Apl Panama News

Bisso Marine, a provider of salvage services to the maritime and energy industries, announced the addition of JoAnn Henzel to its Salvage & Emergency Response Team. Henzel, who will serve as a project manager, has 12 years of specialized experience in salvage and wreck removal. Before joining Bisso Marine, Henzel acquired extensive field experience as a logistics coordinator for Titan Salvage of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., handling domestic and international jobs including New Carissa in Oregon…

The APL Panama finally broke free from the sandy beach where it ran aground Christmas Day. It was 4:40 a.m. when the 874-foot container ship returned to the sea. Less than three hours later, the vessel was two miles offshore, undergoing inspection of its hull, while bulldozers worked to restore the beach where the ship spent the past 75 days. Under general average, the commonly used international legal procedure, the expenses will be shared by the vessel's German owners, Mare Britannicum Schiffahrtsgesellschaft MBH & Co.; APL, the global container transportation company that chartered it; and the numerous cargo interests. The amounts are subject to negotiation.

Now salvage crews for the containership APL Panama are preparing a new tactic: creating a channel alongside the stranded ship with a specialized dredger vessel, the Francesco di Giorgio. The channel would be as close as possible to the container ship in order to tow it via the canal to deeper waters, the San Diego Union Tribune reported. With the Francesco di Giorgio's arrival expected on February 27, salvage crews are hoping to write the final chapter of the long-running saga that began when the APL Panama ran aground in shallow waters 1½ miles from Ensenada's port. Repeated attempts to move the ship off the beach with tugboats and a barge equipped with powerful hydraulic pullers have failed. The bow has been moved 50 degrees toward open water, but not far enough to float the ship.

The container vessel APL Panama, stranded since Christmas Day off an Ensenada beach, now has its own jetty. Salvors commissioned the 500-foot rock-and-sand ramp and hired a giant crane to carry containers ashore. The operation is the latest in a series of attempts to lighten the ship's load and get it floating again. Weighed down by cargo and pinned in by sand, the 880-foot APL Panama has refused to leave the broad sandy beach where it ran aground more than seven weeks ago. Led by Florida-based Titan Maritime LLC, salvage efforts since the grounding reportedly have succeeded in moving the bow 35 degrees, about a third of the distance necessary to pull it away from shore.

According to the reports, a container vessel APL Panama, stranded since Christmas Day off an Ensenada beach, now has its own jetty. Salvors commissioned the 500-ft. rock-and-sand ramp and hired a giant crane to carry containers ashore. The operation is the latest in a series of attempts to lighten the ship's load and get it floating again. Weighed down by cargo and pinned in by sand, the 880-ft. The ship was on a trans-Pacific route, and its cargo included electronic components for Baja California manufacturing plants as well as parts for car factories in central Mexico. The delay in delivery prompted Nissan, the Japanese car manufacturer, to stop producing vehicles for three days last week at its Aguascalientes facility.

APL Panama remains aground on soft sand some 1.5 nm south east of the entrance to the port of Ensenada, Mexico. Salvors have succeeded in maneuvering the bow of the vessel some 20 degrees towards deeper water over the past week, in order to assist the next re-floating effort. The APL Panama remains structurally intact and secure and it is hoped that another concerted effort to re-float her can be made toward the end of next week, when tide conditions are more favorable. This next stage of the operation will utilize powerful hydraulic pulling machines which will double the capacity of the strong tugs already standing by the vessel. In the meantime, the salvors have succeeded in transferring the fuel oil to a bunker barge at the port of Ensenada.

Salvage crews from Florida-based Titan Maritime LLC launched their greatest effort yet to float the 880-foot APL Panama, taking advantage of lunar high tides, a lightened load and new equipment brought down from the United States. Yesterday's effort moved the bow 10 degrees toward open water, as reported in www.signonsandiego.com. The vessel has been stuck in sand, parallel to the shore. It ran aground Christmas Day as it prepared to enter Ensenada's harbor. Initial reports states the ship ran aground after failing to wait for a pilot to guide it, but the ship's German owner has said the strong currents apparently pulled the vessel off course as it was waiting for the pilot.