Since the weekend immediately after the historic flood, the blue and white Pantaenius event container has been parked in the Olympic harbour in Kiel Schilksee. A large banner hangs from the railing: Claims Management. The Marine Claims Service (MCS) is the main organisation operating in Schilksee. The salvage specialists are now working on recovering the sunken or severely damaged ships and then bringing them ashore. The "Noorcat" is being used for this purpose by the independent surveyor's office and average commission MCS. The chartered multicat is 23.5 metres long, nine metres wide and weighs a whopping 153 tonnes.
The operation is coordinated on site by Kai Haasler, who is a qualified boat builder and engineer. The MCS operation has several different facets: before a boat can be lifted by floating bags or the crane, it has to be submerged. "We have almost 40 divers spread across all harbours for this purpose," explains Haasler. They also worked with three floating cranes: in Damp and Maasholm in addition to Schilksee. The Baltic Sea storm surge was particularly devastating here.
Baltic Sea storm surge: Navy divers assist with the rescue operation
Since Thursday, divers from the navy have also been helping with the clean-up work. They are supporting the MCS team in searching and marking danger spots. They are also helping by scanning the pit lanes and using their sonar equipment to create a map of the water depths. This makes it possible to identify exactly where ships are still moored. This is because most of the ships were driven away by the Baltic Sea storm surge before they sank. The deployment of the navy divers is legitimised as an exercise.
More about the Baltic Sea storm surge:
- Over 200 total losses - "Schilksee resembles a battlefield"
- Will the insurance companies pay for the damage?
- All yachts must be salvaged by 31 October
- Damage to the infrastructure - is the 2024 season at risk?
- Dramatic depiction of the night of horror
- Baltic Sea storm surge: assessment of damage in the harbours
