T&T Salvage was activated under its Salvage and Marine Firefighting Agreement to respond to a 600-foot laker that went aground on the St Mary’s River near DeTour Village, Mich.
“The vessel was hard aground but stable,” said Jim Elliott, T&T’s Vice President, “We immediately dispatched a team from our Great Lakes Response Center and mobilized prepositioned response equipment in the region.”
T&T Salvage’s naval architects and salvage master then developed a comprehensive salvage and lightering plan to ensure the safety of the ship, crew and responders, while protecting the environment. Once the salvage plan was approved by the Coast Guard and with T&T salvage personnel overseeing operations onboard the ship, cargo lightering commenced using the ship’s self-unloading conveyor and a subcontracted Inland Lakes receiving vessel. Successfully refloating as planned without pulling force from tugs, the ship was redelivered to owners the same afternoon and, once cleared by class surveyors, the cargo was reloaded, and the vessel proceeded on her voyage.