Page 117: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (June 1993)

Titan's State-Of-The-Art

Refloating Techniques Come

Through In A Pinch

A specialist in wreck removal,

Titan Maritime Industries, Inc. of

Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. successfully raised two vessels recently, one marking its first job in Europe.

The first, the raising of the 8,000- ton M/V Frota Humaita from her capsized positioning in the Port of

Dunkirk, highlighted Titan's state- of-the-art raising techniques and capabilities.

The vessel was raised without the aid of external heavy lift equip- ment, a method which was declared impossible by a number of the company's competitors. In a sense, the vessel was raised by computer, as the extremely precise pumping sequence was determined by a pur- pose-designed computer program.

The physical results so accurately followed the computer projections that the vessel reportedly never had more than two degrees of heel off that which was anticipated. The 459-foot vessel was sunk in 59 feet, flooded in all compartments and listing 58 degrees. The ship was refloated 24 days after the official starting date.

More recently, in March of this year, the Ocean Princess struck a submerged obstruction shortly af-

Circle 296 on Reader Service Card ter departing her berth in Belem,

Brazil. The resultant flooding re- quired that the vessel be beached, and almost immediately the vessel started a nearly non-stop descent into the mud bottom.

Titan, acting on speculation, ar- rived with divers and equipment to undertake an immediate underwa- ter survey, and two days later was awarded three simultaneous "day rate" contracts for pollution control and clean up, for diving services to survey damage, and for salvage ser- vices.

The intent was that contracts would terminate once terms for a lump sum, "no cure, no pay" contract had been agreed upon. Prompt ac- tion was needed at the outset, as the vessel was settling into the mud at the rate of more than three feet per day. The job was a race against the mud, as deck after deck disappeared under the surface. Pumping com- menced after the contract was signed, and together with Titan's in-house salvage crew, naval architects and computer and computer operator, the vessel was re-floated and delivered to a safe anchorage with a nine de- grees list to port just 38 hours later.

For more information on Titan

Maritime,

Circle 3 on Reader Service Card

Trellex Fender Opens New

Office In South America

The Trellex Fender Division, part of Sweden's Svedala Industries, has opened a new office in Santiago,

South America, to strengthen the position it has established there.

Trellex also has an office in Kuala

Lumpur, which it opened in 1991, and continues to grow.

The Trellex V-fender is a simple design based upon a modular sys- tem with UHMW-PE low friction facing. The fenders are manufac- tured under high pressure and tem- perature, which makes the process unique. Trellex has won many con- tracts throughout the world and also has an exclusive marketing agree- ment with CRP of the U.K., which allows Trellex to promote foam-filled floating fenders.

Texas Drydock To Convert

Rigs For Cliffs Drilling

TDI Offshore, a subsidiary of

Texas Drydock, Inc., Orange, Texas, and Cliffs Drilling have entered into a construction contract for two rig conversions.

Construction work on the Cliffs

Rigs 8 and 10 will be performed at

TDI Offshore's Sabine yard. Work will involve the conversion of both rigs from the drilling to the produc- tion mode. With the delivery of these two conversions, TDI will have com- pleted a total of three such conver- sions to date for Cliff's. TDI Offshore is involved in the new construction, repair and turnkey modification of offshore rigs, and the drydocking and repair of oceangoing barges. safe.

Also available: the eight-channel

HX340 UHF or VHF.

Intrinsically

If all you want in a marine hand- held VHF is portability, maybe the Horizon HX220AS is too good-

Sure it meets the industry guidelines for explosive environ- ment applications. But it also has the punch you get from six watts of transmitting power, full-on microprocessor control, gold bat- tery contacts for reliability, gen- erous moisture protection, and careful, intelligent engineering.

It receives all U.S., Canadian and international channels as well as 10 weather channels, and can be programmed to scan any number or combination of them automatically.

One-touch channel selection as well as direct access to chan- nel 16 and the weather channels is so easy it can be done in heavy

P.O. Box 92151

Los Angeles, CA 90009-2151

Telephone: (310) 532-5300

Represented in Canada by:

CARDON, Hamilton. Ontario 416/527-1040 gloves. The LCD display is over- sized and backlit. And options like the external speaker/micro- phone which allows hands-free operation make it ideal for tank- ers, tenders and oil rigs.

The HX22DAS is a lot of radio in a remarkably small and light- weight package. To find out more about it, or about Stan- dard's intrinsically-safe eight- channel HX340 UHF and VHF handhelds, call or write today.

Just to be on the safe side.

Nothing takes to water like Horizon.

Standard Communications

Now WITH 3 YEAR WARRANTY! I 118 Maritime Reporter/Engineering News