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Operation 'OS35': how to rescue a 40,288-ton giant stranded in the shadow of Gibraltar

2022-11-25T22:08:14.245Z


The Government of the Rock takes the last steps to define the withdrawal process of the sunken merchant, which will have to be dismembered and removed in parts


The real-time image of what remains afloat of

OS35

It has been pinned to the screens in the Gibraltar Port Authority office since it became the area's biggest maritime disaster in over a decade.

The harbor master, John Ghio, is not one for contempt.

He barely glances at it on the monitor closest to him, as he details—as far as he can—on a blueprint of the merchantman what the laborious plan to rescue a 6,656-ton giant, laden with another 33,632 tons of steel, will be like.

He doesn't want delays, mistakes, or uncontrolled spills.

The order for the insurance of the ship is clear: the semi-sunken bulk carrier on the eastern side of the Rock since August 29 must disappear from there before May 30.

And he warns: "If we are not satisfied with the rescue work, we could take over these tasks at any time."

Ghio and Gibraltar know what is at stake.

In the measured balance of diplomatic relations in the Strait, any event is likely to become an arid row that, for now, has been saved with large doses of collaboration and good words between Spain and the Gibraltarian authorities.

Two and a half months after the disaster and after more than 331,000 liters of fuel, fuel and oil withdrawn, La Roca is now focused on studying in detail the draft rescue plan for the ship's insurance, QBE Europe SA/NV, contracted by the owner Old Stone Management Ltd., a company managed from the port of Piraeus in Greece.

The document —of hundreds of pages and presented on November 9— has been drafted by the company TMC Marine, it will be executed by bidding by Koole Contractors and it is the selected one,

in turn, by the insurer from among the seven companies he contacted.

"We wanted them to be specialists to make it the most efficient project and with the most environmental protection possible," says Ghio, who has closely followed each step taken by the person in charge of the merchant, along with Eric Houtteman, technical operations manager hired by the Rock. for this case.

Although closely the

OS35

seems to be half sunk in one piece 700 meters off the coast of Gibraltar, the truth is that the damage suffered in the event makes it unfeasible for the merchant ship to leave the vicinity of Catalan Bay in its entirety.

“It is impossible to refloat it as a unit.

If it hadn't broken, we could have already removed it in four days ”, details the also president of the Port Authority.

But the bulk carrier buckled in half just two days after the accident.

The hull, already damaged by the 10-meter leak caused by the collision with a methane tanker, was unable to withstand the tensions between the sunken bow and the afloat stern, which the authorities had to end up sinking in a controlled manner to balance the forces.

Now,

Work on the sunken ship 'OS35' stranded in Gibraltar. Marcos Moreno

Although the first step that the rescuers will have to take is to remove the 33,632 tons of steel bars that the 178-meter-long by 28-meter-wide merchant ship was carrying at the time of the sinking.

There are two possible destinations for the load: its recycling or its sale, depending on how the material is after these months under the sea.

Ghio is confident that, once that weight is released, the stern and center will be able to regain their lost buoyancy.

The bow presents a different situation, so damaged that it will foreseeably be necessary to resort to “buoyancy aids” or chains to hoist that piece onto another ship capable of transporting it.

The determining factors are as diverse as they are complex, which is why the project has been considered open to different options, to avoid surprises and last-minute decision-making.

The rescue team will have to deal with the frequent storms in the Strait in winter and will not be able to section the vessel near holds 2 and 5, under which the tanks where the fuel oil was stored are located.

For all these tasks, the

OS35 insurance

He plans to resort to "very specialized machinery" that is located in different ports around the world, although with the commitment to "finish before May 30," says Ghio, also president of the Port Authority.

Once removed from the place, the two parts will end up directly scrapped in a scrapping company approved by the European Union - if the transport is viable - or they will be previously disassembled in the Gibraltar shipyards.

Beyond the end date —already set in a

mandatory

time line

that Gibraltar imposed on the insurance—, the priority for Ghio is to "minimize the risk of spills", such as those that already affected Gibraltarian and Linen beaches in the days after the event.

And that is the most difficult challenge, taking into account that "it is estimated that at least 1% of fuel oil residue will remain on the walls and interior bars of the tanks", according to the captain.

"Even today we continue extracting and sucking these remains before they come out," adds Ghio.

In fact, although today the image of

OS35

You gave a lot of that of those first days in which it appeared surrounded by ships of the Gibraltar Port Authority and Spanish Maritime Rescue, work in the area continues.

In recent weeks, the specialists from Resolve Marine Services —the company designated by the bulk carrier's insurance for these first jobs— have submerged inside the ship to carry out these extraction tasks, despite the fact that the iron merchandise prevents them from accessing the tanks, located under the cargo holds.

In addition, they have cleaned the interior of the rooms that remain afloat of all kinds of furniture and belongings that could become garbage in the event of any mishap.

Work on the sunken ship 'OS35' stranded in Gibraltar. Marcos Moreno

The port of Gibraltar is used by between 9,000 and 10,000 ships a year, which, like the

OS35

, go to refuel at sea —a maneuver known as

bunkering.

, legal but condemned by ecologists—, change crew or get supplies.

Four cameras, three radars and various technical means report this frenetic movement day and night to the control tower in the port of Gibraltar.

They were the same ones that detected that something was not going well on the night of September 29, around 9:25 p.m., when the captain of the bulk carrier —detained and investigated for it— disregarded the orders of the Gibraltarian Captaincy.

The man, experienced at sea and of Syrian nationality, thought he had enough space to avoid a methane tanker anchored next to the port, but a lateral displacement caused him to hit the latter's bulbous bow.

In the control tower they noticed the impact and warned the captain that he had to stop.

The investigator decided to continue his march,

The quick reaction of the Port Authority of Gibraltar prevented the tragedy from being even more complex.

The case of the oil tanker

Prestige

, sunk off the coast of Galicia 20 years ago, already demonstrated the danger of moving a ship away from the coast.

In August 2007, the merchant ship

New Flame

collided with another ship in the Strait, opening a leak to the former.

The distance from the coast and the storms also complicated the rescue.

The merchantman broke up two months later and the two parts were not fully recovered until August 2008. In October of that same year, the

Fedra

it ended up running aground in Gibraltar, after being swept away by a strong storm from the area where it was anchored (about 90 meters deep) with engine problems.

The

OS35

is barely 17 meters deep and partially protected from rough seas thanks to its location in a natural bay.

Gibraltar Harbor Master John Ghio (standing) at the Harbor Master's Office.

Marcos Moreno

"There is a lot of difference between how this case has been carried out and what happened with previous cases, such as

Fedra

," explains Ghio, who became port captain earlier this year.

The president assures that, in recent years, coastal States have improved their protection against disasters thanks to international agreements such as the one in Nairobi, which established strict guidelines for cases of subsidence, such as the obligation to report accidents or that the removal of remains is the obligation of the owner.

But, like everything in the Strait, the understanding between Gibraltar and Spain has also played its part in the case of

OS35

.

El Peñón have already contrasted the plan in detail with the Captaincy of Algeciras.

“It's ridiculous to try to hide anything.

Discharges do not respect borders”, Ghio concludes with satisfaction.

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Source: elparis

All news articles on 2022-11-25

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