Cleaning up on the high seas
Ardent is on hand to help out whenever a fire breaks out on a cargo ship, if it loses containers or even should it sink. Regional director Bas Michiels recently told some exciting stories from an interesting niche.
There have been no serious accidents at sea this year. This is good news, of course, but for Ardent Global it actually has a negative impact on business – because the Dutch company only springs into action in the event of a maritime disaster. Should a containership catch fire or even sink – Ardent will organise the necessary fire-fighting measures, salvage steps and remove harmful substances from the water.
Ardent is a pretty multi-faceted player. Its demanding core business is helping firms cope with disasters for which there is no standard solution, but its eleven locations around the globe also provide worldwide assistance to enterprises taking oil rigs or similar facilities apart – large or small. Bas Michiels, Ardent’s Emea / Asia director, has already managed around 60 salvage operations and rescue missions for cargo ships that have meet with disaster.
“Today’s ships are much safer than any earlier generation of vessels, thanks to new technologies. But accidents are becoming increasingly complex instead, on account of units’ size,” Michiels told members of the Propeller Club Port of Basel in a recent meeting.
Preventive measures avert accidents
The volatile nature of Ardent’s business means it can really only operate successfully with the lean structures it has established. It collaborates with other specialists as required. In addition to coping with accidents, its 100-plus employees also work on preventing accidents from happening in the first place.
Thus its ‘emergency preparedness’ solutions offer important options that can be decisive in a crisis. “Avoiding hours or even days of back-and-forth dialogue about who’s responsible for an accident can make the difference between rescuing a large part of the cargo – or a wreck on the seabed,” Michiels emphasised.
Sometimes, however, even the best preventive measures are useless, as in the case of the MSC Zoe, which lost 342 containers off the Dutch coast a year ago. Ardent was mandated by MSC to recover said containers – from an area covering 330 km²!
Ardent deployed twelve vessels for the operation, including units equipped with cranes and sonar technology. “It was very demanding,” Michiels said. “A container filled with water can weigh up to 60 t.” During the work there was also an unpleasant surprise when a World War II naval mine was recovered. The sonar system had mistaken it for flotsam that may have escaped from a container.
4,700 m below sea level
Ardent’s work is even more complex when it takes place under water, as was the case with the Grande America, which sank off the coast of France in March 2019 after a fire on board. Leaks created the risk of more oil or hazardous goods spilling off board in a location that was 4,700 m below sea level. Ardent examined the wreck with a special camera and immediately got to work on a solution.
“It took us three hours to get the camera to the wreck,” Michiels said. His firm then sealed the holes with magnets and completed the operation after 30 days. When Ardent’s expertise will next be in demand remains to be seen. Maritime players hope it won’t be for a long time.
