Stretching from Land's End to Dover,
this is the busiest seaway in the world.
And come hell or high water...
Three, two, one. Firing!
No amount of training can prepare you for what we faced that night.
..it's open for business 365 days a year.
Over 90% of the world's trade travels by sea.
It's just not TV's and refrigerators, it's everything around us.
Teeming with every type of vessel...
Everyone on board reckons their job is the hardest.
..and a rich diversity of wildlife.
It's kept safe by those who patrol its seaways.
Throw your arm to the boat.
Their actions standing between triumph...
..and disaster...
Ease off, ease off.
..on the unpredictable waters of the English Channel.
Today, a ship full of luxury cars is in dire straits.
The tide was ripping around the front
and was sucking everything in towards it.
Stay where you are! Going in. He's in.
It wasn't nice because you could see the fear in his face.
A novice tries to keep his nerve in a test for one of the most
dangerous jobs in the docks.
I can honestly say to you that drivers have died and the drivers
that have lived and gone over have not come out of it very well.
And a rescued seal struggles to return to the English Channel.
If he would only go through the waves, it's calm out there.
Throughout history, the oceans have served
as a means of transporting goods.
And as trade has become increasingly globalised,
shipping volumes have soared.
The English Channel alone sees 40,000 tankers,
container ships and bulk carriers cram its waters every year.
It's the main conduit for goods entering and leaving the UK.
Our industry and economy depend upon it.
Of all the ports on the Channel, Southampton is the busiest
and most successful.
The interesting thing about the port of Southampton is this,
it's got two tides.
That means to say, we can get ships in and out almost any time
of the day or night.
Believe me, it's a real big geographical advantage.
It's very well policed by the Coastguard,
they organise it extremely well.
Arcadia VTS five, cable.
Incidents are rare
despite its narrow and tricky to navigate shipping lanes.
But sometimes disasters do happen.
In January 2015, this 51,000 tonne car carrier,
laden with 1,400 vehicles,
had barely left port before it ran into trouble.
TV REPORTER: 'She should have been well on her way to Bremerhaven
'but this evening, the Hoegh Osaka lies beached
'and immovable alongside one of the UK's busiest shipping channels.'
'The vessel did develop a severe list shortly after she left port.
'The pilot and the master made a decision'
to save the vessel and the crew by grounding her on the bank.
'It's currently too dangerous to board the ship.
'Within its giant hull are over a thousand cars
'and construction machines, and 500 tonnes of fuel oil.'
The ship ran aground at night
making the rescue of the 25 crew on board all the more challenging.
The RNLI volunteers from nearby Calshot were one of the first
agencies on the scene.
If there's casualties on board,
are we going to need to be giving them any assistance?
We're thinking, "Do we need to get our first aid kit ready?"
Lighting is also useful, so straightaway we've got
our search lights out ready so we can start searching the area.
Once we got there, we didn't know if it was going to move any further.
We just knew we had 25 souls on board.
RADIO: 'Air rescue, this is Solant Coastguard.
'If it is safe to do so, commence removing crew from the vessel.'
Quite an adrenaline rush
for us going out there
and seeing everything in action.
A lot of lifeboatS and a helicopter all in one place on the same rescue.
You never expect to see something of that scale.
No amount of training can ever prepare you
for what we faced that night.
It was surreal, it was odd.
We heard people shouting for help and saw someone shining a torch.
We managed to see his orange jacket through one of the windows on the lower side.
We managed to shout at him and get his attention,
and he managed to kick open a ladder
and climbed down safely into the boat.
The Coastguard's helicopter airlifts the majority of the crew
from the top deck but not everyone can make it.
We found another chap and because of the angle of the deck,
wasn't able to get towards the top.
Stay where you are!
We did try to get him to wait
and to call the helicopter across to fetch him from where he was,
but either through panic or he didn't hear us,
or through the language barrier he decided he was going to jump in.
There he goes. He's going in. He is in!
'He was in a state of panic.'
The tide was ripping around the front of the vessel
and was sucking everything in towards it.
It wasn't nice because you could see the fear in his face and after
I grabbed him, it was nice to know that he felt relief and he was OK.
All in all, we were out there for around three hours
until the last people that needed to come off, came off
and all persons had been accounted for.
Loss of life has been averted but the Osaka,
at a perilous angle of 52 degrees,
in the middle of a strong tidal system,
also presents a danger to other vessels.
It's now up to agencies like Southampton Harbour Patrol
to work out how to keep the Solent safe
and, ultimately, to get the Osaka back to port.
The consequences of this ship going walkabout in one of the busiest
shipping lanes in Europe, just doesn't bear thinking about.
It's a costly operation but if you think safety is expensive,
try having an accident.
Meanwhile, the port of Southampton must remain open for business.
38 million tonnes of cargo - everything from mobile phones
to fruit and veg, pass through here every year
making it the most productive port in Europe.
The crew here is the height of efficiency,
shuttling containers to and from vessels faster than anywhere else in the UK.
I can tell you that this port,
in all the years of being here,
I have never seen it run as efficiently as it does today.
It is quite remarkable what they do here
and the systems they employ here, to get these rather large vessels
discharged and loaded, and away off the quay wall.
It is amazing.
Alongside forklifts and articulated lorries
is a fleet of 90 straddle carriers.
These 40 foot machines are in continual operation
and driving them is a highly skilled job,
especially in amongst the busy port traffic.
John White is one of Southampton port's training coordinators
and responsible for keeping the docks accident free.
It's up to him who passes and who fails the straddle carrier driving test,
and who gets to keep their licence after regular reviews
in their first year.
Safety in the docks is paramount.
Having clocked up almost 40 years working on the docks,
John knows only too well the hazards of this particular job.
This is probably one of the most unstable vehicles you can drive.
All the weight on this vehicle is up the top.
You can imagine, can't you, if you've got a 63, 65 tonne machine,
you start travelling around the terminal with a 40 tonne box
high in the air, the centre of gravity has shifted
and that means, when you turn a corner, you could go over.
Believe me, that happens in a split second.
Serious accidents are rare but can happen.
I can honestly say to you that drivers have died.
And the drivers that have lived and gone over
have not come out of it very well.
We need drivers out there that understand
the necessity to be careful.
Tomorrow, John will be examining Herve Garrod, who has been
training as a straddle carrier driver for the last three weeks.
Right now, Herve is having his crucial final lesson
with instructor, Richard Bailey, ahead of his big test.
Yeah, before you lift up, make sure you're out of gear -
you don't want to start jolting backwards and forwards.
And then off we go.
Keep an eye on what's going on around.
It's not bad, pretty clear at the moment.
Passing this test is all-important, as in, like for,
being able to work as a straddle driver.
You know, hopefully if I pass it, it will be
the first step to the rest of my career working down the docks now.
So, I'll get a good 25 years working down here.
You know, it will give me much more options, as in, like,
there's other jobs that I can apply for and ultimately,
maybe in a few years' time, I'll be able to become a crane driver.
Herve started work at the port in 2007 and within 12 months
had qualified as a straddle driver.
But a year later, the recession hit and Herve was made redundant.
I thought that was the end of my working life down here.
But then I was out for a year
and then a year later I got offered a position in the warehouse.
So, I've been working over there for the last 4 1/2 years.
Getting back into the straddle is Herve's big chance
to secure his future at the port.
Although he's done this job before, changing technology
and newer vehicles has meant relearning the skills all over again.
You could have looked to see what position it was and gone
to the other end of the row. I did think that, but then maybe...
Yeah, like I say, it's something that you've got to think about.
It's always... Plan your route, make sure that you're making it
nice and easy for yourself. Yeah.
The last thing you want to do is make it hard work. No.
I'm happy with Herve.
I'm just pointing out a few little things for him to help him.
He's a good driver.
He just needs to keep getting in good habits
cos he's got a few little bad habits, which we've got to knock out of him
before the test tomorrow.
At this busy terminal, safety is the number one priority.
And just like the Highway Code, there's a set of rules to stick to.
Well, you can't come out of a row legs-first,
because you've got no visibility and it's dangerous
and you can run straight into another straddle carrier.
So, you always come out of a row cab-first.
It's a very dangerous environment.
You can't afford to switch off at all.
You've got to keep focused, otherwise that's when accidents happen.
A couple of straddles collided once, yeah.
Just collided with each other and all the glass went in the cab and that.
I don't think anyone was seriously injured but, you know,
it's still not a nice thing to see because you don't know
if anyone's seriously hurt or not.
The cab of a straddle carrier is 40 foot off the ground.
As well as needing a head for heights, operators also need to
master the steering and knowing how to drive a car is no help at all.
If you can imagine yourself in a car,
when you turn left, you go left.
But in these machines, if you turn LEFT, you're going to go RIGHT.
So, really, it's completely alien to the way we drive, actually.
So, really, the drivers themselves need to pick this up
and initially, when they start training themselves,
this is one of the big issues with drivers.
They've got to try and get the steering right.
When you're doing your test, you've got to drive the correct way.
So, I just need to keep that in mind and not try and keep up with everybody else.
But you do feel a little bit of pressure because, you know,
you don't want to get in people's way and that sort of stuff.
But, you know, hopefully, I'm only going to do the test once.
So, I'll pass this test and then that'll be it.
If he makes a silly mistake, like travels with the box too high,
turns too fast, drives erratically,
hits a box in the stack,
hits a lorry up in the parking-up area,
any erratic sort of driving - then he'll fail.
But I've got my faith in you, Herv! Thanks, mate!
Tomorrow, Herve's concentration skills will be put to the test.
The English Channel's chilly waters are home to
one of the country's most charismatic warm-blooded animals.
The seal.
It's not uncommon for seal pups to be spotted on the beaches
and coves of the Channel.
Many are healthy but some newborns are distressed or orphaned
and in need of help.
Wildlife centres, like Mallydams Wood near Hastings
are on hand to take in the sick, injured and vulnerable.
The marine in-patients are rehabilitated by
RSPCA officers like Richard Thompson and Elaine Crouch,
who are trained in specialist seal care.
At only 8kg when it first came to them,
this pup was the smallest they'd ever taken in.
She must have been about two weeks premature
because she still had the umbilical cord.
SEAL BARKS
Right, back to you.
SEAL WHINES GENTLY
So, when she came in, she came in at 8.9 kilos. 10.92.
OK, so, she's put on two kilos now? Yeah. Since admission.
So, that's really good. SEAL BARKS
And we can feed her now. We can feed her...
This pup will be hand-reared
and fattened up on a diet of 3kg of fish a day.
It looks like we're giving her baby sausages but actually,
this is the only way to get weight on them.
Pups can be released to the Channel when they reach 28 kilos.
It's three months later and the pup, now discovered to be male,
has reached its target weight.
It's been a long journey to fatten it up and keep it healthy
and today is release day.
That will probably be the last
meal that we give because we're
draining the pool, getting them out and then they're on their own.
It's the big day but the pup has no idea how much it's life
is about to change.
These animals have been here since they were very small,
so they're not used to the elements in the sea.
So, you want to pick the best day, a calm day,
to give them a chance to get used to it all.
And then hopefully, they'll thrive.
Often, people do ask, animals that have been in captivity,
how are they going to fare for themselves?
How are they going to catch their own food?
And all the studies show that they do. There's instinct there.
Once it's released, the team can still track its progress.
Each seal that we release has a tag and an individual number,
so if somebody spots that, they phone it through to us,
we know exactly when it was released,
the weight it was released and how long ago it was, so, we know.
With a bit of gentle persuasion with a broom, the young seal is
crated up and ready to leave its small pool for the open sea.
Yes...
It's being released at Pett Level Beach in East Sussex,
where conditions are ideal, with good weather and calm seas.
His first taste of the sea,
he's not going to have to contend with great big crashing waves...
and cold weather.
So, hopefully, he'll just slip into the sea and live happily ever after.
This will be the first time the seal pup has seen the sea
since it was just a few days old.
OK?
Will natural instincts kick in?
It's got the right idea - and tries to head out to sea,
but is not making much headway.
The pup doesn't seem to be able to get past the breakers.
Go, go, go!
This is so new to him. He's never experienced this before.
And he was keen to go but, of course, he's not used to the waves.
And it is, you know, although it's a beautiful day,
that's still pretty tough.
He just has to learn to get beyond that, which he will.
It appears that the pup is finally finding its confidence.
But then it's spotted back on dry land further down the beach.
For this to be a successful release,
the seal needs to swim out into the open sea.
It's like anybody doing something for the first time. He has to find out
how it all works. I mean, that is his element and he's going to have to
have waves crashing around him throughout the winter. And he's fine.
He's built for that. But this is the bit with all the unknown.
Our seal pool is calm. He gets fish thrown in.
This is the very first time he's really had the elements.
So, he WILL be fine. But you would just like him to go straight out.
It's not looking good for the seal.
And it's still struggling to get past the waves.
If he's going to do this for too long, he's going to get exhausted.
So, then we have to think about catching him up again if we can.
But if he would only go through the waves, it's calm out there.
After an anxious wait, Elaine decides to intervene.
We're going to try and catch him up. Take him back and assess him.
Probably keep him for a few days.
And then wait and see if we've got another opportunity of good weather.
Cos he's going to be tired now.
But as if it knew that this was its last chance...
Has he gone?
Yay!
We couldn't see. Has he definitely gone?
The pup finally swims out on to the Channel,
its head just visible above the swell.
MAN: There he is, there he is, there he is...
He should be fine now because the hard bit is this bit here.
Now that he's out there, the swell isn't so bad
and they're equipped for it.
He'll be just gliding through the water now.
I mean, if we stood here long enough and kept scanning,
we might see his head bob up.
But no, I can't see him any more.
No.
For the Mallydams team, it's another successful seal release.
And it's back to base for feeding time.
Tug boats are the workhorses of busy ports.
Manoeuvring the huge cargo vessels
and oil tankers through the deep but narrow shipping lanes and into dock.
But they also have an important role to play in emergencies.
At Southampton, the Osaka, laden with luxury cars,
has run aground in the middle of the Solent.
It's a volatile situation.
So, the tugs from Solent Towage are brought in to stabilise the vessel.
This is not a normal tug job.
It's not normal employment for tugs
to do something like this.
Erm, it's actually very much
out of the ordinary.
The challenges of working with a ship which is at a severe angle
are being able to get the tug safely alongside
without doing damage to the ship or the tug.
The vessel's owners appoint a salvage team, who will assess
the damage and work out how to refloat the stricken ship.
We have to wait until the situation is right for salvos
to be able to get on board the ship and get themselves into a position
to assist the tug crew to take the tow lines
and make them secure.
The salvage team discovers one of the vehicles on board
has punctured a hole in the hull, causing water to flood the ship.
Towing the Osaka back to port now is not an option.
The tugs must remain on the scene,
making sure the Osaka doesn't drift into the shipping lane.
An event like the Hoegh Osaka is a high-pressure situation
for a waterway such as the Solent, which relies
so much on a clear passage for ships to come in and out of the port.
There is a lot of pressure on everybody involved to keep that
ship where it should be, so that the port remains open.
Two days later, while the salvos are still working out how to refloat
the vessel, the spring tide intervenes and frees the Osaka from the bank.
The tugs brought her here to a location known as Alpha Anchorage, a safe holding position.
Whilst the ship is at Alpha Anchorage,
the job of the tugs is to keep the ship safe and stable,
so that the salvos can continue to do their job.
While the tugs hold the Osaka in position, Harbour Patrol officer
Paul Black is enforcing a 300 metre exclusion zone around the ship.
He has to keep the many interested onlookers,
who have flocked to the scene, from getting too close.
The tugs, with their wires attached, if something happens,
they may have to manoeuvre at very short notice
and what they don't want is small boats in the area
getting in the way.
And this is enforceable in law.
If anybody was to venture into the net zone,
they leave themselves liable to prosecution.
I've been on this stretch of the water now for over 30 years
and I've never seen anything like this before. It's unprecedented.
The salvos are now on the scene,
preparing to pump out the 3,000 tonnes of water on board.
The plan is to slowly right her.
They are in the process of pumping the water out.
But because the weather's not very good in the Solent at the moment,
they don't want to destabilise the ship by pumping too much out,
or to pump it too quickly, so the ship just flops over onto the other side.
Cos that would be catastrophic. All the cargo that was inside could then slide down the other
side of the ship and maybe puncture more holes in the hull.
A salvage operation of this magnitude will not be cheap.
They've got four tugs on standby 24 hours a day.
You've got the salvage team themselves.
This is a multimillion pound operation.
The role of the tugs to stabilise a ship in this
kind of condition are to position themselves alongside
the ship on either side of it and also, fore and aft,
the tug skippers have to keep a very close eye on the position
of their tug and the ship and the whole ensemble.
They do this by fine-tuning the pitch settings and the engine movements
on the individual tugs and working together, by the use
of the radio, to make sure that everybody's doing the same thing.
The Tug Master must retain his full concentration at all times
throughout the operation.
Because if he loses concentration, even for a moment,
an accident can happen very quickly.
As the weather deteriorates, the pumping has to be put on hold.
It's day seven of the operation and there's no telling when the Osaka,
with her millions of pounds worth of vehicles will get back to port.
The ports along the English Channel are a continual hive of activity,
with towering cranes lifting containers to and from
shipping vessels and terminal vehicles moving them on the ground.
At Southampton, 264 drivers operate the straddle carriers.
At any one time, 70 are in operation, moving containers
to and from lorries and ships for their onward journey by road or sea.
And today, Herve Garrod is hoping to join their ranks.
It's the morning of his driving test.
And after three weeks of training,
his future at the docks is hanging in the balance.
Today's D-Day, yeah. The big day of the test. How are you feeling?
I'm feeling quite confident. Looking forward to it.
Erm, I'd just like to get it over and done with now.
It means a lot to me. I need to get through this today.
Herve's fate rests with training coordinator John White,
who's conducted over 105 assessments and has
a quarter of a century's experience at the wheel of a straddle carrier.
Morning, John!
Oh, hello, Herve! How we doing? Yeah, not so bad, thanks.
Are you all right? Yeah. Yeah, good.
Herve will find a little bit of pressure out there today.
The reason is, we're going to be hammering him
with procedural questions. He's going to be trying to multitask, he's going
to be doing all sorts of things that are rather difficult.
Are ready to start? Ready to start, yeah.
OK, so just explain to me what you're going to be looking for from the ground check of the machine.
Well, from the ground, I'm going to take a walk round this side. OK.
I'm going to be looking at the wheels, the tyres...
Like all qualified straddle drivers,
Herve must demonstrate he can carry out his own ground checks.
Only then can he make the 40-foot ascent to the cab.
And all under John's watchful eye.
He is nervous today but I can fully understand that.
Most drivers that come out with me are nervous in some way.
Maybe it's something to do with my persona.
But, hey, you know, erm, it is what it is!
BEEPING Where are we going to, Herve?
Well, were going to drop this container onto a lorry at slot 83.
Always good to know that you've deciphered the information nicely.
Herve's first task is to locate and move a 20 foot container.
But right away, there's a problem.
John...
The box I wanted, which I thought it was, when I came in here,
it said that that box down there... Yes...
..I've just moved this one from the six here on top of the box that I needed.
So, now I need to move that one back to get that one out from under there.
So, what are you going to do?
Well, I'm going to pick this box up, let Control know that
I'm moving it back to that position, and I'm going to take that box from that position.
Herve's GPS system, that keeps track of all
the containers on the dock, has pointed him towards the wrong box.
It can happen quite often.
I'd rather it happened on his assessment,
so I can see that he's been able to sort this out himself.
So, he's already begun to realise that there's been an error with the GPS.
And so, he's correcting that. So, I'm quite pleased.
Just like in a car driving test, committing
a serious or dangerous fault will result in automatic failure.
He may well hit a box in the stack. That's a big no-no.
He may reverse off a lorry and not see another carrier coming the other way.
Big no-no. It's a red flagger. It's a failure.
So, poor old Herve has got some things to think about today,
that's for sure.
So far, Herve is off to a good start.
So, John decides it's time to pile on the pressure.
Now, Herve, explain to me about driving etiquette out on the berth.
Always give way to the east-west roadway. Uh-huh...
Erm, stay to the left as best as you can.
Everybody knows what they are doing then, don't they?
Although it looks like chaos, it isn't, is it? No. No. Indeed.
If you follow the rules of the road, you're all right. It's cool.
So, what are you looking out for when you turn?
I'm looking out for other straddles in the immediate area. And there's one right behind us, is there not?
There's one turning right and there's one coming towards us. Good, good. Well done.
Navigating these docks is a complex task and with a constant
stream of traffic, it only takes a second for accidents to occur.
Actually, just talking to me
and driving, is quite a tricky one, isn't it? Yeah, it's not the best.
So, I can see that you can multitask quite nicely,
which is very good for me to see.
But it seems John may have spoken too soon.
I'm in the wrong place now, after all that. So, we're meant to be going to where?
14, yeah. OK. I got carried away there.
No, that's fine because it's not always easy. All right.
We had a bit of a moment and I got a bit carried away there,
so, a bit of a distraction and I ended up in the wrong place.
So, yeah... These things happen.
That's why you've got to keep your wits about you and keep focused.
Herve's loss of concentration could have spelt disaster.
As the test comes to an end, Herve now faces a debriefing with
John and his former instructor, Richard.
Your stack work... Yeah? ..
Was very good. Your entry was safe. Right.
It was calculated. It was thought out.
Ultimately, John will decide if Herve passes or fails.
So, multitasking, Herve...
Tell me about your multitasking efforts today.
Erm, well, I was slightly distracted. Ah!
I would say you were! Yes. Yes.
Well, what I ask you is to try
and improve on your concentration levels up there.
Herve did, considering, pretty well today.
He did make mistakes but I expected that.
He was not, erm, a maverick,
which some of them are.
He did get a bit ragged at the end but it's a tough old life out there.
It's very, very important to them to pass.
There is a kind of stigma attached if you don't first time.
Yes! Yeah, I've just been in there
and I've been told that I've passed. So, right now, I'm buzzing.
That's what I've been after for the last couple of weeks
and I'm made up that I'll soon be working with a team. Can't wait!
I am extraordinarily pleased for him.
And I think, actually, although he doesn't often
show emotion,
he was very pleased himself today, I think.
After being out for six years, and now I'm finally back,
so, yeah, I'm made up. I couldn't be happier at the minute!
It's brilliant! I'm feeling quite emotional, really.
Herve now joins the hundreds of other straddle drivers
keeping Southampton the top performing port in the UK.
The English Channel is the busiest stretch of water in the world.
And to keep the traffic flowing,
multiple agencies work together to prevent accidents and delays.
INDISTINCT SPEECH OVER RADIO
When incidents do occur, all resources are called into action.
At Southampton, tug boats, Harbour Patrol, the Coastguard
and a salvage team are focusing on a car carrier that grounded eight days ago.
It's at safe anchorage but it's at a perilous angle of 52 degrees.
High winds have hampered the salvos' efforts to pump out
water on board and bring it upright.
But with the weather easing, the operation can now resume.
A helicopter transports the salvos and their equipment to the scene.
The salvos have the plan which they work through to reduce
the list on the ship to an angle which was safe
and acceptable for it to be towed into port.
This took, just took a few days before that was completed.
The salvos' pumping operation reduces the list from 52
to just five degrees, meaning 18 days after it was grounded,
the Osaka is ready to be moved back to Southampton port.
The success of an operation such as this is due to the experience
and training of Tug Masters, who spend many years learning their trade.
All their skills are about to be called upon
because this is not a normal towing job.
The difference between a dead ship of this size and a ship which is
under its own power is that it can do nothing to help itself.
Getting a 51,000 tonne dead ship through a busy port is going to be difficult,
so Harbour Patrol officers Duncan and Chic are on hand
to keep the coast clear, especially as the Osaka is headline news.
We'll be keeping all leisure traffic out of the way.
Worst-case scenario, I guess if somebody gets in between a tug
and the ship unnecessarily.
A few little leisure boats hanging around, trying to get close
and get some shots, so, our job is to keep them at a safe distance.
Just going to keep an eye on this Rib over here.
He was being a bit keen a week or two ago,
so, we'll make sure he doesn't come any closer.
Chic could give him one of his stares!
So far, the towing has been without incident.
But 30 minutes in, and the most precarious part of the tow is just ahead.
We're just approaching West Bramble turn now.
So, the lee tugs come round to starboard, ready for the turn.
The tide's well away to the west, so, yeah,
this is where it's all happening.
It's one of the trickier bits.
It's obviously a skill to bring big ships around a tight turn like this.
And more so with it being a dead ship.
So, erm, you know, it's down to the pilot and the master on the tug.
You know, to keep full control.
RADIO: 'Just to give you an update on the tow, we're just making
'the Bramble turn, so I'm quite sure you'll see it
'and keep well out the way.'
Yeah, we have a visual. We'll keep well clear. Don't worry. 'Thanks, mate.'
After negotiating the West Bramble turn,
the Osaka is now on the home straight.
Fantastic, isn't it? Yeah.
It's a lot better than 48 hours ago.
And what a perfect day to bring her back up into the docks.
I didn't think you could get any more cars in the car park
over at Calshot.
It's a major vantage point for, obviously,
viewing the central Solent.
It's a nice day and everybody's come out to see the Hoegh Osaka
making her way safely back into the port.
Up in the docks now, they'll be making the berth
ready for her, making sure there's men there to tie her up.
I believe they've got generator power back on board now,
which will help deploying the ropes ashore
and making sure we can get her tight and fast alongside.
We're going to stay with her all the way.
Keep an eye on the back end all the way up to dock head.
Getting this monster ship into berth under tug power alone
requires a cautious and precise approach.
RADIO: 'If you can work your way down to the Port now, please. Stand by.'
Onto the port, Simon. Stand by.
The Hoegh Osaka is just approaching 101 berth now.
We've got tugs ready to push up on the port side
and obviously a tug attached to the stern to slow her down.
She is a dead ship. So, pilot on the bridge of the ship's communicating
to the lead tug, so, they're in close communications.
And they've just indicated that they can take her way off and...
push her up onto the berth.
After three hours, the Osaka has completed her 15 mile journey back to port.
The guys up there on the stern are trying to throw a heaving line
to the shore crew.
But I think they've got no Olympic throwers up there!
The work launch has gone in to assist.
Wa-hay! TUG BLASTS HORN
It's taken 19 days of intensive round-the-clock work
from the Coastguard, tug boats, Harbour Patrol
and salvage crews to bring the Osaka safely into berth.
This is what we've been waiting for, for a few weeks. It's... It's...
a nice sight after seeing it listing over for over two
weeks in the middle of the Solent.
So, there will be a lot of relieved people.
For Duncan, it's the end of a long day.
Job's a good'un! Yeah.
It's, erm, with much relief for all of the marine staff involved,
it's been a hectic couple of weeks.
And obviously, also, the Tug Masters and crew on the tugs,
you know, they've been out there for weeks and weeks.
So, it'll be nice to put their feet up tonight, I think.
And then...tomorrow's another day!
With the Hoegh Osaka safely back in the hands of
her owners, the agencies can continue their round-the-clock work
to keep the English Channel, and those who sail her, safe.
It's lucky we're fit, isn't it?