Project Overview
Services: Maritime Construction, Equipment Hire
In the wake of Cyclone Cook, Tugboat Warringa was dispatched to Lamen Bay, Epi, to assist in the recovery of MV Freedom, which had run aground. Around the same time, Island Claws also went aground just south of the bay.
Initial efforts to pull MV Freedom off the reef were unsuccessful—she was partially buried in sand. Undeterred, her owner and crew spent the next month hard at work: offloading cargo, pumping out water, and using ropes and chain blocks rigged to nearby coral bommies.
Their persistence paid off. MV Freedom was eventually refloated, and in an impressive display of seamanship and ingenuity, the crew managed to restart one of her main engines—despite it being fully submerged for over a month. She then made her way back to Port Vila under her own power.
Fast forward to today: now operating under a new name and after several more years of service, MV Freedom has once again gone down—this time in Pontoon Bay, Port Vila, at the government domestic wharf. Whether she’ll be refloated again or this marks the end of her journey remains to be seen.
