between the tides the currents are very strong and that is in any entrance of the channel that means that we were not in any shelter or whatever so the type that we could possibly of be productive and water was limited to 20 minutes [Music] in addition to checking the cutting the divers are also busy getting ready to lift the detach sections lifting friends are being welded to the side of the ship in order to make it possible to lift these weakened sections the frames will allow for the eventual safe lifting of the pieces some of which weigh 3,000 tons [Applause] [Music] the divers used links to attach scores of lifting cables to the wreck of the treacle or to install for lifting chains around the propeller and we had I think 12 lifting points in the starboard side aft that was a lot of preparation work for us to do because on the on the starboard side it was in very shallow water that you had to do that [Applause] [Music] two of the world's largest floating cheer legs have arrived at the treacle or location for the tremendous lifting job at open sea the idea is that they'll be used to lift the detach sections one by one then the sections will be placed on a huge barge that will be anchored nearby at the sheer legs the first section was a student section and that was estimated that it was weighing about three thousand to one atom so to get the lifting attachments to this section we found a lot of points but not real strong points but a lot of points where we could put some force on so in the any engineering phase we decided to go for about the 150 ton per point as the lifting cables are slowly raised the first things we see are the lifting trends now over six months after it sank the Tricolore is slowly but surely emerging from the depths the various car decks are easily recognizable now we can also see the incredible job that the cutting wire did all of the decks including the entire engine were cut practically straight through during the lift is always the attention of course because it's it's all coming together then and when you see the rigging the starboard side come above the water and you have a quick look and you think that everything is in position that makes you proud the higher this section comes out of the water the more weight is put on the massive sheer legs lifting is deliberately slow in order to allow the water to drain from the ship properly after all every bit of excess weight must be avoided also the weight must be evenly distributed between the two sheer legs and the center of gravity must remain very stable otherwise the lifting cables would be subject to unpredictable forces as soon as the section is lifted out of the water the barge is maneuvered underneath it next the section weighing more than 3000 tonnes is slowly lowered onto the barge and taken away to zabrze high in belgium for scrapping [Music] the first huge heavy section is now completely out of the water weather conditions are favorable otherwise an operation of this sort could never take place at open sea [Music] there's little left of the trick alors valuable cargo meter by meter the barge is maneuvered into the proper position this is a crucial moment nothing must go wrong now the shear legs have reached their maximum lifting height in order to create more space between the barge and the wreck side the ballast tanks of the bars are filled with water as a result it's floating extremely low on the water with utmost caution the section is placed onto the barge the next step is to see whether the section is stable enough for transportation to zebra huh you feel there is tension coming by every hour in the next step when you're lifting when this Rachel comes above water when it moves but it really is above the surface then you have to fool out in your to Grange then you have to move you have to move with the Grange you have to move the bodies and that's all changed until the second rest on the bars and you see the tension from the load indicators going down because you transfer the load onto the barge then also you feel that your tension is going down with the same steps [Music] an anti-pollution vessel is on hand during the entire operation and the French and Belgian authorities are closely involved in order to prevent damage to the environment as much as possible the salvage team is making good progress the first two sections of the stern of the tree calor have been removed and now work is starting on the ship's bow section thousands of tonnes of twisted steel are lifted out of the water the first two sections were the heaviest and it's no wonder that's where the engine rooms were located even though the sections that are being lifted now are smaller it doesn't necessarily mean the job is any easier the vessels structure has been drastically weakened not only by all of the cutting but also due to the merciless swell and waves it's becoming increasingly difficult to lift large sections in their entirety out of the water [Music] now that the huge sections have been lifted out of the water they're being taken to the port in zebra hub extreme caution is exercised in guiding the barge to the locks in the harbor and route to a special scrapyard we had a special prepared scrapping site the soil foundation was plastic with metal plates on top of it so that any oil which could come off from the vessel would not drain into the into the soil and in that place that that particular place we have scraped actually the whole vessel and we have done that without any contamination to any parts of the soil in several dismantling the trickle or is a remarkable undertaking as it is tens of thousands of tons of steel must be cut into smaller pieces there is nothing left to the once so proud trickle or the new luxury cars of which there are over 2,800 likewise are a sad sight [Music] we had a very strict regime in place to bring cars to the shore and and dismantle them in various factories in in Belgium and each car required a disposal certificate from all those manufacturers [Music] the salvage operation has now entered the next phase bad winter weather is sidelined the salvage team now five months after the recovery of five sections it's time to finish the job using a huge rec grab increasingly smaller pieces will lift it out of the sea [Music] [Music] shortly after the collision but also during the removal operation a number of cars and parts of the ship were washed into the sea now all of this must be cleaned up [Music] was not only the ship we had to remove it was also smaller metal pieces cars and in a certain marked area which will agree with the authorities in the client that was also a difficult job looking first of all after the share smaller pieces by magnetic meter and multi beam systems and then there to remove them of course and then if you for example take one car to grab it it's not so easy yeah of course even to locate that there's nothing it had disappeared could be under the mats or in the sand and so that was a difficult operation after the winter we had to to decide for another method due to the situation of the the vessel itself had deteriorated very much due to the weather mainly due to the weather conditions and have fallen apart and we had to bring in a huge crane was a huge wreck wrap and wrap it into pieces but much more pieces of course than initially thought the contract stipulates that the salvage team must leave the seafloor as clean as possible under the watchful eye of French authorities truly every last piece is tracked down for removal this is time-consuming work even though the wreck grab keeps bringing up sizeable pieces it still takes longer than lifting the large sections the work goes on for months then at the end of the summer of 2004 the immense job is done the trickle or and her entire cargo have been recovered after a year and a half of hard work one of the largest salvage operations ever has reached a successful conclusion for the owner tool a tiring time has come to an end well it's it's obviously not good for your reputation to have your vessel sunk and and and the cargo lost and also the vessel lost but I think all in all I think we have proven that the shipping industry can take care of things when when when bad things happen and I think the shipping industry needs to prove that because we had unfortunately we have a few incidents where that has not been the case that has been in for unfortunate for the shipping business and I think this proves the opposite [Music] you [Music] you

Channel: SMIT Salvage | Towage

Views: 4,159,661

Rating: 4.5839648 out of 5

Keywords: SMIT, Salvage, Tricolor, car carrier, collision

Id: 0ENOJBLVgjw

Length: 26min 53sec (1613 seconds)

Published: Mon Jun 23 2014

Reddit Comments

[u/tugrumpler]

That was long but amazing. I did not expect a high production-value documentary.

[u/whythecynic]

"All Spring now, we've been with her
on a barge lent by a friend.
Three dives a day in hard hat suit,
and twice I've had the bends!
Thank God it's only sixty feet,
and currents here are slow,
Or I'd never have the strength to go below;

We've patched her rents, stopped her vents,
dogged hatch and porthole down,
Put cables to her, fore and aft,
and girded her around.
Tomorrow noon we hit the air,
and then take up the strain,
And make the Mary Ellen Carter rise again!"

• Stan Rogers, "The Mary Ellen Carter".

Edit: I linked a cover by mistake (though it's a cool one too).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QBSQsw3bi1g

Stan Rogers' original, thanks to /u/Colt4587
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8uirXFig0IQ

If you love good, hearty folk tunes about Canada, check out the work of Stan Rogers. Heck, catch me on the street and I'll sing his songs for you any time.

[u/PM_ME_BUNZ]

Thanks for sharing, that was seriously impressive. I love when "simple" solutions are used for such massive problems.

"Let's just use a GIGANTIC wire saw and cut it into 9 pieces!"

[u/-Itrex-]

Source

[u/YOUREABOT]

UNBELIEVABLE

[u/lordspidey]

hmmm engineering boner.

[u/pmmeyourpussyjuice]

Don't show this to Phil Swift.

[u/red_ikea_bin]

Salvage work is cool af. Anyone here work in salvage/marine heavy lift? Can you get a start in those industries without prior marine experience?

[u/BigBananaSouffle]

All those nice Rolls Royce cars.....