Wreck removal or lightering requires discharging the boxes loaded on board a stricken vessel, which even in projects involving much smaller ships has proven to be problematic.
Containers have to be lifted off by floating cranes, which in no way can match the speed of gantry cranes found in container terminals. Removing the 2,323 boxes carried on board the 4,400-teu MSC Napoli (built 1991) back in 2007 took four months.
