UMM AL QUWAIN // The White Whale supply ship that sank in Umm Al Quwain waters eight months ago has finally been salvaged, engineers said last night.
Dubai Ship Building, the company contracted by the Ministry of Environment and Water to bring the ship out, said the salvage work lasted for about eight days.
Earlier attempts had been hindered by weather, the company said.
The engineers tied the ship with ropes and wires, balanced it on the water and finally hauled it out using a larger ship called the Amlak, said Badr bin Mubarak, the managing director of Dubai Ship Building.
"There was some small diesel leakage as the ship came out of water but we managed to control it and everything is now safe and fine," Mr bin Mubarak said.
On Sunday the ship was hauled up five metres from the surface, but a wire snapped and it sank back into the water, he said.
The team had to start the salvaging work over again.
"Our biggest challenge was balancing the ship so it did not break into two parts," Mr bin Mubarak said.
He said the ship, which is owned by Arabian Coast Cargo Services of Ajman, was still at the site last night but was to be carried to one of the country's ports where it will be safely unloaded by the Ministry of Environment and Water.
Mr bin Mubarak said the ship came out of water carrying a total of 450 tonnes of diesel.
It was carrying several hundred tonnes of diesel when it sank 16 kilometres off the Umm Al Quwain coast on October 22.
The ministry did not issue a statement last night.
The minister, Dr Rashid bin Fahad, said this week the salvation work had resumed on Wednesday and the ship was expected to be out of water on Sunday.
"A team of the ministry's marine research center is stationed there to ensure a clean recovery operation without any oil spills," Mr bin Fahad said.
Last week, Hamad bin Mubarak, head of the salvage project, said every effort had been made to ensure the ship's salvaging worked this time.
"We are almost through with tying the wires beneath the ship and just need a good positioning to balance the ship before it is pulled out," Hamad bin Mubarak said.
He and his colleagues are working out of prefabricated offices on a barge next to the salvage rig, where they monitor the progress of divers through video and audio feeds.
Once work to balance the wreck has been completed the ship will be raised.
It was lying about 30 metres below the surface, 11 nautical miles off the coast of UAQ, about 30 minutes by boat.
Divers have on several occasions worked to stop the fuel leaks from the ship.
A number of ships have recently sunk in waters off the Northern Emirates because of bad weather.
In January, the Lady Moon, a 25-metre ship, sank 500 metres off the coast of Hamriya in Sharjah.
She had a storage capacity of between 200 and 250 tonnes of fuel. The ship's five Indian crew members were rescued uninjured.
In February last year two other cargo ships, the Dolphin and Lady Rana, ran aground on Sharjah Beach after technical problems caused by rough weather at sea.
A police spokesman said at the time that the captains of both ships had lost control after the vessels were battered by three-metre waves.
ykakande@thenational.ae
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
Test
Director: S Sashikanth
Cast: Nayanthara, Siddharth, Meera Jasmine, R Madhavan
Star rating: 2/5
Living in...
This article is part of a guide on where to live in the UAE. Our reporters will profile some of the country’s most desirable districts, provide an estimate of rental prices and introduce you to some of the residents who call each area home.
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
