Coral Bulker

Spills > Coral Bulker >

On 25 December 2000, in rough seas, the bulk carrier the Coral Bulker, registered in Hong Kong, was anchored and waiting to enter Viana do Castello harbour (Portugal). She had travelled from Tallinn (Estonia) with a cargo of wood shavings and timber. At 11 pm, the ship hit the outside harbour wall. Its bilge was severely damaged and the starboard side tank n°4 and the engine room were flooded. The whole crew was evacuated by helicopter.

The 100 to 150 tonnes of heavy propulsion fuel leaked out of the ship, threatening to pollute the beaches situated in the areas north and south of the harbour, as well as the estuary of the river Lima. The onshore clean-up operations allowed 6,500 bags of fuel and polluted sand to be collected. The Viana do Costello harbour is was protected by floating booms.

The maritime rescue company TITAN Marine, contracted by the P&I Club to remove the shipwreck under supervision of the Portuguese Navy, immediately sends its staff and equipment, based in Fort Lauderdale (Florida) and Newhaven (GB) on site.

A certain amount of fuel and lubricating oil remained aboard. On 21 January, after a few interruptions due to gusts of wind, the 42 tonnes were finally pump transferred into lorries. Eight tonnes of emulsion were also recovered from the water surface.

The tree trunks stocked on the deck, the hold boards and finally the lumber and wood shavings stored in the holds, were unloaded. This proved to be no easy task to carry out, as waves regularly swept across the deck.

The strategy elaborated by TITAN Marine to manage the operation consisted of hoisting the wreck on the rocky slope of the harbour wall, in order to cut in up safely.

At first, superstructures were removed, a task which took three weeks. Then the vessel was cut into two parts with a 17 tonne pestle-graver guided from a winch installed on the ground and with one of the nearby purpose-built cranes. Once this difficult and risky operation had been successfully completed, the bow part of the Coral Bulker was hoisted on top of the breakwater with shackles and winches soldered to the hold boards placed on the inner part of the breakwater.

The burying in the breakwater of these 7.5 m long boards, 7 metres wide and weighing 80 tonnes each, was not an easy job. Traction movement was synchronized from a control tower set up on the breakwater by using spare parts of the vessel’s superstructure. The sheet metal of the bow part was cut out by the 25 March 2001. The operations concerning the stern part of the bulk tanker were exactly the same. The stern was hoisted on the breakwater on 9 June and was cut out too.

The site was then fully restored.

The Coral Bulker’s deck
(source: Direcçao General de Marinha)

Name: Coral Bulker

Date: 25 December 2000

Location: Portugal

Accident area : Port of Viana do Castelo

Cause of spill : grounding

Quantities transported : 19,000 tonnes of wood, 630 tonnes of heavy fuel oil, 100 tonnes of diesel oil and lubricants

Type of pollutants : heavy fuel oil and diesel oil

Quantities spilled : 630 tonnes of heavy fuel oil + 70 tonnes of diesel oil

Ship type : bulk carrier

Date built : 1991

Shipyard : Imabari Zosen, Imabari, Japan

Length : 169.03 m

Width : 27.23 m

Draught : 9.7 m

Flag : Japanese

Owner : Alderran Shipping

Classification society : Nippon Kaiji Kyokai, Japan

P&I Club : The London Steamship owners Mutual Insurance Asso Ltd

Hoisting on the breakwater before cutting out
(source: Direcçao General de Marinha)