ERIKA

The At-Sea Response
by Joesph G. Small
Head of Response Operations
Brigs Marine Environmental Services Ltd.
As the crew of the tanker ERIKA (figure 1) sailed from Dunkerque for Livorno,
little did anyone realise that her name was to become linked to the one of theworst pollution incidents that Northern Europe has experienced. The events that
followed her departure remain under investigation but some details are alreadyknown about her and her voyage.
The tanker was built by the Kasado Shipyard Company in 1975 and at just under
200m long she was capable of carrying 36,000 tonnes of liquid cargo and was,by all accounts, a normal tanker going about her everyday business. On this, herlast voyage, she had loaded 31,000 tonnes of a Number 2 heavy fuel oil, theresidue of the crude oil fraction process. Speculation about her structural
condition will not be answered for some time, however it is apparent that as theship sailed into severe weather, not uncommon for the location or the time ofyear, there a catastrophic loss of strength leading to the vessel breaking in two.
The crew of 26 were saved but some 11,000 tonnes of cargo were immediatelylost.
The French Government were prepared for incidents such as this and for the last
20 years have stationed salvage tugs in key areas around their coast. One suchtug, the ABEILLE FLANDRES, was on station, close to the scene when theincident started. Her salvage crew managed to connect a towline to the sternsection and slowly made their way offshore trying to put as much distance aspossible between them and the rocky shoreline. The bow section (figure 2)
floated vertically for a number of hours before sinking in 120 metres of water. The
stern section (figure 3) followed a few hours later and today lie some 8 miles
apart slowly leaking the remaining 20,000 tonnes of cargo.
As these events unfolded staff at a pollution response company in Aberdeen,
Scotland were going about their everyday activities, a number of minor incidents
had been dealt with during the course of the weekend and their vessels andaircraft were on normal operational readiness. The high winds and poor weather
had delayed one of their vessels from sailing to assist in the salvage recovery
operations of the MOD aircraft of Torness power station and had delayed thearrival in Immingham of their vessel the BRITISH SHIELD.

The BRITISH SHIELD (figure 4) was the latest addition to the Briggs fleet andhad been purchased in 1998 to replace the FORTH EXPLORER. Originallyconstructed as a chemical tanker she had been re-fitted with cranes, workboats,pumps and skimmers capable of handling both and oil and chemical incidents.
Her owners, Briggs Marine Environmental Services Ltd had used the experience
gained in over 30 years of pollution response to create a unique counter-pollutionvessel.
The salvors of the ERIKA quickly requested the assistance of Briggs in theiroperation, both to attempt a transfer operation from the still-floating aft section
and to combat the pollution threat. While Joe Small, Head of Response
Operations , flew to the incident centre in Brest and commenced working with thesalvors and the French authorities, staff in Briggs stockpiles around the countrycommenced pulling together the emergency equipment they would need over the
coming weeks.
Workboats, skimmers, pumps, heating coils, hoses, fenders and a myriad ofequipment were loaded onboard the BRITISH SHIELD and secured for theheavy weather and an addition four crewmen were embarked, increasing thecrew numbers to sixteen.
The BRITISH SHIELD sailed from Immingham into the teeth of a severe gale,pausing only to take onboard two French liaison officers in Brest she arrived overthe wreck site on Sunday 19th December. She joined an international task force
consisting of government vessels from France, the Netherlands, Germany andSpain, under the overall control of Admiral Yves Naquet-Radiguet. Tacticalcommand of the fleet was exercised by his staff from the underground bunker in
Brest Naval Headquarters. Surveillance reports from spotter aircraft andhelicopters were relayed to the French frigate COMMANDANT LE PINODAN
who in turn tasked each ship individually.
A number of recovery techniques and equipment were employed, some fared
better than others and some poorer than others (figure 5) . In general at-sea
recovery operations are always limited by the weather, both wind, sea and swelland the type and amount of oil. This operation was no different, after a week inthe water the oil had grown by a further 50% and an emulsion of oil and water
created. The viscosity had rocketed and a product resembling sticky toothpaste
had to be recovered. The oil was scattered over a large sea area in patches of
100 metres in diameter to small globules. This coupled with the 3 metre atlanticswell, winds of anywhere between Force 5 and Severe Gale Force 9, and driving
rain showers all concentrated the minds of those responding.
An extract from the ships log for one of the days gives an indication of theconditions and operations experienced;

Sunday 19th Wind : North East 5 gusting 6 Sea : moderate Swell : 2.5 metres
0800hrs Daybreak. In position, ready to deploy.
0830hrs Orders received from On-Scene Commander (OSC) transiting to slickarea.
0952hrs In slick position marker buoy deployed. Sea Devil skimmer deployedover port bow using port forward crane. Conditions and amount of oil unsuitableto deploy boom.
1200hsr Moving to second slick area. Slicks ranging from 15 metres by 30
metres and 60 metres by 20 metres.
1344hsr Discharge hose breaking loose, suspend operation, recover equipment,repair.
1435hrs Resume recovery operations.
1800hsr Nightfall, equipment recovered and hosed down.
1900hrs Crew stood down
2000hrs On location standing-by.
On Christmas eve with winds now reaching Storm Force 10 the at-sea recovery
operation was halted and the vessels instructed to proceed to St Nazaire. The
BRITISH SHIELD was tasked with the cleaning operation all the vessels involvedin the incident. John Dipple, Head of Marine Operations, now moved to St
Nazaire to take charge of the operation, which involved cleaning every vessels
tanks, equipment, decks and hulls. The Dutch vessel ARCA was required toreturn to Dutch waters to be on stand-by for any millennium related incidents andas such was accorded the highest priority.
Cleaning took place throughout the holiday period and was finally completed on
Monday 1o January. Seven vessels had been cleaned and 1100 tonnes of oil
and water had been re-delivered ashore.
This amounts to some 10% of the oil lost, the remaining being driven ashore onto
the French coastline and requiring a complex and sustained operation by many
hundreds of people, it equates favorably with other recent recovery operations.
But while the legacy of the ERIKA's initial lose is being addressed, attention isbeing focused on the remaining oil contained within the two sunken sections.
ROV surveys of the wreck sites indicate that both sections are generally intact
but are leaking and given that up to 20,000 tonnes may be onboard remains asevere pollution threat.
TOTALFINA as charterers of the vessel have pledged to recover the oil from thewreck and have commenced a feasibility study into the techniques available.
Briggs, as a member of a four-strong consortium comprising of Les Abeilles
International, Smit-Tak and Frank Mohn AS, remain keenly interested recovering
the remains of the cargo from the wreck sites.