Photos: Ardent Refloats Swedish Cargo Vessel

Salvage crews with Ardent have righted and refloated the self-unloading bulker Sternö, which partially sank at the upstream entrance to the Lilla Edet locks on Sweden's Gota River on February 23. 

Image courtesy Swedish Coast Guard

The vessel came to rest on a jetty structure with a 54-degree list; she was loaded with 1,400 tons of grain. Ardent crews were mobilized in late February, and they completed the salvage operation and delivered the vessel on March 22. 

“There were a lot of elements that we had to battle. The icy weather and the traffic on an active ship channel were big considerations,” said Johan Foks, Ardent Salvage Master. “We mobilized salvage craft and equipment, connected three strand jacks to bollards on the opposite side of the river to parbuckle the vessel.”

“The parbuckle operation corrected the list to 11 degrees, and then we lightered the cargo for the refloating operation,” said Rob Rutten, Ardent’s naval architect for the Sternö salvage operation. “Once we pumped the water out of the engine room and holds, the vessel refloated and was stabilized at a four degree list. We maneuvered the vessel through the locks and moored it quay-side for remaining cargo discharge. The vessel was at a two degree list once we were finished.”

The Sterno arrives in Gothenburg

By March 22, the tugs Svitzer Bob and Svitzer Bonden towed the vessel from Lila Edet to Gothenberg, Sweden.

Separately, on March 9, another Ardent team refloated the cargo vessel Skagern at a position just four nm upstream from the Sternö.