MSC Napoli

As I expected, the salvage contract for the stern has gone to Smit. The stern will be lifted or if this is not possible, it will be cut up in-situ. This is anticipated for the middle of November.

Good, should provide some employment for H&W.

I couldn’t help noticing this article. There’s even an “Enlarge” link 😀

The bow of the Napoli arrived safely in Belfast yesterday.

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/article2861821.ece

napolis grounding is a shame to the MSC company ive sailed behind thier vessels and been on board most of thier ships were in better condition than the one i was on, MSC maintians thier fleet well but guess its one of those things.

Am unable to comment on the condition of their fleet but can mention that there are official concerns on the quality of the crews they employ, without casting any dispersions on yourself. The fact that they employ multi-lingual crews on the same ship does create an uncomfortable situation in the event of an emergency where immediate clear communciations may be a matter of life or death.

As far as the Napoli is concerned, it was grounded in 2001 and there are suspicions that this may have weakened the hull which necessitated the urgent grounding of the ship this year to prevent a massive oil spill if the ship had sunk in the English Channel.

Another incident concerning MSC was the collision on 13th June 2000 when the MSC Sabrina hit the Concordia off the Netherlands coast and fifteen minutes also collided with the Wintertide ship.

Weather here is not the best for a sea voyage, im surprised they took her as they wanted a “clear weather window”. It could be worse I suppose.H&W will need to clear their shipyard first there is a fair bit of stuff at the back including a ferry unless its departed recently!

Join Date: Jan 2000
Location: Toulouse, France
Posts: 4,343

But it’s not sailing from Toulouse Andrew?:confused: Anyway, it commenced sailing at 1600 BST today and is being towed by the tug Anglian Earl. Anyone going to get an aerial photo?

Weather here is not the best for a sea voyage, im surprised they took her as they wanted a “clear weather window”. It could be worse I suppose.

H&W will need to clear their shipyard first there is a fair bit of stuff at the back including a ferry unless its departed recently!

The bow of the MSC Napoli is due to commence its final journey late tomorrow, Friday to Harland & Wolff’s shipyard at Belfast for disposal. The tow will take about five days from Sidmouth.

napolis grounding is a shame to the MSC company ive sailed behind thier vessels and been on board most of thier ships were in better condition than the one i was on, MSC maintians thier fleet well but guess its one of those things.

The bow is now ready to be towed to a port for scrapping and tenders for the disposal of the stern have been issued.

Last weekend, crews were removing oil from the beaches of Seaton, Branscomb, Charmouth and West Bay.

I was only joking NF, but it was a disgrace to bring the ship over from French waters and dump it in such a lovely spot without consulting with Devon County Council, what was in the minds of the powers that be at the time is anybodies guess.
I don’t know what affect it will have had on the tourist trade, presumably people have cancelled or like myself, will keep away, I’m fairly resilient myself and I’m sure the area would benefit from my cash, but I’ll have 2 young kids with me and I’m not prepared to risk them getting covered in oil or standing on something offshore.
The water around Branscombe is pretty murky at the best of times, the de-contaminations squads, with the best will in the world, can’t guarantee that everything has been recovered from that vessel or rather, what came off of it.
I remember the Torrey Canyon well, we went to the Isle of Wight that year and they’d even put booms across the Solent at Lymington because they were so worried about the oil spill.
I have been tangled up in oil spills on beaches before, mainly in East Anglia, it’s not funny having to wipe down yourself and the kids with white spirit on a sunny day.

A bit of practice for the RAF re the Torrey Canyon might have done the trick.

Not forgetting the efforts of the Royal Navy or maybe they do want to forget that episode as a quarter of their 42 bombs failed to hit the target. anyway the purpose of that exercise was to dispose of the oil and I expect the RAF are a tad busy in other theatres at the moment. I think Devon County are very unhappy with the current situation where this catastrophe was dumped on their doorstep without a by your leave so I don’t think they would appreciate the remains being scattered over their seabed, not politically correct.

That is why it has taken so long to get the thing floating again. The time has been spent sealing all the holes so when it was split in two, it wouldn’t sink again. Sea salvage is quite an exact science although mistakes do still happen. The Dutch are the experts in this field or should I say sea.

A bit of practice for the RAF re the Torrey Canyon might have done the trick.

How they they “float” the two sections without sinking them as i imagine unless they blew up at a bulk head (how accurate are explosives) there would be alot of holes to let water in?

That is why it has taken so long to get the thing floating again. The time has been spent sealing all the holes so when it was split in two, it wouldn’t sink again. Sea salvage is quite an exact science although mistakes do still happen. The Dutch are the experts in this field or should I say sea.

The parts of the ship were boomed to prevent leakage, but the edges of the ship have damagaed the booms which have now been removed for damage assessment. Some oil has reached the beaches at Seaton and West Bay which is being attended to by the anti contamination crews.

Doesn’t sound very promising, mackerel fishing off Beer could be out then. Ever hired one of those clinker built boats from Beer, they are fantastic, I took my son out once and the fishing line was ripped out of his hand, fortunately I had the reel wrapped around a seat, but what ever was on the end was pulling the boat forwards and down, luckily, after getting pulled round the boat and getting wrapped round the prop, the line snapped, by this time I had put on full power to get away, we limped back to the beach with my terrified son convinced it was a shark, we’ll never know, this time it could be a BMW.

How they they “float” the two sections without sinking them as i imagine unless they blew up at a bulk head (how accurate are explosives) there would be alot of holes to let water in?

The parts of the ship were boomed to prevent leakage, but the edges of the ship have damagaed the booms which have now been removed for damage assessment. Some oil has reached the beaches at Seaton and West Bay which is being attended to by the anti contamination crews.

What’s the state of the beaches in the area at the moment, I’m off to Devon in a couple of weeks and don’t particulary want to find myself swimming in an oil slick or paddling amongst broken vodka bottles, full one’s would be nice though.
Think I’ll stick to the north coast as a precaution.