He said that after the main dismantling work had cleared the vessel, the company would search the rocks near to where the Resolute was grounded as well as the seabed below to ensure nothing had been left behind.
In February, HM Coastguard said the majority of the Resolute’s fuel had been transferred ashore and there had been no reports of pollution since a small amount was initially identified.
Bradley said dismantling the vessel was the best way of clearing the stranded ship which had “some quite big holes” in the hull.
“There’s a 12m-wide channel that you can use to get onto the [ship’s] starboard side. So we chose… a shallow draft barge. It needed to have ‘spuds’ which are legs that drive into the seabed and hold it in position.
“This was the only way to do it, I believe – systematic sectioning into five sections, and then lifting onto the barge, and then dismantling those large sections on the barge itself.”
