Cargo Discharged from Fire-Damaged ONE and Wan Hai Vessels

The salvage operation for two recent containership fires, ONE Henry Hudson and Wan Hai 503, is continuing. The details show the intricate process required to recover from these incidents.

Ocean Network Express (ONE) reports that containers have started to be offloaded from the ONE Henry Hudson more than four weeks after the fire, while the ship was docked in the Port of Los Angeles. Reports indicated that the fire, which began on November 21, was possibly an electrical fire while the ship was handling export cargo.

The ship was briefly taken from the dock to outside the port and later returned while still under the supervision of the U.S. Coast Guard. The first step in the recovery operation included removing the firefighting water from the vessel’s hold. A barge was positioned alongside last week while at the Yusen Terminal, and ONE reports the water discharge operation in the affected cargo hold was completed on Friday, December 19.

Initial discharge operations have commenced for some of the containers. The containers are currently being held at Yusen Terminal for inspection by the U.S. Coast Guard. ONE reports that Yusen Terminal plans to complete this initial phase of discharge operations by the end of this week.

The owner of the vessel, which was chartered to ONE, in late November, declared General Average.

Wan Hai 503

The Wan Hai vessel is a far more complex operation that has been ongoing for more than two months after the vessel was docked and more than six months after the fire was first discovered on June 9. The fire was extinguished by late July, but there were delays in finding a suitable port of refuge. The ship reached Jebel Ali, United Arab Emirates, in mid-September and was docked by the beginning of October.

A small portion of the containers on the stern of the vessel had not been directly impacted by the fire. By mid-October, they reported that 356 containers had been discharged while over 1,300 remained.

Wan Hai provided its latest update dated December 23, reporting that the remains of approximately 38 containers were still aboard the vessel after 1,683 had been discharged. The company reports, however, that due to the condition of the containers remaining onboard, it has become increasingly difficult to identify individual containers as they are discharged.

Discharge of the firefighting water from the cargo holds is ongoing, but a total of approximately 11,440 tonnes has been discharged so far. Pumping of water, they note, has become challenging due to the amount of cargo residue, which is blocking the pump, pipe, or hold openings.

Cleaning of Cargo Hold 1 has been completed, but they are still working on clearing distressed cargo and debris from Cargo Holds 3, 4, and 5.