One of the famous Dutch Wijsmuller built anchor handling tug was the 1976 built tug SMITWIJS TYPHOON
She was offshore Malta assisting the 1975 built pipe laying semi submersible barge LB 200 mobilising for the Burullus project, Egypt.
SMITWIJS TYPHOON was built in 1976 by “Scheepswerf Van der Giessen-De Noord” at Alblasserdam, Netherlands as Yard No 907 and delivered to “Bureau Wijsmuller” with managers as “Wijsmuller Salvage BV” at Ijmuiden, Holland with Dutch Flag as TYPHOON. In 1983 she was fitted with bowfenders. In 1988 she was reflagged to Vanuatu (VUT Flag) homeported at Port Vila with managers as CW Marine Services. In 1991 she was sold to “Smitwijs Towage CV” at Rotterdam (NLD), a joint-venture between “Wijsmuller Holding BV” and “Smit Internationale’ and in 1999 she was renamed SMITWIJS TYPHOON. On 6th February 2002 SMITWIJS TYPHOON was involved in a salvage operation of a grounded ship offshore Tunisia with 2 days later arriving at Malta Drydocks for repairs. Then she sailed to LB 200 towage who was being towed by SMITWIJS ROTTERDAM.
LB 200 was built in the Netherlands at Schiedam as the VIKING PIPER in 1975 trading until 1981 where she was acquired by McDermott International for the sum of $85 million and renamed LB (Laying Barge) 200. She had accommodations for 500 crew with a stern ramp lay barge capable of laying pipe with up to a 60-inch outside diameter at depths of up to 2,000 feet. She also had a line station feed with 10 stations, six of which are welding stations, and two pipe tensioners with a combined tensioning strength of 300,000 pounds and capable of feeding pipe at a rate of 100 feet per minute. Also equipped with a saturation diving system, which operates at depths of up to 1,000
She was here for few hours to complete her voyage to Burullus Gas Field, Egypt mobilising certain equipment from Malta to export pipelines including a PLET installation in Egypt.
Watermarked Photos are by Capt. Lawrence Dalli. NO PHOTOS can be used or manipulated without our permission. © All rights reserved. Malta Ship Photos & Action Photos – www.maltashipphotos.com
Published – Monday 7th September, 2020.
