Fire blamed for latest Golden Ray dismantling delay
Removal of car carrier from St. Simons Sound plagued by work stoppages
0 36 3 minutes read Multiple vessels cool the Golden Ray wreck using seawater Saturday following a fire inside the wreck on Friday. (Photo: St. Simons Sound Incident Response)
The removal of the Golden Ray wreckage from Georgia’s St. Simons Sound has been plagued by delays the roll-on/roll-off vessel capsized in the early-morning hours of Sept. 9, 2019. Now the work to cut apart the car carrier has been brought to a screeching halt again, this time by a fire inside the wreck.
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The salvage and wreck removal of the capsized Golden Ray will continue for “several more months” in St. Simons Sound, Georgia, now more than a year and half since the car carrier ran aground with more than 4,000 vehicles inside.
The St. Simons Sound Incident Response Unified Command updated the media on the extended operation on Monday after reporting the successful separation of “Section Seven” over the weekend. Section Seven proved to be the most difficult section to cut to date due to reinforced steel surrounding the ship’s engine room.
Wreck removal personnel are now preparing the section for lifting operations by removing vehicles, moveable decks and sediment similar to earlier weight-shedding operations. Once lifted, the section will be loaded onto a barge and secured for transit to a facility at the local Mayors Point Terminal to undergo sea-fastening for an ocean transit to Louisiana. Fixed monitors and hydrographic surveys confirm that the r