Building on a Legacy of Firsts

The world's oldest and largest salvage company knows how to get the job done.

Published Dec 19, 2013 10:49 AM by Tony Munoz

The SVITZER name has been serving the towing and salvage industries for almost two centuries, and today it operates in more than 40 countries with an estimated fleet of 500 vessels. In 1833, Emil Zeuthen Svitzer, just 27, established the Em. Z. Svitzer Bergnings-Enterprise Company in Copenhagen, Denmark, and a legend was born.

Shipping was a risky business at the time, and the sea routes to and from Copenhagen were not easy to navigate because there were no navigational aids to warn of impending coastlines or weather conditions. In the early 1800s, a group of Danish fishermen formed a salvage guild and rescued ships in distress for extra income. Young Svitzer seized the opportunity and founded a professional salvage company, which is considered the first in the world.

As ships sailed the Baltic Sea to reach Copenhagen, Svitzer’s flat-bottomed cutter, Gammelholm, always seemed to be in the right place at the right time, and he made a reputation transporting salvaged cargoes from sea to shore. By 1842, the company acquired the first diving equipment of the era and, many years later, in 1907, Peter Hansen, a SVITZER diver, took out the first patent on the two-bolted helmet – a company of firsts.

Following Svitzer’s death in 1886, the company rapidly changed and expanded in line with the maritime industry generally. It extended operations to other regions including Scandinavia, the Mediterranean, and as far away as China. By the early 20th century the family no longer ran the business, but it continued to become a company without equal.

A Modern Company Emerges

Maersk entered the picture during the 1940s when the A.P. Møller-Maersk Group bought shares in SVITZER essentially to prevent investors from acquiring a controlling interest and selling off assets. By the 1970s Maersk was the majority stockholder with an 80-percent interest, and in 1979 SVITZER became a wholly owned subsidiary of the A.P. Møller-Maersk Group.

Around the same time the increasing demand for energy and a sharp growth in international trade created new opportunities, which SVITZER exploited. The growth of offshore exploration and drilling for energy in the North Sea provided SVITZER with numerous opportunities for subsea diving and pipeline installation work, oil rig inspection and support, and the provision of emergency rescue and response vessels. The salvage market also changed as vessels became increasingly larger and more technically advanced.

By the 1990s it was clear that the SVITZER Group had growth and expansion opportunities around the world. Salvage and emergency response and rescue services were becoming a standard (and required) part of maritime operations. In 1999, SVITZER purchased a large Swedish towing company, and in 2001 it acquired the Dutch towing and salvage giant Wijsmuller, which had harbor towing, terminal service and salvage operations around the world. Overnight, SVITZER Salvage became the largest company of its kind on the planet.

No Two Jobs Are the Same

Since 1995, SVITZER has dealt with more than 300 salvage jobs from New Zealand to the North Sea, and no two are the same. SVITZER Salvage CEO Peter Pietka says it is important to foster entrepreneurial thinking from his salvage masters because each and every job presents different technical and logistical challenges. Salvage is dangerous work because of unstable vessels and a constantly changing marine environment. Pietka says salvage masters bear great responsibility for SVITZER personnel, environmental ecosystems, and the capital assets of both the company and its clients.

Last October the French-flagged passenger-and-car ferry Napoleon Bonaparte was battered while moored at its berth in Marseilles by winds measured at 75 knots (Force 12 on the Beaufort scale). The ship was ripped from its moorings and pushed into an opposing dock with its hull torn open. The ferry quickly began to list to starboard, hampering local responders. The ship then sank into the seabed and stopped listing. Local responders managed to stop the flooding and maintain the water levels inside, which resulted in a floating bow and a submerged stern.

SVITZER sent an inspection team to assess the situation. Water levels were halfway up the car deck and contaminated with hydrocarbons from the ship’s fuel and lubes. The company’s naval architects immediately began working on feasibility scenarios to refloat the ferry. It was eventually decided to do it without external support.

Divers worked around the ship in the dark crypts to find interconnections between watertight compartments. They also placed large steel plates onto staircases and in front of elevator doors. High-capacity pumps pushed water to a filtration system. As the water was removed, the ship began rising from the seabed. Soon the engine room and auxiliary rooms were dewatered as well. After weeks of strenuous and tricky work, the vessel was successfully refloated without environmental damage and secured.

A more famous incident involved the 236-meter container ship Rena, which ran aground on October 5, 2011 on Astrolabe Reef in New Zealand. The ship was transporting 1,368 containers at 17 knots when the grounding occurred. It also carried eight containers of hazardous materials, 1,700 tons of heavy fuel oil and 200 tons of diesel oil.

By October 9, a five-kilometer (3.1 mile) oil spill began threatening wildlife and regional fishing grounds. Soon bad weather caused the ship to shift on the reef. The crew was evacuated, but the listing vessel lost roughly 350 tons of oil, prompting the New Zealand Environmental Minister to call it the worst environmental disaster in the nation’s history. The situation was precarious for SVITZER Salvage as its team dealt with the Rena firmly grounded on Astrolabe Reef. The reef swell made assessing the vessel very difficult and dangerous. The SVITZER team understood there was a high chance the ship could succumb to the elements and break up.

Power had been lost and the first concern was to stabilize the ship and offload the fuel and lubes. SVITZER mobilized its global force of salvors and brought in equipment from Holland, Australia, Singapore, the U.S. and New Zealand. There was also tremendous pressure mounting on SVITZER Salvage to step up and articulate the facts and challenges as well as deal with the public’s expectations. While the salvage team worked to secure the ship, the company also had to provide extensive government and media briefings. The public only saw the broken ship on the reef, but SVITZER had to explain the facts and realities of such an operation.

“SVITZER had to explain to the stakeholders, the public and media that there would not be any quick fixes,” said Pietka. “Whereas public opinion could have swung against the company, we were mostly praised for our candidness and detailed explanations about the stages of the operation.”

In the first week of January 2012, the stern section of Rena broke away and sank into the reef, which caused further environmental damage. But the public had been made aware of the impending event by continual updates from SVITZER’s media briefings. SVITZER Salvage had been able to remove 1,500 tons of oil from the ship. By February, it had recovered more than 500 containers from the ship and from the water. By June, the company had brought more than 940 containers ashore.

“SVITZER actually got nominated by the New Zealand Herald for ‘Person of the Year,’” said Pietka. “And we received more than 1,000 letters from children thanking the company for keeping the event from becoming a major oil spill. If there is one country we are famous in, it would be New Zealand.”

Safety Through Preparation

Today, more than 50,000 commercial vessels operate around the world, and accidents happen due to forces of nature, human error or technical problems. Because SVITZER is aware of the huge capital investment by its clients, it works on preparedness programs including joint training exercises. It also operates its own training center and has established certification programs for a number of curriculums including gas carrier salvage, onsite certified safety officer training, and firefighting. SVITZER is also a member of the International Salvage Union, the American Salvage Association, the North American Marine Environmental Protection Association (NAMEPA), COCP, IMCA and SNAME.

In the U.S., the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 (OPA 90), which was signed into law due to the overwhelming public reaction to the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Prince William Sound in 1989, revolutionized safety procedures for vessels transporting oil in U.S. waters. While SVITZER maintains a warehouse in Fort Lauderdale specifically for OPA 90 services, it also has more than fifty agreements with towage, divers, heavy lift and lightering providers for supplementary equipment and personnel throughout the U.S.

SVITZER became a major player in pre-established response agreements pursuant to OPA 90’s Salvage and Marine Firefighting regulations for all tank vessels and non-tank vessels over 400 gross tons calling U.S. waters. SVITZER has created and also uses marine firefighting plans approved by private and public stakeholders. In fact, it maintains a strategic partnership with Industrial Emergency Services LLC, which has a team of more than 100 firefighting support personnel. It also maintains ISO 9001-certified Quality Management Systems (QMS) and Safety Management Systems (SMS).

Global expansion and its status as a subsidiary of the worldwide A.P. Møller-Maersk Group have cemented SVITZER’s position as a world leader in salvage and emergency rescue and response. Under Pietka’s leadership, its message to vessel operators is a simple one: Find a trusted salvage partner by pre-appointment and be prepared before an incident happens in order to save lives, minimize the impact, and protect sensitive ecosystems.

Tony Munoz is Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of The Maritime Executive.

The opinions expressed herein are the author's and not necessarily those of The Maritime Executive.