From the Deepwater Horizon Rig event to giant abandoned ships; these are the BIGGEST Salvage Projects in The World !
There are more awesome videos being made every week, like and subscribe to World Unearthed so you don't miss a beat !
7.MV Cougar Ace | Alaska
The Singaporean vessel Cougar Ace is primarily used for transporting cars from Japan to North America. In 2005, it set a record for most cars unloaded from a ship in Canada. Kind of a weird record, but hey, who are we to judge?
A year later, Cougar Ace was carrying 4,812 brand new cars, about 97 % being Mazdas. In total, the cargo was valued at $117 Million… Well during an exchange of ballast water, the stuff that keeps boats balanced and stable, the Cougar Ace tipped 60 degrees to port . Which means the ship looked like - This.
With some luck, Titan Salvage were able to tug the ship to Unalaska Island, where it was finally “righted”, meaning the ship was no longer tilted, then it was towed to Portland, Oregon for inspections and repair.
This incident was quite the nightmare for Mazda. At first, they said the cars would be not be sold as brand new, but after testing the safety of the cars, the company decided to scrap every...single...one..
6.MV Baltic Ace | Netherlands
5.MV Rena | New Zealand
The MV Rena was a container ship with a capacity for 3,351 containers of whatever you want to transfer globally.
With an engine that had a max output of 29,497 horse power, this 38,000 ton, 106ft(32m) long ship was built in 1990 and served multiple companies throughout the years.
In October 2011, the MV Rena ran aground on the Astrolabe reef near the Bay of Plenty in New Zealand. This was already very bad for the local environment and reef, but things got even worse when the Rena started leaking oil. Because of bad weather, the crew of 20 was evacuated, when the ship started shifting.
A few days later, the oil spill was declared the worst maritime environmental disaster of New Zealand, and people were rightly pissed.
A few days later, the ship was sitting at a 20 degree tilt, and 88 of the cargo containers fell into the sea.
In January 2012, the ship finally succumbed to the sea and broke in 2. By 2014, 77% of the cargo was removed, and major parts of the ship were salvaged.
So what is happening today? NOTHING. The ship owners were allowed to abandon the rest of the wreckage, with the stipulation that they will have to pay for ongoing clean up costs, and for the damage the ship has done to the local environment.
4.MV Drake | Australia
3.Deepwater Horizon Rig | USA
2.Chittagong Ship Breaking Yard | Bangladesh
Well here is a business of.. Opportunity? In 1960 the ship MD Alpine was beached and abandoned on the shores Chittagong, Bangladesh, a local company purchased the ship and started the scrapping project. The ship was pretty big, and most of the work was done by hand, so the project took years to complete, but it was also the birth of the the ship breaking industry in Bangladesh.
Nowadays, the brutal and unsafe work conditions have not changed, but the landscape sure has.
1.Costa Concordia | Italy
The Costa Concordia was a beautiful cruise ship that cost some $500 million dollars to build, its maiden voyage was on June 29th,2006, and not even 6 years later, the Costa Concordia was involved in a tragic accident off the coast of Isola del Giglio.
The accident was pretty straight forward, the Costa Concordia hit a rock, a 174ft (53m) gash was opened up on the port side of the hull. All power was lost and the ship drifted towards the shore and rolled towards the starboard side.
After rescue operations were over, it came time to figure out what could be salvaged from the ship. Smit International, a salvage company assessed that the best course of action was the total write off of the ship as a constructive loss, they were contracted to remove the fuel from the ship.
In 2013, the ship was finally brought back to a vertical position, and the salvage costs rose up to $799 million in total. At which point I assume the people doing the estimates said to themselves “Screw it, lets just round up to $800 million”.
In 2014, the ship was refloated and prepped for towing, estimates for the total cost rose to $2 Billion.
In July 2017, the final pieces of the Costa Concordia were scrapped and recycled, finishing the story of this tragic event.