Weeks-long effort to recover stranded ship nears completion

The operation to recover a ship which ran aground off the coast of Pembrokeshire is nearing completion.

It is thought that the Resolute, a 24m (78.7ft) guard boat for an offshore wind farm near Ireland, had drifted onto rocks in west Wales in rough seas on December 11 last year.

The vessel became stranded near Fishguard, where four crew members were rescued by lifeboat and HM Coastguard said the vessel remained aground and the responsibility of its owner.

Specialist marine contractors Jevington Logistics, from Pembroke Dock, started recovering the stranded ship on 29 June.

The company said it used an excavator with shears attached on a 36m (111.5ft)-long barge to cut the vessel up into large sections.

These sections were then cut into smaller pieces by staff using oxy-propane torches, before being sent to a local company to be recycled.

Steve Bradley, operations director with Jevington Logistics, estimated there would be a total of 110 tonnes of steel salvaged from the "well-built" ship while speaking from a tugboat as the dismantling work continued nearby.

Bradley said: "I'm currently up on the bridge of the Forth Trojan and right in front of me is the barge where we've got the excavator working away, nibbling at the metal superstructure of the vessel right on the bow."

He said that after the main dismantling work had cleared the vessel, the company would search the rocks near to where the Resolute was grounded as well as the seabed below to ensure nothing had been left behind.

In February HM Coastguard said the majority of the Resolute's fuel had been transferred ashore and there had been no reports of pollution since a small amount was initially identified.

Bradley said dismantling the vessel was the best way of clearing the stranded ship which had "some quite big holes" in the hull.

"There's a 12m-wide channel that you can use to get onto the [ship's] starboard side. So we chose... a shallow draft barge. It needed to have 'spuds' which are legs that drive into the seabed and hold it in position.

"This was the only way to do it, I believe - systematic sectioning into five sections, and then lifting onto the barge, and then dismantling those large sections on the barge itself."

Bradley said one of the challenges was getting the barge into position close to the Resolute, and also the weather – they had to pause work for two days because the sea swell was too big.

He added that the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) has been monitoring the pollution prevention measures.

"We installed a boom around the perimeter of the wreck, and the MCA came out and were happy with all the measures in place for the environmental protection practices," he said.