Costa Concordia Parbuckling Process Began This Morning

At 9.00 A.M. the Titan Micoperi Consortium announced that Parbuckling operations of Costa Concordia had commenced. Capt Nick Sloane, the Senior Salvage Master, gave the order to activate the commands that will be sent from the Control Room on the barge “Polluce” in the immediate vicinity of the bow of the Concordia.

All commands and signals – e.g. activation of strand jacks, opening and closing of sponson valves, information about the position of the wreck – will be sent to and from the barge control room via two separate “umbilicals” (one used as a back-up for the other); these are cables arranged between the control room and the ship guaranteeing communication between the two.

The team operating in the Barge Control Room includes 11 experts: a dedicated Ballast Engineer, ROV pilots, engineers who are strandjack specialists, a computer engineer and a design engineer.

The team members in the control room will operate all the systems and monitor progress using 8 monitors. Five TV cameras with five microphones have been placed on the highest deck of the Concordia; the images and sounds monitored during the parbuckling will allow the engineers to make adjustments depending on any twist and torsion arising on the ship.

Duplication of the monitors has been provided in the “Salvage Room” ashore, where all the other engineers and technicians will follow the operation and be able to provide assistance if and when the need arises.

7.45 A.M.: The salvage Master Nick Sloane and the technicians of the operations team are embarking to reach the control room. In the meantime the operations for the positioning of the operating units are still ongoing. The connections with the control room have been activated and systems testing is proceeding.

Once this operation is completed, the parbuckling can begin.

There are no technical problems.

6.22 A.M.: The starting of parbuckling operations initially planned at 6.15 has been rescheduled for about two hours (tbc) due to the strong thunder storms last night on the island. The storms had in fact prevented the positioning of the barge on which the control room is installed and other operative units.

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Press Release, September 16, 2013