AAL Salvages Sunken Tugs in Tasmania

AAL Shipping has deployed one of its ‘mega-size’ MPVs to lift and remove a pair of sunken tugs from the Mersey River in Devonport, northern Tasmania.

The 31,000 DWT A-Class AAL Melbourne, more accustomed to transporting unwieldy components on the carrier’s longstanding Asia to Australia East Coast Liner Service, was sent to salvage the two boats after they were sunk in January following a collision with a cement carrier.

The recovery was planned over several months, AAL said, and involved working closely with other stakeholders including New South Wales-based marine salvage specialist United Salvage, port operator TasPorts and cargo insurers.

Chris Yabsley, chartering manager at AAL Australia, said United Salvage, hired to remove the tugs, originally planned to use a floating crane and barge to carry out the operation.

“However, once we demonstrated that our A-Class vessel could not only recover the tugs but also transport them back up the East Coast for delivery to Brisbane, it was clear that AAL would be the perfect partner,” Yabsley said.

The first tug – the 420-tonne York Cove – was hoisted out of the water in early August using the AAL Melbourne’s two port-mounted cranes working in tandem. Two large holes were cut into the hull to allow water and sediment to drain.

The second tug – the 455-tonne Campbell Cove – was recovered and loaded onto the MPV a few days later.

Both tugs were securely lashed to the weather deck for their onward voyage to Brisbane.

“Lifting took time as the tugs weighed significantly more than expected, due to trapped water and fuel,” said Nicola Pacifico, Head of Transport Engineering at AAL.

“Working throughout the evening on the second tug, the full weight of the tug stayed on our ship’s cranes overnight, awaiting the salvage company to pump out whatever was still trapped inside her.”

TasPorts CEO Anthony Donald quoted insurers and salvors as saying it was one of the most complex salvage activities they had undertaken.

“We not only had the significant challenge of tide and weather, but also the natural eddies in the area and potential marine pollution,” said the executive, who estimated that more than 100 people worked on the project.

The removal of the sunken tugs allowed Devonport to return to normal operations.

Singapore-headquartered AAL owns a fleet of 24 vessels of various classes with a combined total of 688,200 DWT.

The carrier will be exhibiting at Breakbulk Americas 2022, taking place on 27-29 September at the George R. Brown Convention Centre in Houston.

To register for the conference, click here.