Just refloated this tug after taking off 120,000 gallons of fuel. We raised her upside-down and towed it into Sabine Pass. Next week, we'll roll her over. She was down in 40 feet of sea but the stern was 60' (under-ground).
Without doubt, that is the cleanest bottom I've seen since just before they flooded us down in drydock.
Nope, doesn't really work that way. We are hired by the insurance company to recover the vessel. We have the option to purchase it from the owner against the bill or his deductable. We bought 120,000 gallons of fuel that we were paid $2.00 per gallon to remove for .27 per gallon. All round, this was a typical salvage and the gross reciepts will be in the neighborhood of 1.7-1.8 mil or about 30% of the value of the casualty.
Funny coincidence...last year, almost to the day in exactly the same place , I raised a giant oil barge (DBL 152) that hit the same submerged object and sank. THe coast guard had a buoy on the sunken oil platform but I guess it got lost.
