The Baltic Ace was a vehicle carrier, which on December 5, 2012 collided in the North Sea with the Cyprus-flagged container ship Corvus J. The salvage of the wrecked ship was a major challenge.
The 148-meter-long ship had sailed from Belgium destined for Finland, loaded with 1,400 Mitsubishi brand cars, which had Russia’s market as their final destination.
The collision occurred at 18:15 GMT approximately 25-30 nautical miles off the coast of Rotterdam in the Netherlands, in one of the busiest places in the world. According to a company spokesperson, the cause of the collision was human error.
After the collision, the Baltic Ace began taking on water, capsized and sank within 15 minutes in shallow waters. According to the ship’s management company, the Corvus J struck the Baltic Ace on the side, where the void spaces are only 1.3 meters wide, thus quickly flooding the cargo decks. The Corvus J sustained serious damage but was not in danger of sinking, and also participated in the search and rescue operation.
The weather conditions were bad, with three-meter waves and snowfall hampering the search and rescue operation. This resulted in the operation being suspended and resumed in the morning. 5 of the 24 crew members lost their lives and another 6 were declared missing.
Thirteen crew members, including the ship’s Polish captain, were rescued from life rafts by helicopters and passing ships. According to the Dutch coast guard, the chance of finding more survivors was “virtually zero” and the search for the missing crew members, who were likely trapped in the wreck, was called off the day after the incident.
The tragic toll was 11 sailors, members of the ship’s crew, who lost their lives so unjustly.
The salvage operation for the wrecked ship
Resting at a depth of just 35 meters near the port of Rotterdam, on one of the busiest shipping lanes, with approximately 540,000 liters of fuel oil in its tanks and more than 1,400 cars, the wreck of the Baltic Ace was simultaneously a danger to navigation and the environment. In March 2014, Rijkswaterstaat awarded the contract for the complete removal of the sunken RoRo ship to the Dutch companies Royal Boskalis Westminster and Mammoet.
Once the remaining quantity of fuel was pumped out, the ship was cut into 8 separate pieces and raised from the seabed. The same method was used for the removal of the wreck of the car carrier MV Tricolor, which sank in the English Channel, and for the removal of the bow of the Russian submarine Kursk before the rest of the hull was raised.
Watch the interesting video that follows
