Salvage operation to raise Poole Quay wreck cost £25,000

Giant cranes, teams of divers, and a 500-tonne capacity barge were called on to salvage the 94-tonne former tuna-fishing vessel, the Channel Chieftain IV, which sank at its quayside mooring on Monday night.

Harbour Master, Brian Murphy, was among the marine recovery experts who returned to waters near Poole Quay in the early hours of Thursday morning.

"We had people on site at 3am. We re-floated the vessel with the pump on board running continuously, but it was too heavy for the cranes to lift.

"The tug boat, Herbert Ballam, towed her across the Quay to the Sunseeker heavy lift, which hoisted her on to a barge. The vessel was taken upstream where it will be broken up," said Mr Murphy.

The salvage operation is likely to cost Poole Harbour Commissioners about £25,000. The trust port is funded by its commercial subscribers and leisure users.

Lithuanian investors collected the boat from Weymouth in April but it ran into problems soon after leaving the Dorset port.

It limped into Poole harbour under the auspices of the Maritime and Coastguard Agency, where it remained until it sank on Monday when a rotten plank in the hull is thought to have given way.

"We had the vessel imposed upon us by the MCA, which deemed it unfit to go to sea and said Poole Harbour would be used as a port of refuge.

"Poole Harbour Commissioners as a port authority was not the party with the problem. The deficiencies of the vessel were the problem of its owner.

"The owner didn't have the facility anywhere in Poole to do the proper repairs. The ideal port would have been Portland," said Mr Murphy.

Harbour commissioners hope to recover the majority of the costs from their insurers, he added.

PHC chief executive, Jim Stewart, said his staff had worked round-the-clock since Monday to salvage the vessel, and thanked Poole council, Dorset Police, Marsh Plant, Sunseeker, Jenkins Marine, and Commercial and Industrial Diving.