The salvors attempting to cut up the shipwreck of the car-carrier Golden Ray have run into new problems. For the last seven months, the salvors have attempted to cut the ship up using a heavy-lift catamaran VB-10,000, nicknamed the “Golden Arches.”  To make the cuts, the VB-10,000 hauls a heavy chain up through the steel hull. After delays related to equipment failures and most recently a significant fire, progress has again come to a near standstill as the chains have encountered thick structural brackets inside the hull.  

The salvors have come up with a new plan — explosives, specifically, “low hazard flexible linear-shaped charges.”  The Brunswick News quotes U.S. Coast Guardsman Michael Himes saying that the devices pack a certain amount of the explosive RDX inside a foam casing. The resulting charge delivers a precisely aimed blast that makes precise cuts through steel obstacles.

T&T Salvage received the necessary permitting from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to employ such charges, Unified Command announced Wednesday. Use of the linear shaped charges also required National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration approval, Himes said.

As of now, salvors continue to use a cutting chain to tear through what is known as Section 3 of the shipwreck, Himes said. There are no immediate plans to use the charges, he said.

In September 2019, the car carrier Golden Ray lost stability and partially capsized as it departed the Port of Brunswick, GA, carrying about 4,200 vehicles. It was declared a constructive total loss. Plans are to cut the 660′ long ship into eight blocks that would be each carried by barge to a scrapyard.