MV Priscilla: ‘re-float plans progressing well’

Acting SOSRep Hugh Shaw has said this morning that good progress is being made at the MV Priscilla and the agreed quantity of bunkers has now been safely removed from the cargo ship, which ran aground at Pentland Skerries in the early hours of Wednesday morning last week.

Mr Shaw also said he was pleased to report that operations to prepare the vessel for a re-float are progressing well.

At a meeting of the Salvage Control Unit (SCU) held earlier this morning, Tuesday, further discussions were held to discuss the ongoing salvage and refloat of the vessel MV Priscilla, which remains in a stable condition but still hard aground.

In the past 24 hours the salvors — Multraship/Ardent/Wagenborg — have managed to successfully remove 28 tonnes of marine gas oil (MGO) from the vessel.

Taking into account daily consumption for ship services, 15 tonnes of MGO will now be retained on board for essential services. The four tonnes of ‘solidified’ heavy fuel oil (HFO) and 2 tonnes of lubricating oil (LO) will be retained on board.

According to HM Coastguard, since yesterday over 270 tonnes of cargo has been successfully discharged from the vessel onto a reception barge. The barge is currently en route to Windwick Bay where the cargo will be loaded onto the MV Priscilla’s sister ship MV Alana Evita.

A second barge is now loading cargo and operations will continue until approximately 1,350 tonnes have been removed in order to lighten the vessel.  To control an un-planned re-float during lightering operations a tug will be connected to the stern of the MV PRISCILLA once 500 tonnes has been discharged.

Additional vessels on scene and supporting the salvage operation include the Multraship Multratug 20, Multrasalvor 3 and Multrasalvor 4. Wagenborg have provided the Wagenborg Barge 14 and cargo vessel Alana Evita. In addition, Briggs have provided the Forth Guardsman, Forth Trojan and Sprucelight.

The Temporary Exclusion Zone remains at 1,000 metres whilst the operation and activity is ongoing.

The 6-person crew of the Priscilla are safe and remain on board.