Sliced and Diced: Fate of the Golden Ray

Almost three months ago the Ro/Ro car carrier M/V Golden Ray started to capsize soon after leaving the port of Brunswick, GA, with more than four thousand cars on board. The NTSB report isn't out, but a cargo fire could have played a part, along with a negative metacentric height. aka top-heaviness.

The pilot quickly and correctly steered the troubled ship out of the main channel, so it wouldn't block port traffic. Rescue of four trapped crewmen through a hole cut in the side was next, followed by many weeks of draining the fuel and oil tanks.

That leaves the 656-foot ship and cargo. The Unified Command group directing work considered a wide range of salvage options, including parbuckling a la Costa Concordia. But parbuckling is very expensive and Golden Ray will be cut up in place and hauled off, a section at a time, like cutting through a porketta. The method is slow but sure, relying on a long steel cable that's passed under, around, and over the ship from the side. This cable is encrusted with carbide powder and passed through winches. Given enough time the gritty cable can saw through very thick sections, including the hull of the sunken Russian submarine Kursk. Here's info on that rather risky salvage work. 

Cargo? The cars are no longer where they were parked on the lower decks; they broke loose from their straps and slid to the low side when the ship heeled to almost degrees. Some are underwater; some caught fire. Cars in such a state can't be sold, so as with most car-carrier disasters they'll be plucked out and scrapped. (A surprisingly large number of car carriers have gone down, or gone over, in recent years; one common cause is fire that spreads through the cargo.)

Here's a video of Smit International carving up the wrecked Tricolor.