The view at Gibraltar's Europa Point looks much different these days. This month TITAN Salvage successfully completed removal of the New Flame and has delivered more than 50,000 tons of scrap cargo and wreckage for recycling.
From December 2007 through September 2009, a TITAN salvage team of about 20 experts continuously worked on the New Flame, a bulk carrier loaded with over 42,000 tons of scrap metal,to ensure the vessel was removed safely while ensuring environmental impact was minimal. The project was completed this month with the completion of sub-sea work and demobilization.
In all, TITAN recovered approximately 39,488 tons of scrap cargo. The total weight of the recovered wreck's structure weighed 5,914 tons bringing the total weight of wreck and cargo to 50,900 tons - inclusive of all ships' engines, machinery and related hydrocarbons and pollutants. The entire stern section of the New Flame was shipped off in one piece to a scrap company in Belgium.
"The difficult operations to remove as much of the cargo and wreck as is environmentally sensible to do has been achieved. This has been an all-embracing effort from many Government departments, the Salvors, the Swedish Club and Gibraltar environmental groups. I would like to thank them all," Shipping Minister Joe Holliday told the Gibraltar Chronicle newspaper.
Another government spokesman, who spoke to the Gibraltar Chronicle newspaper, also credited TITAN's skill at managing the complex operation.
"Complex and hazardous salvage operations, undertaken by Titan Salvage, one of the world's leading salvage companies, have resulted in the removal of such of the cargo and wreckage as the restoration of maritime safety requires, and the interests of the environment permits," the government spokesman said.
The New Flame sank following a collision while exiting the port of Gibraltar in August 2007. The scrap metal was being transported from New York Harbor to Turkey for recycling.
