Salvage of sunken car carrier Tricolor

The 16,000 dwt car carrier Tricolor sank after she collided with a container vessel in the English Channel near France in 2003. SMIT Salvage led the consortium that successfully removed the wreck.

[@Barnekkid]

The difficulty of the tasks shown here was met with an equal degree of skill and technological prowess. They did a great job; hats off to all the salvage entities involved. What bothers me is how two modern vessels, each likely equipped with radar, global positioning technology, the latest in all forms of navigational hardware, and well trained crews, could collide in a vast ocean.

[@KowboyUSA]

Even considering that much of the English Channel is comparatively shallow, it's still amazing for me how modern ships can be so large in size that when sunk they often block the channel. This one actually came to rest with it's side almost coming out of the water at low tide at least.

[@Teddy_Bass]

Must have cost an absolute fortune to rectify. But you can see all the hard work and engineering that has gone into it

[@MsTweetie]

Wow...this is quite an interesting documentary. It's amazing how clicking through several links we end up watching something we (or myself in particular) never had a clue about before.

[@garysmedley6263]

What an amazing salvage job. All the people who worked so hard on this difficult and dangerous site are to be commended for the effort that they gave to help keep our oceans healthy.

[@straswa]

Nice vid, very interesting how such a cable can cut through a large ship like the Tricolor.

[@cognitivepawn]

Excellent video. Glad the entire crew was rescued and no one was hurt during the salvage operations.

[@kurtjakins6396]

I like the way you handled this good work SMIT.

[@s0nnyburnett]

Mind boggling, being able to cut clean all the way through a ship like that, the mother of all saws.

[@markma2414]

I am doing the assignment about salvage and the case is also from SMIT. It is really great.

[@4213ags]

SMIT ftw, great video, thanks for sharing...

[@panther105]

Just rather amazing that the two ships collided. There is such sophisticated vessel tracking 24 hours a day everywhere, radar, GPS......How did this happen???

[@icegiant1000]

What a frickin mess. Such respect for all the people involved in cleaning that up. Hard to be energetic about such hard work in order to clean something up, you aren't even building anything. Uhg!

[@wcolby]

Well done. Thanks for a quality show.

[@spooksixsix]

Amazing salvage operation, never seen anything quite like it before.

[@stevengrotte2987]

In 1942 the sunken Battleships at Pearl Harbor were righted and/ or raised from the bottom of Pearl Harbor and there were up to seven of them 74 years ago and they each weighed over 30,000 tons.

[@peteacher52]

A superb job done; the logistics are almost as mind-boggling as understanding inter-stellar distances. The experts always make it look deceptively easy and video editing down to a manageable time frame further adds to the "That was nowt of a job" syndrome. Col, NZ.

[@Wizard__OW]

I would've loved to check out the state of the cars that were underwater.

[@killyourtelllievision]

I would say that the only thing lacking from this channel is MORE CONTENT LIKE THIS GREAT VIDEO

[@Gatubella48]

Amazing team work!

[@gordbaker896]

Amazing equipment and planning operation.

[@bekiil]

Amazing. Thanks for sharing this.

[@ralphaverill2001]

I enjoy these "salvage sagas" on youtube. A piece of information missing on all of them, including this one, is the cost of the operation or the salvage contract value.

[@andrewdurant5452]

Fascinating, I would'nt have imagined how complex an operation the whole thing was.

[@miquel440]

Dutch engineering and salvaging at its best.

[@yoski203]

Holy cow the intro is over a minute!

[@rubadux]

*"increasingly smaller* pieces are lifted out of the sea" oh well, English pushed to its limits, uh? XD Very interesting and instructive documentation! I couldn't have imagined how you guys cut this hulk up and lifted it from the sea floor in such large chunks. Thanks for sharing!

[@Leo_Berger]

Sometimes it feels like man can do the most incredible things

[@Bernhardist]

Thank´s for sharing these video... It´s very interesting stuff!! Bernhard from Germany

[@bamboozledguy]

Wow great job SMIT Salvage.

[@ingohiller3415]

very good details in this video

[@6911redneck]

Very well job! Gratulations to this great work.

[@Mandy7D7]

This video was so painful. Knowing how many beautiful cars were lost. Very interesting though. The cutting wire works amazingly well.

[@JoDaddysGarage]

Impressive engineering.

[@nickt4200]

11:09 "Are you sure??" written on that button haha

[@terrandroid]

Very nice, i love watching salvaging shipwrecks!

[@sixstringedthing]

Hugely impressive.

[@sakibear7607]

I wonder if they encountered any old ordinance from WW I or WW II? I didn't hear any reference to that? Very interesting production. At $30,000 per vehicle $84 million and $30k is probably an underestimate.

[@66beechwood]

Amazing, great job!

[@pointblank6]

Think the Giant 4 barge was used with the kursk, pretty cool shit.

[@khalidismail7921]

very good salvage work

[@SuperScottCrawford]

i remember hearing about this. a bunch of new volvos. they had that new car and saltwater smell.

[@chrishaasnoot3632]

They are dutch.....the masters of the sea of course.

[@justbanter8727]

+Chris Haasnoot indeed your reputation is formidable, agreed

[@ebuff57]

Great video!

[@Raphael_NYC]

Thank you.

[@granskare]

it reminds me of the Herald of Free Enterprise

[@6771Randy]

Which ship was found to be at fault for this accident?

[@TheVirginiaStew]

Great Video..Great Job.....

[@dewaldventer6796]

Amazing. .. well done!!

[@muismat21]

It always surprises me that a lot of dutch companies do these kind of jobs.

[@merjot123]

I must say I think they did a pretty good job.

[@binladen2739]

UNBELIEVABLE

[@geluix69]

crazy work. great video.

[@vrolijkjan1]

Een groot gedeelte van deze secties liggen nog in de Waalhaven (Rotterdam) daar kan je ze goed bekijken.

[@truck87654321]

Nice work !

[@justbanter8727]

what happened to to the vessel it collided with? btw excellent Video - well done that team p.s if only the American's in charge of the BP (Amoco) Gulf Rig had listened to the Schlumberger Team that advised them to postpone drilling prior to that disaster?!! Perhaps things could have been averted? The lesson here being don't overrule the experts, they are the guy's who know their business.

[@thenoobyoufckinghate9814]

Amazing!

[@chaosdemonwolf1]

How many of those vehicles will end up being sold someplace? For sale. 2002 Honda Civic.... low miles, slight water damage

[@merc1110]

Fascinating but still tragic.

[@carpaithia]

Really amazing.....but the next question is who flipped the bill??? All in all it had to be super expensive between the loss of ship cargo and going out to get it i bet was the worse but it was good no loss of life happen ...

[@nuckinfuts6791]

this is really amazing to see:)

[@ajadrew]

Fascinating to put it mildly....

[@scottjess7853]

Hell of task good job though they made it look easy

[@ExploringCabinsandMines]

Good vid!

[@AmericanThunder]

That's gotta be some dangerous working environments..

[@PeixeRenilsom]

extraordinário, excelente

[@stevenclark6209]

remember watching this when it first happen big news the first couple of days and when they started lifting it,totally amazing cutting it up, watched the one about Russian sub only if they had swallowed there pride sooner maybe some sailors might have lived, I believe that must be in the top 3 of horrible deaths drowning, such shame, so sorry for the family's!!

[@Watts378]

Great vid!

[@richardnunez3474]

Cool stuff

[@umarluxat7174]

Great job .

[@mathewclark1407]

Awesome!!!

[@MrBaumann1]

Why couldn't they use a giant magnet to pull all the "smaller" metal out of the wreak area?

[@lynalllynall9082]

Amazing

[@jasonswift7098]

it is not a salvage if the ship is all cut up now!! what about the cars inside it?

[@ChinaAl]

Amazing. Very interesting

[@alludity]

amazing

[@nunyabidness117]

It is interesting g to watch this after watching vids on how they break ships in Bangladesh or India.

[@lowpricedpaint]

All those brand new tires, over 8000 of them. What kinds of cars were on the ship, any really expensive cars, and did any come out in one piece?

[@UncleJimboo]

Even if they did, engines are flooded and rusting. Theyre not usable anymore

[@geraldcline2489]

One wonders how much something like the salvage costs, and how who pays? Owners obviously and insurance I presume.

[@djlau1]

if i was a owner of one of them cars i still wanted the remains of my car

[@mrynahoke8463]

love that Eric webber

[@slimthunder2601]

thanks for the good video

[@supplysarge]

Wow!

[@daiq9]

Cool!

[@bubbaborsci7123]

Very impressive.

[@st225_dom]

👍👍

[@onrr1726]

NICE WORK!

[@rwnlof]

I am proud to be dutch...

[@Sm3rdino]

The front fell off

[@marcellauener1646]

Very interesting.

[@stephenconnell]

whose fault for the collision?

[@johnozechoski2709]

great video to cut a ship in half is so cool

[@MechRider89]

poor cars, i wonder how many cool cars were lost.. :-(

[@robertwalton7307]

Awesome,what a way to make a living !

[@ushillbillies]

nothing less than Incredble

[@ExploringCabinsandMines]

Pick up the pieces with a magnet!

[@jackrusse1947]

Well done to you all

[@Daehawk]

Wow.

[@EctoLazer]

the poor cars

[@F_Souto]

Smit i think is the same team that desmanteled the Reijin ship here in my city some years ago.

[@cw7784]

who was at fault the tri color or the tanker ?