Multraship and Mammoet Complete Croatian Clean Up

NETHERLANDS-based salvage specialists Multraship Salvage and Mammoet Salvage have successfully completed the removal of the wreck of a floating dock which sank in June 2007 at the Viktor Lenac shipyard, Rijeka, Croatia.

The 165 m Floating Dry Dock No. 7 weighed 7,000 tonnes and sank in 22 m of water after an electrical power supply failure. Two previous refloating attempts had failed and after a thorough survey and testing of tanks it was decided that refloating of the dock was not feasible. As the sunken dock was impeding access to the yard's other dock, the yard placed a wreck removal contract with Multraship and Mammoet. They worked together to cut the wreck into twenty-four main pieces, each weighing up to 440 tonnes. Multraship's floating sheerlegs Cormorant was used to lift the sections out. In all divers performed over five km of underwater cutting.

The twenty-four strong team began work under the leadership of Multraship project manager Paul Verschure and Mammoet salvage masters Jan Kalkman and Daniel van der Zwaan on January 8, 2009, and completed the job by April 10, 2009.

Leendert Muller, managing director of Multraship, says, "This is a good example of the best of wreck removal in action. The co-operation between our companies to share resources meant we had the right teams and equipment on site quickly. But it still comes down to really hard work by the divers, and to skilful planning and co-ordination for the lifting. It's a big job, and a good job well done." (01-09)

For a downloadable hi-res photograph of the wreck removal, click on: http://picasaweb.google.com/Merlinclients/Multraship