Storms were raging on Christmas Eve last year. At the port of Viana do Castelo in Portugal, high seas and exceptionally strong winds caused the Coral Bulker to run aground next to the breakwater. The vessel, weighing 28,454t, had been carrying a full cargo of wood chips and timber. The double bottom of the vessel was breached and water had flooded the engines, and the ship was continually battered by the heavy sea as it lay by the breakwater.

With the ship ruined, Florida-based marine salvage company, Titan Maritime Industries was awarded a wreck removal contract and in due course began mobilisation of equipment from its warehouses both in Fort Lauderdale, Florida and Newhaven, UK. A total of 25 Titan personnel, including a salvage master, divers, salvors, an on-shore coordinator and hydraulic engineers were sent to the site in May 2001.

Titan’s plan to salvage the wreckage was to roll the entire vessel onto the breakwater, which would enable the team to dismantle the ship while working on dry land. Instead of lifting it, Titan decided to roll the vessel over by pulling at it laterally. According to Titan, this technique was an innovation. ‘Nothing like this had ever been done before,’ claims Titan Maritime vice president Daniel Schwall.

Rolling the vessel over was achieved by first unloading the entire cargo of wood chips and timber. With the cargo holds empty, Titan began the task of removing the ship’s superstructure. The vessel was cut in two using a 17t drop chisel suspended and repeatedly dropped from one of the Coral Bulker’s own deck cranes, which had been left in place for this task.

Once the vessel had been separated into two pieces, the salvors began the task of rolling the forward section of the ship on top of the port’s breakwater. Rolling of the forward section was completed using Titan’s in-house designed lifting system, Titan Pullers, which were anchored to the inshore side of the breakwater on buried hatch covers, previously removed from the stricken vessel. The Titan Puller is, in effect, a linear hydraulic chain puller. When used in different configurations it is capable of lifting heavy weights. Each puller can lift up to 350t, according to Schwall. Another advantage of Titan Pullers, says Schwall, is that the lifting forces can be spread out over a larger portion of a severely weakened structure – such as the Coral Bulker.

In much the same fashion as the forward section, the stern section of the Coral Bulker was then heaved on to the breakwater. Once the stern of the ship was fully on the breakwater, the pullers were dismantled and the hull was broken up. By the end of June 2001 the job was complete and the whole site was demobilised.