A talk about salvaging ships and oil rigs will exclude details of the Transocean Winner operation.
It was initially expected the salvage master supervising the recovery of the grounded Dalmore oil rig would discuss the complex task during a public seminar this week.
However, Sylvia Tervoort, is severely restricted in what she can say about the Dalmore incident as an official investigation has been launched.
Instead, she will give an interesting insight into some of the countless other operations she has been involved in.
Ms Tervoort will outline her role in the £0.7 billion salvage of the wreck of the
114,000 tonne Costa Concordia cruise liner which partially sank off Italy with the
loss of 32 lives in 2012 -
Another high profile salvage was Shell Oil's drill ship Kulluk which ran aground in Alaska.
The talk starts at 6pm on Wednesday in Lews Castle College.
On her company’s website, Ms Tervoort explained: “Once you reach the vessel in distress it can be a case of ‘salvage what you can’ or at least making the best of a bad situation.
“As a salvage team we play a part in recovering the vessel and its cargo and in protecting the environment.
"That means seeing to it that the situation is stabilized, keeping the vessel afloat or putting out a fire, calling in tugs and assessing what needs to be done with the fuel or the cargo.
“A lot of the work comes down to making snap decisions and acting as quickly as possible.
“In many cases there is a huge amount at stake and large sums of money involved. Often you also have to deal with a threat to the environment, not to mention perhaps also with a traumatized crew.”
She highlighted: “You learn this job by doing it. There are no training courses, and so you learn from the experience of your team members.
“Teamwork is essential in this job. A team usually consists of a salvage superintendent and a naval architect, often complemented with engineers and divers.
“You never finish learning in this job because no two operations are the same.
"Every time the situation, environment, interests and parties involved are different, which is what makes the salvage world unique and unpredictable.
"It has to be your kind of thing, but you only get one life and I want to live it to the max.”
Salvage master to give public talk on her job but not about Dalmore rig
29 August 2016
Salvage master, Sylvia Tervoort