SMIT SALVAGE Salvage is today the world’s best-equipped salvor, providing global coverage for both emergency response and wreck-removal work.
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Staying Power
THE MARITIME EXECUTIVE
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One way of differentiating salvage companies from one another is their individual financial ability to settle disputes on the merits of the case – something that can take a long time in given circumstances. The settlement of a previous year’s work assignment more than twelve months after the fact can put a strain on the dedicated, standalone salvor. Not so at SMIT, where the flexibility and wherewithal to remain solvent until a settlement can be agreed upon rest on the backs of three other robust maritime divisions. Although SMIT Salvage’s management claims to remain currently busy with a good balance of high-quality wreckremoval and emergency-response work, this isn’t always the case. Nevertheless, the Salvage Division’s contribution to the total bottom line can be as high as 25 percent in a given year. According to Director SMIT Salvage Caspar Domstorff their first half 2009 profits were “exceptionally high, improving significantly on the 2008 result.” He added, “We are optimistic that our professional personnel, infrastructure and approach to the full spectrum of marine
salvage works will yield good results again this year.”
Experience: Deep in More Ways Than One
In a business where experience and know-how are everything, SMIT Salvage has few peers, especially in the executive suite. Caspar Domstorff joined SMIT in 2007 and became Director SMIT Salvage in 2008. Before that, he was owner and Director of GB Diving, which was acquired by SMIT in 2007. Caspar started his career in the maritime industry with an Antwerp-based international diving company specializing in underwater vessel maintenance and subsea repairs. With a diving background and knowledge of remote technology (ROVs), he worked with subsea companies in both technical and management roles. On the American side of the pond, Douglas Martin took a more circuitous route to the top of SMIT Salvage Americas, Inc. As an Unlimited Tonnage Master, Martin also boasts experience as a field engineer with underwater ROV/submersibles. In 1997 he left a career spent primarily on tankers to join SMIT. In a very short period of time he had risen to Salvage Master and, in 2008, assumed his current role with the firm. With a career that included a stop at MEBA’s Engineering School, where he served as an instructor and developed course curriculum for USCG/
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