News / Mumbai Maersk heading for Bremerhaven after successful re-floating

Refloated Mumbai Maersk Credit Central Command for Maritime Emergencies

Maersk’s mega-ship, the Mumbai Maersk, which grounded at the mouth of the River Weser on 2 February, was successfully re-floated in the early hours of this morning on the high spring tide.

The 20,500 teu ship is now seen at the mouth of the the river on vesselsvalue.com’s AIS heading for Bremerhaven at a speed of 8kn, as of 11am on 4 February.

Meanwhile, Maersk posted this update at around 1pm CET explaining that the ship was re-floated “in close cooperation with salvage company Smit and the German Havarikommando [Central Command for Maritime Emergencies].”

Maersk added that “the ship is at a safe position and is undergoing hull and machinery assessment before it is expected to continue its voyage.”

The company added that an internal investigation into the cause of the grounding will also take place.

“We expect to be able to discharge the cargo onboard the vessel for our German import customers tomorrow. If the vessel assessment finds any reason to further delay the sailing to the next port Gothenburg, Sweden, we will action alternative options to minimise the delay. This could include a feeder vessel to the remaining ports left on the rotation or making another vessel do an extra loop.”

According to the eeSea liner database, the vessel is deployed on the 2M’s AE5/Albatross Asia-North Europe service.

To hear about the deteriorating cargo security landscape, listen to this clip from The Loadstar Podcast of Mike Yarwood, TT Club’s managing director, loss prevention.