GOLDEN RAY

scrapped

General information

Course/Position

Latest news

Wreck removal second-most expensive after Costa Concordia

The total bill for the removal of the 'Golden Ray' was now expected to run up to 1 billion US dollars, being thus the second-most expensive shipwreck ever after the salvage of the Italian cruise ship 'Costa Concordia', the total bill of which ran up to just over $ 2 billion, including the value of the ship, salvage and scrapping. The salvage of 'Golden Ray' is nearing completion. The sawing of the wreck in large sections has been completed, and only a single sections has yet to be transported ashore and chopped up. The seabed must then be cleaned of debris and vehicles that fell out of the wreck during the salvage work. Once the seabed is cleared and re-established, the total bill including ship, cargo, salvage and scrapping is expected to be $ 1 billion.

Section 4 transported to recycling facility

The dry dock barge carrying the next-to-last section of ship wreckage of the 'Golden Ray' glided out of the St. Simons Sound before sunrise on Sep 25. Departing for the East River in Brunswick, the barge and its colossal cargo left behind the last vestige of the wreck, the 80-feet-long and 4,909 metric tons weighing Section 4. After completing a two-week project to construct a sturdier cradle on its deck, the barge received Section 5 at around noon on Sep 24. Guided by the tugs 'Kurt Crosby', 'Crosby Star' and the 'Caitlin', the barge slid beneath the hulls of the VB 10,000, which had held the 3,300-metric-ton Section 5 suspended in its towering arches for three weeks. The crane vessel then eased this midship section of wreckage onto the deck and into its specially designed cradle shortly before 1 p.m. The crane vessel 'VB 10000' will soon straddle Section 4, hoist it from the water and load it onto a barge deck for transport out of the sound. The barge carrying Section 5 arrived at a temporary berth at Mayor's Point Terminal on the East River in Brunswick on Sep 25 and docked beside the city's Mary Ross Waterfront Park. Section 5 is destined for further dismantling at a site nearby at 615 Bay St. on the East River. The smaller chunks of wreckage will then be transported to the Modern American Recycling Services (MARS) facility in Gibson, La. Because they suffered less damage during the capsizing, the four outer sections of the shipwreck all were transported whole directly to MARS.

Wreck removal costs put at 842 million Dollar

The cost of the 'Golden Ray' salvage operation was put at $842 million and climbing according to an article in the London-based publication Insurance Insider dated Aug 5. That figure was up from a February estimate of $788 million that was reported in another London-based industry publication, The Insurer. The cost not only included the machinery employed to remove the shipwreck, but also the large crews committed to pollution control on land and water. This is outlined in the federal Oil Pollution Act of 1990, which establishes environmental protection standards that must be met during salvage operations in U.S. waters. Consisting of the Coast Guard, the Georgia Department of Natural Resources and Gallagher Marine Systems, Unified Command is there to see that the salvage efforts and associated pollution control measures adhere to the Oil Pollution Act. The ship was insured by the North of England P&I (Protection and Indemnity). The loss is being incurred by a pool of insurers under the umbrella of The International Group P&I. While the Hyundai Glovis company has been listed far and wide as the ship's owner, technically the owner is a Korean outfit called GL NV24 Shipping Inc., according to a National Transportation Safety Board report on the shipwreck that was released on Sep 14. The NTSB report describes Hyundai Glovis as chartering the 'Golden Ray', along with its sister ship, the 'Silver Ray'. When the ship overturned in the waters between Jekyll and St. Simons islands on Sept. 8, 2019, it represented a loss of $62.5 million, according to the NTSB report, added $142 million for the cargo of 4,161 vehicles the ship was carrying. The salvage operation is led by Texas-based T&T Salvage with a host of subcontractors which includes a fulltime flotilla of pollution cleanup boats on the waters surrounding the salvage site, as well as daily patrols on land combing shorelines for debris, oil and tar balls. Costs have included the construction of a 1-mile-perimeter environmental protection barrier around the salvage site, complete with sturdy mesh netting below to catch loose vehicles. There is also the crane barge 'VB 10,000'., the protection barrier, the 24-hour oil mitigation operations on the perimeter, the teams walking the shorelines every day.