Think on your feet

Accidents will always happen. It does not matter how advanced your equipment is, errors are usually human and as long as the shipping industry has a human factor, the salvage industry will be there to assist. In fact, this industry can assist in the most durable way possible and also looks for ways to inform and train its employees. Svitzer, Mammoet and Multraship, three leading Dutch salvage companies, have granted access into their daily work, allowing a unique insight to the term ‘an accident waiting to happen’.

“It is a strange thing, waiting for someone to be unlucky”, states Arjan Herrebout, director of Mammoet Salvage. “I mean, it is necessary, but still.” Mammoet Salvage is a relatively young player in the salvage industry. Best known for their heavy lifting cranes, the leap to salvage is really quite logical. Founded in January 2006 Mammoet Salvage has grown quickly. Herrebout: “The key is to be ready, around the globe, all hours of the day.” The company has offices in, amongst others, Singapore, Canada, South-America, Australia and the Netherlands, where Maritime by Holland Magazine has sat down to speak with Herrebout. “Our goal is to be internationally available. We have sets of kits ready to go at the drop of a hat and whatever can be bought locally, we will buy locally. You have to think about the costs as well.”

Larger Europe and worldwide

The international versus local approach also applies to Svitzer, a much older player founded in 1833, who have 4,500 employees in over 40 countries. Ulf Teske, head of the PR department at Svitzer, comments: “We have one of the largest fleets worldwide to be able to assist in salvaging as well as emergency response. There are around 500 vessels in our fleet. We want to protect life as well as assets. Not forgetting the environment.” Teske is also the proud head of the Svitzer Salvage Academy, which we will delve into deeper later on in the article. Another large European player is Multraship, based in Terneuzen, the Netherlands, but with a vast network touching Bulgaria, Moldavia and Rumania, just to name a few. Leendert Muller, managing director at Multraship, comments: “You can think of our base being larger Europe and for generations we have been dedicated salvagers.”

The goal is to be
internationally
available

Engineering in-house

When asked how the salvage industry has developed over the last years, Muller states that there has always been a wave-like movement passing over the industry: “It has been like this for as long as I can remember. Right now there is a slight decrease in work from Europe, but experience tells me this will soon pick up. Also, it gives us the time to engineer for the future, vessels are becoming larger and larger and as a salvager you need to keep up-to-date and be able to handle all kinds of projects.” Herrebout concurs, he too feels that with ever-larger vessels comes the challenge of developing materials and knowledge that can assist if an accident were to happen. “Our strong point is the fact we engineer our own material for our fleet, meaning we can easily adapt to any kind of situation, including for larger vessels”, says Herrebout. Both parties agree that apart from being ready for what could possibly be waiting, not much can be planned for the future.

Take them out of their comfort zone

The Salvage Academy

A step that can be taken, is to educate personnel. This is something Teske is passionate about and the Salvage Academy was born out of this wish. “As Svitzer is many years old, we have the knowledge and experience to be able to teach others. Along with guest speakers from the industry, we have developed several courses of which the flagship is the Salvage Experience Master Class.” The two-day course teaches the participants how to respond to a maritime emergency and salvage crisis situation. “It is so important that people do not just sit in the classroom and listen to the material”, continues Teske. “We take them out of the class room and out of their comfort zone. Shake things up.” The programme entails subjects like the past and future of salvage, to contract analysis and the initial reaction planning, though the basis is really: put what you have learned into practice. Day two has an extensive drill exercise, where an emergency is created and the participants must end their course successfully by trying to adapt to the emergency as best and efficiently as possible. “It really works, participants are so enthusiastic and I am proud to say that our feedback is really good. People feel the course works.” The Salvage Academy, that started out small, is now able to offer their training options worldwide, from their base in IJmuiden, the Netherlands, to Europe, South Korea, the USA and maybe in the future even Brazil. Not only that, but the course has been adapted to another course, ‘Salvage for Non-Salvors’, a one-day training to gain insight in operational and commercial aspects of the salvage world and also the ‘Master Class for Maritime Officers’, which is an interactive training for officers who aim to gain more information on the operational, legal and commercial aspects of emergency situations at sea. Teske: “Not only can people attend our regular programming, but if required, all the courses can be tailor-made to the customers’ requirements at their specified location. Though, with one rule, no more than 14 participants, as we want to be able to focus on our participants and not get lost in them.”

Orca sanctuary

So what is all the training necessary for? Well, practicing what to do when, for instance, a lorry is stuck at the bottom of an orca sanctuary, at around 300 metres depth. This was a job for Mammoet Salvage, as Herrebout explains: “This was a real challenge, not only for the depth of the fact that the lorry contained over 10,000 litres of diesel, but more because we could not disturb the orcas and governmental bodies were adamant we could not interfere. Or, really, I don’t believe you would feel happy in those waters. So we had to salvage the lorry from a distance. And we did. After careful and container that could be placed over the lorry from a distance. The lorry could be attached to the container and be lifted from that stop. Ingeniously, the container would be able to contain any diesel, in case some leaked out. It just goes to show that salvaging can be done in a durable manner. And I feel this is a trend we are seeing more and more. Some countries are now looking into cleaning their ports or other stretches of water, to improve shipping and also for the environment.” Mammoet cannot only help on the high seas or deep oceans, Mammoet Marine is also available to help within the inland waterways, which news has shown is also prone to accidents.

Cooperating to achieve the results

The salvage industry has its own share of competitiveness, but when it comes down to it, sometimes three can do a better than one. Muller: “Multraship was part of the consortium responsible of the salvage of the Tricolor, a Norwegian vehicle carrier that collided with another vessel on 14 December 2002.” This project was led by Smit International, another well-known Dutch salvage company. “You see, you can have a lot of knowledge in-house, but sometimes it is the collective approach that can offer the solution. I really enjoy this part of the industry”, comments Muller. Perhaps these companies have the unfortunate situation in waiting for an accident to happen, but now we know they are fully equipped, well-educated and open to cooperation to make sure that when an emergency arises, it will be handled as best as possible.

Rebecca McFedries