A PATROL boat and three seagoing tugs have arrived at the site off the Yemeni coast where the 8,000-TEU MOL Comfort split in two on June 17 with its fore and aft sections going adrift, said MOL Line.
Some of the containers might be lost or damaged, but most of the cargo is confirmed to be aboard the fore and aft sections, MOL said.
A total of five boats including one more boat which is expected to arrive on June 26 will prepare to salvage hull and cargo, the crew having taken to the boats in the storm and picked up by Hapag Lloyd's 7,500-TEU Yantian Express that happened to be in the area.
Elsewhere, MOL has commenced safety inspections on sister vessels together with the shipbuilder, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI).
As yet, the cause of the accident has not been identified, but MOL, MHI and classification society Nippon Kaiji Kyokai, ClassNK will inspect the Comfort's six sister vessels, the MOL Creation, MOL Charisma, MOL Celebration, MOL Courage, MOL Competence, MOL Commitment.
This inspection is in addition to examinations at sea carried out by the crew of these ships during current voyages and port calls, with orders having gone out to these ships to reduce the stress on their hulls.
"We sincerely apologise for any inconvenience caused by the incident. We take the incident very seriously and continue to devote every effort to rectify the situation at the earliest possible moment. We will also conduct a thorough investigation to determine the cause and take company-wide measures aimed at preventing reoccurrence of such incident in the future," said the MOL statement.
Some of the containers might be lost or damaged, but most of the cargo is confirmed to be aboard the fore and aft sections, MOL said.
A total of five boats including one more boat which is expected to arrive on June 26 will prepare to salvage hull and cargo, the crew having taken to the boats in the storm and picked up by Hapag Lloyd's 7,500-TEU Yantian Express that happened to be in the area.
Elsewhere, MOL has commenced safety inspections on sister vessels together with the shipbuilder, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI).
As yet, the cause of the accident has not been identified, but MOL, MHI and classification society Nippon Kaiji Kyokai, ClassNK will inspect the Comfort's six sister vessels, the MOL Creation, MOL Charisma, MOL Celebration, MOL Courage, MOL Competence, MOL Commitment.
This inspection is in addition to examinations at sea carried out by the crew of these ships during current voyages and port calls, with orders having gone out to these ships to reduce the stress on their hulls.
"We sincerely apologise for any inconvenience caused by the incident. We take the incident very seriously and continue to devote every effort to rectify the situation at the earliest possible moment. We will also conduct a thorough investigation to determine the cause and take company-wide measures aimed at preventing reoccurrence of such incident in the future," said the MOL statement.
It seems that the two halves of the container vessel 'MOL Comfort' can be salvaged says team leader Marius Bakker loss adjuster Cunningham Lindsey in Rotterdam.
He says that based on the first inspections carried out by people of Smit Salvage and Nippon on Monday with patrol and rescue ships arrived near the parts of the ship.
From the 'Capricorn', a tug from Sri Lanka at the front part of the "MOL Comfort 'has arrived, according to Bakker established a first inspection that the ship's half true three meters leans forward (with the head down drives "), but that a bulkhead is in order. "And that's good news for storage. It seems that it looks pretty good. "The tug 'Pacific Terrier' is located elsewhere on the Arabian Sea on the other, rear part of the "MOL Comfort '.'That also seems to look good in, "says Bakker. "From that part of the engine room is still in tact, and it is the part with the most buoyancy."
The distance between the two parts of the ship, both the direction of driving India, is growing day by day. The front part is so hard, that it would be run, as the tugs would not have been there. In on time on the coast of India within a week The rear part, for the weekend was 170 kilometers behind, speed now 360 kilometers behind the front piece.
If the salvage operation would indeed get underway with success is still the question of which port is ready to receive the parts of the "MOL Comfort" says Bakker.
Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, Ltd. updates the status of the containership MOL Comfort as of 23:00 JST (18:00 Dubai time) on June 25, 2013. The vessel could not continue sailing under its own power from June 17 because the hull fractured in 2 parts while under way on the Indian Ocean.
• Vessel
The fore part is located near 15'43"N 69'07"E. The aft part is drifting near 14'03"N 65'30"E in an east-northeast direction. The weather at the site is still adverse.
• Containers (No change from the Update (No.9))
Some of the containers were lost, but majority of the cargo are confirmed to be aboard the fore and aft part.
• Rescue of the cargo and hulls
We have contracted with a salvage company and are proceeding to rescue the cargo and hulls. The four boats arrived at the site on June 24. We have started to tow the fore part toward Arabian Gulf. We will continue to monitor the aft part and prepare for the tow operation.
• Oil leakage
We confirmed no oil film around the fore part. For the aft part, there is oil film, but there is no large volume of oil leakage confirmed.
• Safety inspection on sister vessels (No change from the Update (No.9))
We have started an investigation of the causes together with the shipbuilder, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (hereafter MHI). Although the cause of this incident has not been identified yet, MOL, together with MHI and the classification society (Nippon Kaiji Kyokai, ClassNK), is arranging inspection of the all six sister vessels (*) as quickly as possible. This inspection is in addition to the one carried out by the crew during navigation. MOL also started operational precautions to reduce the stress on the hull as an interim contingency plan.
(*) MOL Creation, MOL Charisma, MOL Celebration, MOL Courage, MOL Competence, MOL Commitment
Source: Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, Ltd.
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