Tugs help refloat grounded bulk carrier in Queensland, Australia

Grounded bulk carrier, Cape Falcon, has been refloated on a high tide with assistance from a fleet of Boluda Towage Australia tugs.

This 2022-built Liberia-flagged ship grounded around six nautical miles outside of the Port of Gladstone, in central Queensland, Australia, as it was heading to an anchorage point for bunkering.

Previous attempts to refloat the 292-m ship, which is owned by Japan-headquartered Shoei Kisen Kaisha and classed by ClassNK, failed due to the rigidity of its grounding in the seabed.

It was finally refloated on 24 September, six days after it grounded. A fleet of Boluda tugboats supported the refloating project by moving the 93,972-gt vessel sideways to ease it from the seabed before a high tide enabled crews to tow it off the shelf and to a safe anchorage.

Cape Falcon had left Hays Point, Queensland, on 17 September on its way to the bunkering anchorage point outside Gladstone port, according to automatic identification system data. It did not make the anchorage nor the port.

Following its refloat, the Australian Maritime Safety Authority has held the bulk carrier for a seaworthiness inspection before it can leave the country.

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau has started an investigation into the grounding using information from the ship’s voyage data recorder and from weather and sea reports from the time of the grounding.

Gladstone is a major port on Australia’s eastern coastline for exports of coal, minerals and LNG.