“We are fortunate to have had a very busy year in 2023. Our business has grown to meet additional customer and project requirements, and as such, we invested in additional vessels and have grown our team both at sea and onshore. We ordered three ASD tugs from Damen, which have been built in Vietnam. MULTRATUG 34 – an ASD 2813 with 85 tonnes bollard pull – has already been delivered and is in service in Oman. The other two, MULTRATUG 35 and MULTRATUG 36, will be delivered within the next three months. These tugs will be 32-m tugs to ASD 3212 design with a bollard pull of around 88 tonnes, for deepsea and coastal towage, salvage and other operations,” Muller explained.
Demand for Multraship’s services has been driven primarily by project requirements but is also a reflection of Multraship’s continued efforts to maintain a high-quality and diverse fleet that enables them to service both complex and routine harbour and sea towage requirements as well as all matters of salvage and emergency response incidents, Muller said.
He noted that, overall, while the global trend of a reduction in the number of salvage incidents continues, in large part because advancements in navigation and communications technology, training and regulation continue to improve safety onboard, the challenge for salvors is in ensuring they are equipped and able to respond to high-impact incidents. Building the right fleet and the operational capabilities to anticipate more high-impact incidents must be a priority for the industry, he says.
The Fremantle Highway incident, for which Multraship acted as co-contractors with SMIT, is a prime example of the need to continue to invest in resources and expert personnel, he said.
“We have ever larger vessels and more complex cases where, by sheer scale and cargo carrying capacity, the risks and impacts that these vessels pose are greater. We must be prepared and supported to respond.”
Throughout the latter half of 2023, Multraship was in the news frequently regarding the salvage operation of the Fremantle Highway - a car carrier carrying 3,700 cars that caught fire while passing north of the Dutch island of Ameland in July of last year.
During the initial firefighting response, Multraship and Smit were chosen as co-contractors for the salvage operation using Lloyd's Standard Form of Salvage Agreement (LOF 2020), somewhat of a rarity these days. The teams from Multraship and Smit worked with various specialists to help extinguish the flames and stabilise the vessel, which was carrying 3,700 cars.
To prevent further damage to the vessel, it was crucial to carry out firefighting and boundary cooling with expertise and create a strategic plan, Muller explained. This plan ensured that the structural integrity and stability of the vessel were not compromised too much, and the cargo, bunkers, and firefighting water onboard were safely contained before she could be brought to her port of refuge where the bunkers, contaminated Fi-Fi water and as much as possible cargoes carefully removed.
“As joint salvors, we have the right equipment and expertise and strong relationships with all of the relevant authorities and a near-unmatched knowledge of the local area. This really made the difference in how quickly we were able to respond.”
From an environmental perspective, the site of the fire was a major concern. The Wadden Sea region, spanning The Netherlands, Denmark and Germany, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, home to 10,000 aquatic and terrestrial species. Notably, it previously witnessed the MSC Zoe disaster in 2019, losing 297 containers overboard in rough seas.
“The towage to Eemshaven was extremely complex and challenging and made more difficult with unfavourable weather conditions. I am tremendously proud of the expertise and teamwork displayed by the salvors, regional and local maritime and safety authorities, as well as all other specialists and sub-contractors who worked so well together. In my view, this served as a reminder to industry about how crucial salvors are and how important our role is in ensuring safety and good environmental stewardship,” he added.
Apart from the salvage operation of the Fremantle Highway, Multraship recently carried out numerous successful salvage operations over the past year, including freeing a stranded tugboat, the OCEAAN II, from Zandvoort beach in The Netherlands, rescuing the abandoned pilot swath PERSEUS, just before grounding on the Dutch North Sea coast, and assisting in salvaging the tanker TORM LOKE in Flushing Sloe Harbour.
Furthermore, a significant and complex operation Multraship and LM Diving Service conducted in partnership successfully lifted the barge JOGO 4 in the Upper Scheldt in Belgium.
On questions about what lies ahead for tug and salvage companies, Muller thinks that the biggest challenges are ones that affect all vessel owners and operators – getting to Net Zero by 2050 and making sure there is the right mix of talent and experience within the organisation.
“I’m very certain that we will get to Net Zero, but only if industry works together,” he said.
“Reducing emissions is a global concern that requires collaboration between the maritime community, governments, and other sectors. We should continue debating and discussing these with all stakeholders to get the best business solutions for the industry – this means having fuelling solutions that meet the unique practical requirements of tugs and their operational requirements. Electric tugs might be suitable for harbour towage, but they are not an option for sea towage due to the power requirements, for example, so we need to look at the full spectrum of towage and salvage solutions and services and adapt our fleets accordingly.
“We still have a lot to learn about future fuels and overall emissions footprints of the options coming online. Most of these are still in the testing phase and we are working with some customers to test lower-emissions alternative fuels, including B-50 fuel, which is made up of 50% HVO, a fossil-free and renewable fuel, and 50 % Ultra Low Sulphur Marine Gas Oil. This is suitable given that it is available where it’s needed and does not require any special handling requirements, but it’s not suitable across our entire fleet,” he said.
As a company, Multraship has long been committed to working with partners and peers through its participation on the board of the International Salvage Union and European Tug Owners Association, as well as representation on various other membership boards.
“Making sure we can share our expertise and insights not only on tug and salvage issues but on the bigger-picture issues and how it will affect our sector is really important to us. After all, we can only achieve Net Zero if we bring along every aspect and every vessel. Crucially, we need to make sure that we invest in the people, skills and technologies that will enable us to get there, and this too requires companies to promote maritime careers and deliver on making those careers attractive propositions,” he concluded.
