Some ships stranded in Split finally on the move.
After more than five months which ships Krka, Orebić and Vranjic, until recently the vessels belonging to the Splitska Plovidba shipping company, have spent stranded on the north side of Marjan in Split and on the Slatinska Beach on the island of Čiovo, the process of refloating of the first vessel, Krka, was finally brought to an end on Saturday, reports Slobodna Dalmacija on August 30, 2015.
For more than a month, the Dutch company Marine Construct International had been waiting to formally become the owner of the stranded ships. After they thoroughly examined the ships and obtained all the necessary documents, they finally went to work. Around twenty people worked on the refloating of Krka, mostly Croatian workers but some Dutch experts as well. After ten days of patching up the cracks on the ship, the first phase of the operation is now completed and the buoyancy of the ship is being verified.
“In addition to cracks in the hull of the ship, we have closed other openings as well, for example between the tanks and cargo rooms. Therefore, the mending was done under the sea as well. At fifty meters from the shore, we will verify whether all the cracks have been patched. As has been announced previously, we will bring the ship to four large concrete blocks which will hold it steady until it is ready to be tied at the agreed location”, said Neno Mikačić from Marine Construct International.
Krka has been refloated, Orebić is to follow soon, but the most difficult job will have to be done at the Slatinska Beach. For Vranjica, hydraulic equipment will have to be employed, but everything should be completed by October 1. It is still not known where the ships will be moved to, since the discussions with the Port Authority are yet to be completed. However, one thing is certain: in the end, the old ships will end up in a scrap yard.
