Posted by FYI Link: 160-ton vessel is finally removed from Assateague
on 10/13/2009, 4:31 am
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160-ton vessel is finally removed from Assateague
Was beached after Aug. 3 incident
By Carol Vaughn - Staff Writer - October 7, 2009
A two-month effort to free a large vessel that ran aground on Assateague Island in August ended happily Thursday when salvage workers finally were able to free the boat from the sand and tow it to the Chincoteague town dock, where it remains.
The disabled vessel is destined to become a home for sea creatures as part of an artificial reef off the New Jersey shore.
The Frieda Marie, a 77-foot, 160-ton steel-hulled fishing boat, began taking on water off Assateague Aug. 3 as it was headed from Cape May, N.J., to South America.
The crew intentionally grounded the boat on the island to prevent it from sinking. Coast Guard inspectors found that the hull had multiple cracks and would need extensive repair work.
"I'm happy they were able to get it off last night," said Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge Visitor Services Manager Michael Dixon on Friday. "The longer it stays in place and the longer the sea has its way, the more expensive it becomes to remove it."
The boat was carrying about 10,000 gallons of diesel fuel when it ran aground in a sensitive area of the beach closed to visitors at the time because it is a nesting ground for piping plovers.
"There was great concern about the amount of environmental damage it could do if it broke up," Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge Manager Lou Hinds said Friday.
Its presence also had already altered the pattern of sand deposits, creating a small lagoon on the southern part of the beach area known as "the hook."
Because the boat came ashore on federal property, the decision about what to do with it involved several agencies, including the Department of the Interior, the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Environ-mental Protection Agency and the Coast Guard, as well as the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality, the Virginia Marine Resources Commission and the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries.
It could have cost taxpayers $250,000 to cut up and remove the ship -- money none of the agencies could spare, Hinds said.
But that cost was avoided when a company that specializes in salvage operations and artificial reef development came up with a plan to remove the ship, whose owners had run out of money for the operation after paying to remove the diesel fuel from the vessel.
The days-long series of maneuvers to free the ship, conducted last week by workers from the American Marine Group Inc. of Norfolk, attracted a sizable following of visitors to the island, despite the vessel's remote location.
On Friday morning, some of them gave eyewitness accounts of the dramatic operation to Dixon and members of the media who had driven in an off-road vehicle more than three miles past the southernmost beach parking lot to view the site.
"In one day's time, it's like it never even happened," said Walter Krukowski of Miona, who visits the hook regularly to collect shells. He took photographs of the salvage operation.
"It took them three days to get it out of here," he said.
Workers with heavy equipment tried to free the vessel all day Wednesday and remained until 1:30 a.m. Thursday morning before returning with their tugboat later Thursday morning, when a line that tangled in a propeller stymied the effort.
Mid-afternoon Thurs-day, workers used an excavator driven out into the surf to rock the vessel while the tug pulled on it.
"About 6:05 it took off. It was a beautiful scene," said Gerry Stokes, a vacationer from Pennsylvania who with his wife, Nancy, was on hand to view the multi-day operation.
The Stokes also are shell-collectors and visit the island each October to celebrate their wedding anniversary. They arrived last Friday and enjoyed watching the progress on freeing the vessel throughout the week, culminating in Thursday's success.
"I was out here blowing my horn. It was good to see the boat get off -- he put his heart and soul into it," Stokes said of salvage operator Tim Mullane.
Chincoteague NWR employee Larry Beasley said there was a pod of eight to ten dolphins surrounding Mullane while he worked out in the surf.
Ray Mutter of Harrisonburg, Va., also visited the site each day last week. "A lot of the people had been watching it all week long. It's become kind of a camaraderie," he said.
Hinds described the moment when the Frieda Marie broke free of Assateague's sands.
"For me it was a moment of relief, because the Department of the Interior and the American taxpayer were no longer potentially responsible for this vessel, but we had a responsible party."
The vessel will be cleaned of any remaining contaminants and all hazardous materials and then will be towed and sunk at the artificial reef site in New Jersey.
Thanks to Peg B. for this heads-up contribution to the board.
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