THE 15,000-TEU Maersk Honam, badly damaged by fire that killed five crewmen last March 6 off Oman, has been cut in half at Drydocks World, Dubai, for partial scrapping, reports Dubai's Logistics Middle East
THE 15,000-TEU Maersk Honam, badly damaged by fire that killed five crewmen last March 6 off Oman, has been cut in half at Drydocks World, Dubai, for partial scrapping, reports Dubai's Logistics Middle East. The undamaged after section was cut away and floated onto a 100,000 dwt semi-submersible heavy lift ship called Xin Guang Hua.
Xin Guang Hua will carry the stern section to Geoje, South Korea, where it will be incorporated into a new hull.
The forward part of the ship containing the damaged accommodation block and bow, will be towed from Drydocks World and scrapped, said the report.
Maersk anticipates that the Hua and her cargo will arrive in March, and expects that the repairs will be completed before the end of the year.
Maersk Honam was under way off Oman when a fire broke out in a cargo hold forward of the accommodation block.
Five crewmen were killed battling the blaze, while a further undisclosed number were injured. The ship was abandoned and salvage tugs spent weeks trying to save the rest of the ship as it drifted in international waters in the Arabian Sea.
Once the fire was brought under control, towlines were secured and she was brought to Jebel Ali where the surviving cargo was offloaded.
Maersk Honam was carrying about 8,000 containers at the time, including an unspecified quantity of dangerous goods.
Maersk has said that all cargo on board was stowed in accordance with the IMDG code, and has since instituted random physical checks (in US ports) to verify that 'cargo descriptions match actual contents of the container.'
Maersk said has instituted new guidelines on the location where properly declared dangerous goods may be stowed on board, but it unclear what caused the fire.
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