US salvors are preparing to begin the next phase of removing a major wreck in North America, while the US Coast Guard is orchestrating a search for missing seafarers in the Pacific
On the wreck of car carrier Golden Ray in St Simons Sound, Georgia, salvors are preparing to cut the next section before its removal and recycling. Preparations include maintenance on critical wreck removal equipment, perforating the projected cut groove and drilling additional drainage holes along the bottom of the section. Responders have performed maintenance on the cutting apparatus, with heavy lift vessel VB-10000 secured in place with a protective barrier between the vessel’s pontoons.
Sea-fastening operations are also underway aboard Barge 455-8 at Mayors Point Terminal in Brunswick, Georgia, in preparation to transit section eight to the recycling facility in Louisiana. During these operations, responders are mitigating light oil sheens and recovering debris on the water and at the shoreline.
While in the Pacific Ocean, the US Coast Guard and US Navy are co-ordinating with shipping to search and rescue 10 crewmembers of fishing vessel Yong-Yu-Sing 18. The partners have been searching for the crew since the start of this year after Rescue Co-ordination Centre Taipei lost contact with the vessel. Their search is centred around 885 km northeast of Midway Island after an aircraft spotted the drifting vessel with a missing liferaft and no signs of the 10 seafarers. This search involves four Taiwanese fishing vessels, four AMVER partner ships and various aircraft.
“Our partners during the search efforts have consecutively completed 29 search sorties lasting 73-hours in total and covering more than 40,000 square nautical-miles,” said Joint Rescue Co-ordination Centre Honolulu’s search and rescue mission co-ordinator Commander Scott Higbee. “We will continue to co-ordinate closely and look into all search options while we move forward,” he said.
Also in the Pacific, a Japanese Coast Guard ship was mobilised on 13 January to save 22 seafarers from a sinking bulk carrier. Panama-flagged, 1984-built bulk carrier Yong Feng issued a distress signal in the Philippine Sea, 400 nautical miles southeast of Miyakojima, Okinawa island, Japan. There are reports crew escaped into a lifeboat after the ship, carrying wood from Papua New Guinea to China, listed.
In the Philippines, a passenger vessel required support to refloat after running aground on 11 January. Passenger and cargo ship Manoling 2 grounded at Danao City, Cebu with 53 passengers and 25 crew on board, according to Fleetmon. Some of the passengers have been evacuated, while others were waiting for weather conditions to improve. The vessel is awaiting assistance to be refloated.
Another ship requiring emergency towage is Marshall Islands-flagged bulk carrier Christos Theo, which remains anchored away from shipping channels in the Suez Canal. This 2010-built ship suffered rudder and propeller damage while avoiding a collision below Great Bitter Lake, during its northern route transit on 29 December. According to automatic identification system data, Christos Theo remains at anchorage waiting for tugs to tow it to its port of destination, Koper in Slovenia, and then to a shiprepair yard.
Post-Panamax container ship, Northern Jubilee is under tow in the Red Sea after it suffered an engineroom fire on 18 December 2020. This Madeira-flagged, 2009-built box ship is being towed by 2011-built tug Virgo from King Abdullah Port in Saudi Arabia to Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
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