Emma Maersk Reaches Fincantieri Repair Yard in Palermo

Emma Maersk under tow by the Fairmount Alpine tug. Image: Maersk Line

The disabled Emma Maersk has been successfully delivered to a Fincantieri yard in Palermo, Sicily, where she will undergo repairs to fix a broken stern thruster and damage caused by a flooded engine room.

Fairmount Marine confirmed Monday that its tug, Fairmount Alpine, delivered the massive Emma Maersk to the Fincantieri yard following a week long, 1,276 mile tow from the Suez Canal Container Terminal at Port Said, where the Emma Maersk unexpectedly discharged her cargo following the February 1 incident.

As reported previously, the Emma Maersk suffered an ingress of water into her engine room, which caused the vessel to lose power near the northern entrance of the Suez Canal. Maersk Line’s Head of Ship Management, Palle Laursen, later confirmed that initial inspections indicated that the ingress of water was caused by damage to one of the vessel’s stern thrusters and repairs could take “a matter of months”.

When launched in 2006, the Emma Maersk was the largest container ship ever built, which at 397 meters long can carry 14,770 TEU.