JD-Contractor A/S was engaged to assist with divers during the retrieval of the remaining oil inside the wreck of the Chinese cargo ship Fu Shang Hai.
The assignment consisted of the following task:
- To get an overview of the wreck and its condition.
- Seal off all oil-leaks to stop the pollution.
- Empty all oil-tanks.
- Cut of the masts, which were a danger to sea traffic.
The diving ship C/S Cable One and its crew of twelve men, six of who are offshore divers, carried out the assignment. Because the dives were at a depth of 68 metres the diving was done on an air mixture consisting of primarily helium.
Further more, special equipment from the Norwegian company ”Frank Mohn Flatøy” was installed on C/S Cable One to pump up the oil. This included a ROLS (Remote offloading system) that can attach itself to the wreck, and drill through the hull into the tanks, and pump the remaining oil from the wreck to a surface vessel.
What happened when the 70.000-ton ship hit the seabed at a depth of 65 metres?
The seabed was pushed up in large piles around the ship as in an earthquake. The ship was broken into several pieces after the collision with the seabed, and where there were air pockets the hull imploded.
Further more the water pressure had squeezed the metal so hard, that it is deformed or collapsed in many places. Hence the oil has a vast number of places to leak out.
Due to the water depth and the difficulty of accessing some of the ships tanks, it was a substantial and long-lasting task to empty the ship for oil.
Data on Fu Shan Hai
The ship was build in 1995 in Shanghai and is registered in China. The ships details:
Weight: 71,835 tons
Length: 225 metres
Width: 32.20 metres
From deck to bottom: 18.70 metres
The pilothouse is approx. 19 metre high.
The ship was loaded with 66,000 tons of fertilizer and was on route from Latvia to China. Fu Shan Hai collided with the Cypriot Container ship Gdynia approx. 5 kilometres north of Bornholm.
Eight hours after the collision the ship sank. Prior to the sinking the Chinese crew of 27 seamen where all rescued. Inside the ship was 1,600 tons of fuel oil located in seven tanks. Additionally there were a number of smaller tanks with diesel, and oil for lubrication and hydraulics. A considerable amount of oil leaked during sinking, but approximately 1,100 tons was still inside the wreck.
