Officials carefully re-floated and removed the cargo ship 'Tropic Sun' last evening, August 31 after it was grounded for a few days at the western tip of Salt Island in the area of the Wreck of the Rhone National Park.
Officials carefully re-floated and removed the cargo ship 'Tropic Sun' last evening, August 31 after it was grounded for a few days at the western tip of Salt Island in the area of the Wreck of the Rhone National Park.
Director of the Virgin Islands Shipping Registry, Captain Baboucar Sallah said that the vessel is now safely anchored west of Beef Island. He disclosed that expert divers from the United States are expected to arrive in the Territory sometime today to undertake an inspection of the ship's bottom.
According to Captain Sallah, the divers will then provide a report of their findings which will also help the Shipping Registry in its ongoing investigations into the grounding of the vessel which occurred on August 28.
Captain Sallah told BVI Platinum News that a salvage plan was approved by the Shipping Registry after several agencies examined it. The plan was finally activated last evening to coincide with high tide.
According to Captain Sallah, the plan included hydrostatic measures, which meant that with the aid of the ship's floatation mechanism, weight was redistributed from the bow of the vessel to the stern.
Mostly the bow of the vessel was grounded, but a large part of the ship remained in water.
"The Salvaging team that arrived from the United States came up with a salvaging plan which was approved by the Shipping Registry. The plan was approved yesterday and the plan was put in place last night to raise the bow of the ship. This was done so as to avoid escalating any effects that the grounding would have done to the sea bed. The ship was floated up as opposed to dragging it off the sea bed," Captain Sallah explained.
He noted that if that plan did not work, officials were prepared to pursue another plan which meant removing the cargo from the vessel.
The VISR Head assured that an investigation is currently underway into the incident.
Director of the Department of Disaster Management, Sharleen Dabreo told BVI Platinum News that other agencies that responded are the Police Maine Department, the Virgin Islands Shipping Registry, National Parks Trust and the Conservation and Fisheries Department.
