Video: Resolve Marine Raises Wreck of the Susan Rose
Resolve Marine has raised the wreck of the grounded fishing vessel Susan Rose, removing a navigation hazard just south of Asbury Park.
The 77-foot trawler Susan Rose ran aground on Point Pleasant Beach, New Jersey in November 2023. Four people abandoned ship into the surf, with assistance from the local authorities, and all emerged unscathed despite the dangerous circumstances.
An initial locally-run effort at refloating and removing the boat began about two days later, but failed. During the tow, the Susan Rose flooded, capsized and sank in about 50 feet of water about 1,000 yards off the beach. Luckily, the vessel's 6,000-gallon supply of fuel and other petroleum products had already been removed before the refloat attempt.
The vessel went down with 300 yards of towline attached to the bow, and the tips of its mast's antennas were still visible above the surface. The wreck posed a clear navigational hazard for inshore traffic, requiring removal.
The owner hired Resolve Marine and Northstar Marine to handle the task of raising and removing the wreck. Northstar surveyed the wreck site in January in preparation for the work. This month, with federal and state oversight, Resolve deployed the floating shearlegs barge RMG 400 and safely hoisted the grime-encrusted Susan Rose off the bottom in one piece. The U.S. Coast Guard maintained a safety cordon around the operation during rigging and preparation activities, and spill response equipment was standing by (though no significant release of petroleum was anticipated).
Susan Rose was a commercial trawler built in 1977 and operated by a company in Rhode Island. In 2022, one year before the grounding, a man-overboard casualty resulted in the loss of one of the vessel's crewmembers off New Bedford, Massachusetts.