MCA: MSC NAPOLI Salvage Operation is Finished

Hugh Shaw, the Secretary of States Representative for Maritime Salvage and Intervention (SOSREP) officially declared an end to the salvage and wreck removal operations of the MSC Napoli on Thursday 29th July 2009, 924 days after it all began.

The MSC Napoli was beached at Branscombe on Saturday 20 January 2007 and since then there have been several salvage and wreck removal phases aimed initially at removing her fuel oil, then her cargo, and ultimately the wreck of the MSC Napoli itself.

The final stage of the operations involved removing the stern section of the MSC Napoli from the sea bed and this work was undertaken by Global Response Maritime, a salvage and wreck removal company based in Holland. They had been contracted by the P&I insurance underwriters, The London P&I Club, to lift the final section from the sea bed, cut it up, and remove the scrap to an approved disposal contractor. Following completion, a multi-beam survey of the seabed was carried out to clearly demonstrate that there was no further risk to safety or risk of pollution from hazardous substances.

This has now been successfully completed and the contractors, their barges and tugs have now left the site to return to Holland – well ahead of the expected completion schedule of the end of August.

Ian Ferguson, Director at A Bilbrough & Co, Managers of the London P & I Club, said, “The Club is delighted that the two and a half year operation to remove the MSC Napoli has come to a very successful conclusion. The Club extends its thanks and appreciation to all those who have worked so hard to make this possible.” His thoughts were seconded by Julian Wardlaw, Chairman of the Environment Group who added, “We are pleased that after two and a half years all of the Oil, Cargo and Wreck has finally been removed with minimum impact on the Environment. We would like to thank all those involved in the clean- up project and for the fantastic team effort in bringing it to a conclusion.”