Paul Sivertsen's voyage to the CP Valour
The CP Valour in happier times
Photo copyright CP Ships Limited 2006
Owner: CP Ships
Manager: Split Ship Management
Year built: 1979
Flag: Bermuda
Classification: Det Norske Veritas 1A1 ICE-C
Capacity: 1000 teu (nominal)
Service speed: 18.5 knots
Length overall: 177 metres
Breadth: 27 metres
Gross registered tonnage: 15,145
Deadweight tonnage: 18,687
Draught: 10 metres
Crew: 21 (approximate)
Paul Sivertsen recently retired from what was the Geest Line, as one of their chief engineers. He now looks after the fleet of Svitzer tugs in Swansea. Paul voyaged south on Ayton Cross to deliver a jack up barge Excalibur to be used to unload the cargo of conainers remaining on CP Valour. The following pictures were all taken by Paul whilst on a stop over at Lisbon and at the wreck site and are his copyright. Thanks to Paul for allowing us to publish them.
The 1000 TEU container ship CP Valour was on a voyage from Montreal to Cadiz. She ran into trouble after requesting permission to anchor near Faial because she was suffering engine trouble. She was heading into safe anchorage when she grounded on December 9th 2005. The crew left the ship on Christmas Day.
Salvage services under LOF were taken up by Tsavliris Salvage(International) Ltd using the Russian tug Fotiy Krylov, assisted by harbour tugs Ilha de Sao Luis and Sao Miguel.
They were successful in pumping the bunker oil from the vessel using the tanker Magadir, and managed to unloaded a number of containers using BBC Canada. Portuguese airforce helicopters were used to off load drums of toxic chemicals.
CP Valour was a strong vessel but the grounding resulted in very severe bottom damage. The casualty is in fully flooded condition (including the engine room). No tanks have been left intact by the grounding and its aftermath.
She was abandoned as a constructive total loss in mid January 2006
In April, SvitzerWijsmuller Salvage won the contract to salvage the ship. A wide range of equipment was immediately mobilised for this task, including the salvage vessel Jacomina and the two lifting platforms Thieste and MEB-JB1, which were towed to the Azores by tug. The plan was to first remove all containers from the ship. A decision will then be taken on to how best to remove the CP Valour from the shallow bay.
Update:
All the cargo has been removed as has the deck housing. Heavy machinery from the engine room has also been removed.
Paul maybe asked to take down further equipment in the near future. Hopefully we can share in some of the photos from that trip.