The water-side salvage of the mobile harbour cranes that fell from heavy lift vessel Jumbo Vision in Rostock Port on January 31 has been completed. The first of the cranes was recovered on Saturday, the second was lifted ashore on 9 March in the afternoon using the Hebo Lift 9 floating crane.

The cranes fell into the water of port basin B after being loaded onto the Jumbo Vision. The investigation into the cause of the accident is still ongoing although Jumbo did say there has been no evidence the cranes came into contact with the shipboard cranes.

Salvage operation

Salvage company HEBO started the salvage work last week in close cooperation with Baltic Taucherei- und Bergungsbetrieb Rostock GmbH and Krebs Korrosionschutz GmbH. The first task was to recover the two crane booms. The specialists at Baltic divers undid the lattice booms of the two mobile harbour cranes so that they could be recovered before the large floating crane arrived.

The separated jibs were recovered by the Baltic Lift floating crane, which has a maximum lifting capacity of 200 tonnes. Thanks to this preliminary work, the Hebo Lift 9 floating crane was able to safely bring both devices (consisting of the undercarriage, rotating platform and tower) ashore in one stroke. With a maximum lifting height of 67 metres, the floating crane has a maximum lifting capacity of 800 tonnes.

Berth and basin soon available again

After the devices have been placed on the quay edge and cleaned in a specially designed washbasin, the damaged cranes will be brought to the Liebherr-MCCtec Rostock GmbH site for further tests. So berth 25 in Rostock’s port will soon be fully usable again.

“The past few weeks have been challenging for everyone”, says Dr Gernot Tesch, Managing Director of Rostock Port. “All port companies looked forward to the resumption of port operations in port basin B. The transhipment, but also the dredging work in port basin B can now be carried out again without restrictions.”

This article first appeared on SWZ|Maritime, a sister publication of Project Cargo Journal.

Picture: Recovery of the first crane (by Liebherr-MCCtec Rostock GmbH).