W&W: Automotive's Unsung Heros

The Norwegian company Wilhelm Wilhelmsen and it's wholly owned subsidiary Wallenius Wilhelmsen are some of the unsung heroes of the automotive industry. Unless you've special-ordered a vehicle from Europe, or, more sadly, happened to have read the international news back in December of 2002, you likely don't even know who they are. In short, with more than 13,000 employees and a fleet of over 250, W&W is one of the largest transportation and logistics companies specializing in international automotive transport in the world.

Some of you may remember the headlines around Christmas of 2002 when one of W&W large RO-RO (roll on – roll off) auto transport ships, M/V Tricolor, was struck by the Bahamian flagged container ship Kariba roughly 20 miles off the French coast in the English Channel. Even with the enormous amount of worldwide shipping traffic and sailings, marine disasters are not very common today and rarely receive press unless there is a large loss of life or oil involved. This story, however, had several unique aspects that warrant my talking about it here, more than two years after the accident.

The most compelling part of this story is clearly in the ship's cargo, which consisted of 2,871 new, assorted BMW, SAAB, and Volvo cars. There have been other wrecks with new automobiles, including one off of Japan with more than 4,000 cars, but the thought of a bunch of civics just doesn't quite capture the imagination the way the BMWs do. The total value of the ship itself was roughly $40 million, and the value of the cars, roughly $50 million.

You can bet there was some nice hardware on that boat.

As a result of the collision, the Tricolor sustained heavy damage and quickly capsized in roughly 90 feet of water in the center of the English Channel, putting the side of the ship just beneath the water's surface at high tide. This left the company somewhat optimistic at first, as they thought there might be a possibility of re-floating the vessel. The location of the incident, however, placed the wreck directly in the path of constant shipping traffic. On several occasions the sunken ship was struck by passing ships, once by a ship carrying about 25 million gallon of oil. It was clear that the company was going to have to either recover or salvage the wreck.

The idea of salvaging or recovering a ship that is well over 600 feet long with a gross displacement of nearly 50,000 metric tons is simply inconceivable. The ship had to be cut into several pieces by a system designed to help raise the Russian submarine Kursk in the Barents Sea. For a full description of the incident and amazing pictures of the recovery, which was just completed this fall, please click here.

You'll never think of automotive transport the same way again.