Maritime Maisie Saga Ends

The managers of the Maritime Maisie (the “Vessel”), MSI Ship Management (“MSI”) are pleased to report the successful ship to ship transfer of all the chemical cargoes and fuel oils from the Maritime Maisie.  This completes the safe salvage of the vessel.  The managers are most appreciative of the support from the Government of Korea and the Port of Ulsan whose agreement to provide a Place of Refuge for the final safe salvage of the vessel, enabled the final safe resolution.

That decision, made possible a safe conclusion to a tense and complicated 106 days and was welcomed by owners and managers who deeply appreciate the hard work, careful analysis and important safety considerations that went into the decision by the Korea Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries (KMOF), Ulsan Regional Maritime Affairs & Port Administration and Ulsan Port Authority with the ongoing assistance of Hong Kong Marine Department. 

The owners and managers would also like to extend their heartfelt gratitude to the many professionals at sea and ashore who for more than three months have worked tirelessly to see the vessel safely to this point, with a special note of thanks to the Korean Coast Guard, who evacuated all the crew to safety on the first day of the incident.

Mr Li Kwok Hung, MD of MSI stated, "I would like to thank our people for working night and day on this for the past three months. We had the great good fortune of working with and being assisted by salvage experts, the best Classification societies in LR, LR SERS and KR, firefighters, chemists, tug boat crews, insurance experts, Hong Kong Marine Department, structure experts, supportive clients - the list is extraordinary, global and indicative of what a campaign like this requires of a twenty first century ship manager and owner when faced with such a challenge.  Our thanks to them all."

Tai Sook Yee, Group MD of IMC reflected, "it has been a true team effort battling through enormous physical, operational, international regulatory and technical hurdles to reach this momentous moment. More than three months of committed hard work by hundreds of talented men and women literally around the world has made this happen.  We would like to thank the ship managers, MSI and especially the people and professionals, industry trade associations and government officials in Korea, Hong Kong and elsewhere."

Fred Tsao, Chairman of IMC stated, "this has been a harrowing and taxing challenge that our team, and the hundreds of professionals and government officials and industry trade associations who have assisted us, have turned in to a success. It is now to us to take this ordeal and turn the lessons learned, the efforts made into meaningful progress on the complexities of the Places of Refuge issue. We appreciate the deep care and thought brought to this resolution by Korea and promise to put all we have collectively learned to work for a safer future."