Titan Maritime redelivers “APL Panama” to owners
Titan Maritime redelivers “APL Panama” to owners
Marine salvage company Titan Maritime LLC, returned March 12 the 4,038-TEU containership “APL Panama” to its owners Mare Britannicum Schiffahrtsges Mbh & Co., after successfully freeing the ship from a sandbar near Ensenada, Mexico.
The 874-foot vessel ran aground Dec. 25 with about 2,000 containers aboard, but salvage crews were unable to dislodge the vessel until they tried a new tactic at the end of February — to dredge a channel allowing seawater to float the vessel.
Titan, acquired by Crowley Maritime Corp. in September, said the operation was one of the largest refloatings of a laden containership ever undertaken.
Included in the mobilization were 20 truckloads of salvage gear, five 300-ton hydraulic pullers, seven tugboats with a combined 500 tons of bollard pull, a flat deck barge upon which the pullers were mounted, three crawler stick cranes of varying sizes, a SkyCrane helicopter and a dredge.