Yes, the thread title is largely misleading; there never was ‘salvage’. It could be titled ‘…dry-docked on BOKO Vanguard’
The big floating dry-dock at Freeport is still not working, since a dock’s crane fell on a cruise-ship earlier this year. The Carnival Vista finished her last cruise at Galveston and then went to Freeport, all at reduced speed. BOKO Vanguard came over the Atlantic from Europe, and the spare parts were transported to Freeport.
Historic:
An earlier project with the (then) ‘Dockwise Vanguard’ was to transport the wreck of the Costa Concordia to a ship breaker, this with the two rows of sponsons along Concordia’s hull.
Literally, the Concordia was not refloated; the whole was a sort of catamaran with the sponsons as hulls and the Concordia hanging between them as ‘cargo’.
This was a real Italian Opera Buffa: From the beginning, the authorities insisted on ‘no breaking on Giglio Island’; only the hard-blocked rudders and the propellers were removed at Giglio, to facilitate the towing. From there on, the up righting and the sponsons where mandatory.
There are few ports in Italy, which could allow the wreck’s draft of 18.5 meters; Palermo and Taranto refused to block their deepwater berths for the years to come.
The Toscana Region (where Giglio Island is part of) insisted to do the breaking in the Toscana. They proposed to drag a 10 miles channel to the tiny port of Piombino, and to extend the port… Carnival paying…
Then all was blocked. Toscana had no right to decide on the breaking yard, but could always stop the works at Giglio Island. Italy would not allow the wreck’s planned destination of South-Asia….
Finally, they sorted out a transfer to the westerly Container Port of Genoa (the old port, with the dry-docks, had not the necessary depth). At the container port, they emptied the Concordia and removed some decks. Then, they towed her to the old port, removed other things, and put her into the drydock.
