F/V SUSAN ROSE SALVAGE -- POINT PLEASANT BEACH, NJ

F/V SUSAN ROSE SALVAGE -- POINT PLEASANT BEACH, NJ
STATEMENT MADE BY NORTHSTAR MARINE REGARDING THE F/V SUSAN ROSE SALVAGE:
"Northstar Marine, Inc. founded in 1990, has performed hundreds of salvage projects over the years. Northstar was hired to provide salvage services, pollution containment, and fuel removal for the F/V Susan Rose, which was grounded on Pt. Pleasant Beach on the morning of 11/17 at 0500 hrs. Northstar began mobilizing vacuum tanker trucks, pumps, storage tanks, salvage gear, and all manpower at 0800 on 11/17 and began fuel removal by 1400 hrs the same day. Fuel removal continued through the night. This phase was completed at 0730 on 11/18 with all fuel being removed, a total of 6500 gal.
The 2500hp Tug Shannon Dann was dispatched to assist with the refloating and arrived on 11/17 at 2300 hrs, the next morning the salvage crew utilized a line gun to shoot a messenger line to shore from a Towboat US vessel which was secured to a second, larger messenger line which was then used to bring a floating synthetic rope tow hawser to a Dyneema sling bridle with chafing gear to the bow.
By the morning of 11/18, 8 dewatering pumps were in place and hatches were secured to make the deck watertight which was extremely challenging with surf breaking across the deck and the vessel on a 28-degree list thus making it very difficult, wet and cold for the salvage team working on board.
A few hours before high tide on 11/18 around 1200hrs, the tug Shannon Dann took a steady strain on the tow hawser and over the next few hours of the tide was able to bring the boat to a point due east. However, the tide began to ebb, and refloating efforts needed to be put on hold until the next high tide around midnight. Tides are historically stronger and higher at night, making the later tide the best time for refloating operations.
At approximately 2200hrs, tug Shannon Dann began pulling and little progress was made until 0100 early the next morning. At this point, F/V Susan Rose began to make slight forward progress. The salvage team continued to check all internal spaces for flooding and had 8 salvage dewatering pumps manned and ready and all accessible internal spaces were dry and watertight. The Susan Rose was refloated at approx 0130 hrs and within minutes began to list heavily to port at which time all crew were immediately evacuated to safety. Minutes before the Salvage Master called for all compartments to be checked with a report of all tanks and spaces to be dry and fit.
It appears that an unforeseen catastrophic failure occurred while the vessel was in its most vulnerable state as it started to gain buoyancy thus causing the boat to pound heavily on the bottom as it went through the large breaking waves in the surf zone. The vessel was fully floating and within 3 minutes it capsized on its side at a 45-degree angle.
The Susan Rose was then towed to a position approx. one mile offshore where it is lying in approx. 50’ of water. Plans for the next phase and final disposition of the vessel are currently being discussed."

[@ShoreBoats]

Statement made by the company who did the salvage, Northstar Marine, in the description of this video.

[@geomatteson9659]

Can’t fix stupid.

[@christopherj9494]

Thank for the update. Been a busy year for the Locals here.

[@sylvirios3732]

Wow ! That’s pretty sad an amazing ! Thank you for share !❤

[@cbrusharmy]

Always nice to have a crowd to discuss your mistakes as you try to fix them.

[@utoob7361]

What no one seems to have figured out is that the Susan Rose is 45 years old - 1977! That is end of life for a fishing boat. 45 years of corrosion and fatigue. I think the salvage crew's explanation is probably correct - she spent almost 2 days rolling in rough surf, then got thumped hard on the bottom, and the old hull simply gave out. Divers will probably find she has opened up a seam. It was not a broken through-hull fitting - that would not sink her in minutes. I've personally seen what happens when you try to sink a vessel by opening the seacocks - it takes all day! In a way this is lucky. If the old hull had split at sea, they'd all be dead. The wreck is no where near a mile offshore, more like 250 yards, looks like about 30 feet of water. It is going to have to be moved before some deep-draft barge plows into it. There are two artificial reefs nearby. If they can pick it up off the bottom, they can move it to the nearest reef and drop it there. All the fuel and oil are out of her by now, they'll still need to get some waivers, but under the circumstances, that should be doable. At 45 years old, the Susan Rose is not worth salvaging. I don't understand why they insisted on turning her around while she was stuck in the sand. That's a huge amount of strain on the hull. If they had pulled her straight out by the stern, they probably would have got it on the first try and not subjected it to an extra 12 hours of rolling in the surf.

[@henrynevins]

Who ever did the towing are a bunch of morons. First rule, you pull off the beach from the stern because the propellers are dug into the sand, Two, because its impossible to turn the boat around by pulling from the bow, the keel digs in and you risk turning the boat over which is exactly what happened. Three, be sure and pump out any water taken aboard from waves, plus since you pulled the portside underwater, what did you think was going to happen? Finally, obviously too heavy to refloat with bilges full of water, so the boat floats off for a few feet then sinks like a rock. The tow boat company should be sued by the insurance company for the value of the boat, a few million, total incompetence and malpractice. I'd love to be the admiralty lawyer on that case. The boat was better off on the beach.

[@PaulRodvik]

Doesn't sound like you're talking from experience I can tell you the boat should have been able to write itself but because it uses stabilizers and at the end of those are called fish the boat doesn't have the inherent stability as a boat that would be balanced with concrete would have because it's designed to run off of press tanks of ocean water.

[@rommel-777]

Devastating for the crew and the community. Great content, thanks for sharing. God bless.

[@robertstancer4469]

A view from the UK. Dumb question, i don't know, but why was all this effort made to refloat the vessel for it to immediately sink. Was there no survey done below the water line BEFORE trying to float her?

[@mattkliminski2855]

There was no reason for it to sink. Boats run aground/ ashore and are checked thoroughly while in that position and rechecked as the boat is pulled off and starting to float in minimal water depth, assess the water ingress and repair it as needed to avoid this exact scenario. Boat was very salvageable/repairable with a soft beach grounding. Now i would think a Total Loss. Who wound up pulling it off the beach?

[@agentcrm]

That hull was compromised from the surf and being bound on the sea bed multiple times before she ran aground and during recovery. The company doing the salvage is shown in the video, they're an established name.

[@henrynevins]

An established name means squat, their end result is obvious for all to see. You can be sure they won't be displaying photos of that rescue anytime soon. Boaters, if you see that company offer to tow your boat, run as fast as possible.

[@fishydubsfishing6516]

Looks like there's gonna be a nice insurance payment going out

[@jamesmccaughey5604]

Agreed. Boat should have stayed beached if hull was compromised. Now it's a safety hazard prompting costly lawsuits. 🤔

[@johngeorge5410]

Why didn't they just pull from the stern? Seriously, what did they expect from a bow pull? They broached the vessel, and made the situation even worse. Stern pull, till the boat had enough water under keel

[@edub90]

Worse commercial ever for the "Salvage" Co. Their biz may begin to sink just as quickly

[@eddiecongdontrucking]

They are working on it. Different than people just commenting on videos these guys are out here getting stuff done

[@ronschwolsky1626]

Well, I certainly wouldn't call that a "salvage."

[@advancedusvsystems6255]

The company statement is reasonable, except there were obviously large swells and surf and bouncing on the bottom was predictable. Maybe ballast bags could have been part of a contingency plan or added insurance? When it was clearly free, and clearly pitching violently, waiting until daylight with the tow boat on station, while the salvage was shallow, would have been prudent. All fuel had been removed, so no environmental damage would have been imminent.

[@volvo09]

So what happens to it now that it sank near shore? Does it stay? Or do they have to float it and move it to deeper water?

[@rogerz3417]

She will be refloated and towed to a yard then the insurance co goes from there. It will take patching of the hull IF there is a hole, or maybe a valve broke loose or shaft slid out…. Anyone’s guess right now…

[@lisathomas-ht6mk]

I know the susan rose I grew up fishing on the Shinnecock 1 you towed us around by a door for an hour very sad😢

[@lisathomas-ht6mk]

My name is Erik Thomas.

[@fishydubsfishing6516]

Just slap another coat of paint on it it's good for another hundred years how do these things even pass the Coast Guard inspection

[@roberts6900]

That boat is cursed... They lost a man overboard in 2022.

[@rodneyjohnston6280]

What happened someone must be sleeping at the wheel

[@MegaBait1616]

That sucks was in Pt. P. and didn't even know about it :-(

[@brandspro]

Seems a case of gross incompetence all around. Running it into the beach in the first place, and then dragging of the beach to sink it in the ocean. Muppets.

[@PaulRodvik]

Actually running it onto the beach is what captains do to save everything so they can properly tow it back out and bring it home

[@brandspro]

@@PaulRodvik according to what I’ve seen the captain stated that he set the autopilot when they were 15 minutes out and then went down to have a cigarette and “take a shit”. Not sure that qualifies as enough of an emergency to beach your vessel.

[@snowgorilla9789]

​@@brandsproone of them cigaretes thats rolled on both ends

[@joshuamiller916]

Ugh sucks that it sank. I assume that makes it 10 times harder now to remove/salvage. Would have been easier from the shore I would think.

[@nickg8862]

Shame😢

[@electricianron_New_Jersey]

I’m just to here to read all of the “experts” opinions. 😂😂😂

[@rski1036]

A lot of "Couch Captain's."

[@lisathomas-ht6mk]

This was 1 of our last boats on the east coast that feeds our country our fleet has been desamated 90 percent of our seafood is imported why the susan has traveled the Atlantic to every corner and and it is sad the united states lost her Erik Thomas formerly

[@erniegehlert6899]

Seems irresponsible for the salvage company to not have uprighted the vessel before pulling it off of the beach? The vessel was level when first beached and perhaps some large earth movers stationed off of the beach could have pulled on the vessel to upright it? Then the water could have successfully been pumped out before completely hauling it out to sea. Just guessing...

[@agentcrm]

And you've guessed completely wrong. There's no way to safely excavate out under that vessel without it breaking apart. Steel hulls do not like being unsupported.

[@samsung-ok4ki]

Real salvage operations would've had buoyancy bags all around and a separate Pumping boat with hoses, and a Real Grounding Inspection . but they just muffed it

[@dhouse-d5l]

So I take it this was gear/engine failure...no other reason I can think of why it ended up like that.

[@bobross5079]

Did the Guidos survive ? Was their Club Music playing ?

[@georgebauman]

Wow Ruff Crowd!!! 😂

[@samsung-ok4ki]

I can see this job was NOT done correctly , Ray Charles could see it

[@PaulRodvik]

That kind of irresponsible towing is completely on the shoulders of the salvage company they could have cordoned off the leaking areas the boat obviously had rolling chalks and keel coolers and when they dive on the reck they find out that they must have torn open something and not secured all the hatches and not properly adjusted any kind of ballast the boat would have needed.

[@peterebel7899]

First take care about flotation, then pull it from the beach .....

[@freespeech469]

Was that the plan all along? To sink it or did they think they could save it

[@agentcrm]

They where trying to save it. To deliberately sink a vessel as a reef requires them to be very deeply cleaned, hatches welded open, everything stripped topside. Not to mention all the paperwork.