Berger Boskalis brought the burnt-out disaster ship to Eemshaven, despite a long-running argument with the Japanese owner about money for an earlier job.
Boskalis has taken the Japanese to a British court because the Dutch recovery company was not paid enough for another major job. The refloating of the Ever Given in the Suez Canal in 2021. ,,That’s right, we are involved in a legal battle with the Japanese about this. But, in times of need, you get over it,” says Peter Berdowski, director of Boskalis.
‘Cars at the bottom can roll out’
Berdowski says that a plan is now being worked on to ‘get the maximum number of the nearly 4,000 cars on the Fremantle Highway’ in Eemshaven. “We think the cars that are at the bottom can still be removed while rolling.”
Talks are already underway with buyers, scrappers and shredder companies. “Thanks to our experience, we have a worldwide network. But the owner of the cars also wants to say something about it. They are German cars, they may have to be processed in that country.”
Another factor that plays a role, according to Berdowski, is ‘to what extent the cars are polluted’. “Then driving out for a while is a bit more sensitive than when they are still clean, so to speak.” According to Berdowski, government inspections have been carried out on how and whether work can be done on board.
‘That was the greatest danger’
The biggest windfall in the salvage of the disaster ship in the North Sea, the Boskalis boss says, is that the fire on board has been extinguished. “The fire was the greatest danger. And that the ship would capsize and sink. We towed the ship to Eemshaven without any problems. Our approach is no guarantee of success. We were also involved in the fire on such a car freighter off the Azores, which eventually sank.”
2023-08-04 19:32:46
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