A team of SVITZER Salvage succeeded last month in refloating and safely re-delivering container vessel MARTI PRIDE which had run aground off Torre San Giovanni, close to Gallipoli in Italy. The 3,500 DWT vessel had run aground early March while on loaded voyage and damaged double bottom tanks in the process. A salvage contract with SVITZER salvage was soon agreed and initially the oil removal was taken in hand to reduce the most immediate threads to the envirionment. Ofcourse secondary steps were set in motion simultaneously as naval architects had determined based on inspections that the vessel needed to be lightered to allow a safe refloating. On the 18th March the first batch of cargo had been removed using a crane barge, followed by another batch a day later. These discharged containers themselves presented a logistical challenge involving their delivery in the nearest container port. With 36 containers discharged and the weather interfering by preventing further discharge an initial refloating attempt was made which proved unsucessful. The 21st March another 29 containers were removed where upon the subsequent attempt that same day brought the required success; the vessel was refloated. Immediately the vessel was anchored nearby in order to check and stabilize the situation, where upon the vessel was allowed to proceed onwards to the closest repair port, Napels, with salvors and their gear on board and escorted by a tug. The SVITZER Salvage team under command of a salvage master had to shelter in Messina Straits for a number of days because of extreme bad weather, which the vessel now did not suffer while lying aground on an exposed spot, and the vessel subsequently was redelivered upon being safely moored alongside in Napels on the 27th of March.