MSC Baltic III Wreck Pulled 53 Metres Closer to Shore
About 4,200 tonnes have come off the grounded boxship, roughly 40% of its tonnage
Salvors have pulled the wreck of the containership MSC Baltic III about 53 metres closer to shore at Cedar Cove in Newfoundland and Labrador as dismantling and lightering continue. Roughly 4,200 tonnes have been taken off the ship, equivalent to about 40% of its total tonnage.
Resolve Marine, the American salvage contractor on the job, plans further pulls on high tides, using the buoyancy the rising water gives the hull to work it gradually up the beach where it can be cut apart. The cableway previously used to reach the vessel is being removed and crews now cross by a temporary gangway from the shore. A scrap pad has been completed for a shoreline crane supporting the lightering.
Pollution control remains in place. Slight sheening has been observed outside the wreck, and residual fuel is still in the holds, where an absorbent boom has been installed to reduce the risk of a release. Shoreline monitoring continues, with limited quantities of tar balls removed when found. The Canadian Coast Guard has been publishing progress on the operation, including the removal of 468 cargo containers with four still aboard, and hydrogen sulphide readings from submerged boxes that crews are monitoring as they work.
Pulling began on 31 July, after the superstructure and the cargo had been taken off.
The 207-metre ship, built in 2003 and registered in Liberia, lost power on 15 February 2025 about 12 nautical miles outside the entrance to the Bay of Islands on Newfoundland's west coast. Unable to hold an anchor in adverse weather, she grounded at Wild Cove, west of Lark Harbour. All 20 people on board were lifted off by a Royal Canadian Air Force CH-149 Cormorant helicopter, and four crew members were injured.
The ship was operating for MSC, the privately owned container line and logistics group headquartered in Geneva, which runs around 1,000 vessels and calls at some 520 ports.
Nineteen months on, the case is a reminder of what a grounding in an exposed location costs after the emergency phase ends. The crew came off in a day. Removing the ship has taken a summer of cargo discharge, superstructure cutting and tidal winching, and it is not finished: the remaining 60% of the hull still has to come up the shore and be broken down where it lies.
This story is part of the Maritime Briefing of 14 September 2026.
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