The Volga-Don Canal, a canal, which connects the Volga River and the Don River at their closest points. The length of the waterway is 101 km (45 km through rivers and reservoirs).

The problem of connecting the two rivers goes back a long way in history. First canal work was done by the Ottoman Turks in 1569. Peter the Great made an unsuccessful attempt to build a canal in the late 17th century. Later on, they would come up with several more projects for connecting these rivers, however, they would never be carried out.

The actual construction of the Volga-Don Canal began prior to the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945, which would interrupt the process. In 1948-1952 the construction was completed. During this period, the canal and its facilities were predominantly built by prisoners, who were detained in several specially organized corrective labor camps. By 1952, the number of forced laborers occupied on the site topped 100,000.

Upon completion, the Volga-Don Canal became an important link of the unified deep-water transportation system of the European part of the USSR. It starts at the Sareptsky backwater on the Volga River (south of Volgograd) and ends in the Tsimlyansk Reservoir of the Don River at the town of Kalach-na-Donu. The canal has nine one-chamber canal locks on the Volga slope, which can raise ships 88 m, and four canal locks of the same kind on the Don slope, which can lower ships 44 m. The overall dimensions of the canal locks are smaller than of those on the Volga River, however, they can make way for ships with up to 5,000-tonne cargo capacity. The plan dimensions of locks on the lower Don and the Volga-Don canal are 145 m x 17-18 m and, on the Volga, 290 m x 30 m. There are depth limitations on the lower Don between the town of Kalach and the town of Azov, because of the reduced depth at the sill of Kochetov lock (3.60 metres), and also on the Volga, over the sector Gorodets-Nizhny Novgorod, because of the insufficient depth (3.50 metres) in the lower pond of Gorodets lock.

International Marine Consultancy has extensive experience transporting equipment (tugs, barges, dredgers, etc.) through these waterways. Local partners provide the neccessary supporting services (tug assistance, pilotage, custom formalities, etc.).

sources: Wikipedia, Economic and Social Counsil (United Nations)

Found following article authored by Marcus Lyttelton providing a clear timeline on the life of the MSC Napoli, starting with the delivery of the vessel in 1991 and ending with the beaching of the vessel on the south coast of England in 2007.

INTRODUCTION

Reported here are most of the more relevant facts as condensed from sources within the International Maritime sector and agencies of government in the United Nations, France and the United Kingdom.

BACKGROUND

Built in Korea in 1991 as the CGM Normandie, the MSC Napoli was the first Post-Panamax and world’s largest container ship when she entered service in January of the following year. With a displacement of 62,277 tons (D.W.T), she is 898 feet long and 120 feet wide.

Deployed on a 63-day North China Express service, and while passing at high speed through the Malacca Strait on the 27th of March 2001, the vessel ran aground at 11 pm on the Helen Mar Reef and was not refloated until the 22nd of April. Subsequently repaired in Vietnam at a cost of US$5 million, more than 3,000 tonnes of Steel were welded onto the hull.

Sold in September 2002 by the French Lines (CGM) to clients of Zodiac Maritime Agencies for US$31 million, she was chartered back on a 3 year contract at US$21,775 per day. Now British flagged, she is owned by Metvale Ltd of the British Virgin Islands, managed by Zodiac Maritime Agencies Ltd of London and was chartered to the Mediterranean Shipping Company of Switzerland, which operates 318 container vessels.

MSC Napoli had undergone three port state control inspections in the past 12 months, and an Annual Survey at Istanbul on the 15th of November, 2006. At Le Havre, a week later, deficiencies with machinery, fire doors and the lightening system were discovered. Subsequent rectification of these matters collectively merited the issue of a so-called “condition of class” recommendation.

LAST VOYAGE

The MSC Napoli sailed from Antwerp on Wednesday, 17th January bound for South Africa via Portugal carrying 41,700 tons of merchandise in 2,394 (out of a possible 4,734) containers. The vessel was due to unload almost half of her containers at South African ports of Cape Town, Port Elizabeth and Durban. The cargo includes more than 1,000 tonnes of Nickel for the South African Stainless Steel producer Columbus Stainless. Valued in excess of US$40 million, this is sufficient Nickel to manufacture approximately 13,000 tons of high grade non-magnetic Stainless Steel.

At 10.30 am the following morning jagged vertical cracks opened on either side of the hull, seawater gushed into the engine room, immobilising the vessel and leaving it at the mercy of a severe Gale Force 9, with forty to fifty feet swells. The vessel’s Bulgarian Captain then ordered the broadcast a distress signal.

The 26 crew (including two young British cadets, as well as seamen from Bulgaria, Ukraine, Turkey, India and the Philippines) abandoned ship about 45 miles Southeast of Lizard Point, on England’s Southwest tip, and were rescued by two Royal Navy Sea King Helicopters from 771 Squadron, RNAS Culdrose in Cornwall.

By 3.30 pm the ship was under tow at 6.5 knots to the French tug Abeille Bourbon out of Brest. The line parted at 5.00 am on Friday morning and the ship drifted out of control for several hours in the Channel. A tow was eventually re-established, but a specialist pollution treatment vessel stood by in case the vessel began to break up.

SALVAGE

Aerial photographs taken at the time that her crew were rescued indicate that the vessel’s back is badly hogged and quite possibly broken. Following further concerns that she was about to break up while being towed to Portland, the vessel was grounded about a mile off Branscombe Beach in Lyme Bay, Devon, (165 miles Southwest of London). This vicinity is a designated “place of refuge” for use by ships in distress, in conformity with guidelines agreed by the United Nations International Maritime Organization (IMO). It would therefore seem likely that the MSC Napoli will be dismantled where she now lies. It has been estimated that the salvage operation will take about a year to complete and cost in the region of US$15-20 million.

A Dutch crane-equiped pontoon, the ‘Veka Bigfoot 1′ was dispatched by Sarens, a Belgian crane operator from Rotterdam on the evening of Tuesday, January 23 and arrived off Branscombe Beach on Friday, 26th. Using the larger crane aboard the ‘Veka Bigfoot 1,’the first container was taken off the ship at 11.15am on the 29th January. A smaller crane is then being used to transfer the containers to the ‘Boa Barge 21,’ which will be then taken, 90 at a time, to Portland.

It was intended that this operation would commence during Saturday 27th. and begin at the Napoli’s stern, with the ‘Veka Bigfoot 1′ moored to form the cross of a “T” with the sunken ship. This would have positioned the huge barge well clear of the 3,365 ton Falmouth tanker ‘Forth Fisher’, which is moored to the Port side of the container ship. Subsequent to problems encountered with laying the barge’s heavy ground anchors, she was eventualy positioned at an acute angle near the stern of the stricken vessel.

With accommodation for 28, the 856 ton ‘Union Beaver’ (ex Salvage Chief, 1991) is acting as a floating base for 30 salvors. The hull continues to settle at approximately 4 inches a day, but salvage operation is proceeding with the intention of achieving a refloating. However, it could be some time before it becomes clear as to whether this is possible. Temporary repairs are under way on board the vessel. The salvage team is using special resin to fill cracks and pumps are being used to remove water from cargo holds 3 and 4.

The side-scan sonar vessel Explorer has commenced a detection program for the 47 submerged containers lost overboard after grounding.

FOOTNOTES

“It is hard to see how a ship could suffer this type of structural failure if she was in a seaworthy condition,” states a partner with the London law firm Clyde & Co. that represents a consortium of insurers who are preparing to sue the ship’s owners for allegedly running an unseaworthy vessel.

The ship’s fate could well turn out to be a parallel to that which befell another container ship, the C P Valour in December 2005, when she grounded in the Azores. Using crane equiped pontoon barges, her cargo was removed and she was then dismantled to deck level, before being towed off the beach. A sequence of 26 photos illustrating her fate can be viewed here.

MSC Napoli could well be the second largest ship ever to be lost by disaster, exceeded only by the 1,031 foot Seawise University [ex Queen Elizabeth], which burnt at Hong Kong in 1975.

© Marcus Lyttelton (reprinted with explicit permission from the author)

Some footage of the MSC Napoli salvage operation made by Mark.

International Marine Consultancy secured a long term bareboat charter for a MultiCat in the Dead Sea.

At the south end of the Dead Sea, The Arab Potash Company Ltd (APC) operates a solar system for the production of Potash. Dead Sea water is pumped into the system and evaporates as it flows through the system. The condensed brine then flows through the Carnallite Pans where potash is produced.

In the mid 80’s a natural phenomenon was observed in the artificial pond. The salt started to crystallize in the form of “mushrooms” in various parts of the pond. Columns of salt started to grow from the shallow bottom. Once they reached the surface, they started to grow at an accelerated speed at the sides, which created a form that resembled mushrooms. These mushrooms limited the surface area and the evaporation capability of the pond.

The MultiCat will be employed to break up and remove the salt mushrooms to a minimum depth of 2 meter below brine level.

IMC fixed the newbuilt Damen Shoalbuster 3008 anchorhandling twin screw tug ‘Giessenstroom‘ for its maiden voyage, a tow (linkspan) from Rotterdam to Flushing.

© Jan Oosterboer

© Henk van der Heijden