Burnt-out Fremantle Highway ro-ro on route to reconstruction in China

The Fremantle Highway, a ro-ro ship victim of a tragic fire on the night of July 25 to 26, 2023 off the coast of the Netherlands, is currently en route to a Chinese shipyard aboard the semi-submersible vessel Boka Vanguard. It should arrive there during the month of December. It was in 2013 that this 200-meter ro-ro vessel with a capacity of 6,200 vehicles left the Japanese Imabari shipyard.

For the record, following the disaster, the Fremantle Highway was initially docked in the Dutch port of Eemshaven, where it was towed for rescue and security operations carried out by Boskalis and Multraship. Unloading the 3,784 vehicles installed in its garages took several weeks. Rescuers applied a special protocol to the 498 electric vehicles on board which were soaked in vats of water as they were evacuated from the edge. A precaution linked to precedents of fires breaking out late on damaged batteries.

The Fremantle Highway before the fire.

The hull of the ship was then bought from its owner, the Japanese company Shoei Kisen, by the Dutch group Koole Contractors. She was brought to the Damen de Botlek shipyard in Rotterdam for refit work in September 2023. Her new owner has indicated that he will continue to empty the vessel so that a thorough inspection of all the details can be carried out. structures to be able to repair them. All unsalvageable parts have been cut away, with the Fremantle Highway unrecognizable today. This work has now been completed, the ship will therefore undergo an overhaul in China and then be put back up for sale. A rescue undertaken due to the fact that the ro-ro market is currently very tight and the demand for ships is particularly high.

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