The ''Abeille Liberté'' is an

emergency tow vessel An emergency tow vessel, also called emergency towing vessel, (ETV) is a multi purpose boat used by state authorities to tow disabled vessels on high seas in order to prevent dangers to man and environment. The disabled vessel is either towed to ...

(

salvage tug A salvage tug, known also historically as a wrecking tug, is a specialized type of tugboat that is used to rescue ships that are in distress or in danger of sinking, or to salvage ships that have already sunk or run aground. Overview Few tugbo ...

) based in Cherbourg Harbour,

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

. It is a

sister ship A sister ship is a ship of the same class or of virtually identical design to another ship. Such vessels share a nearly identical hull and superstructure layout, similar size, and roughly comparable features and equipment. They often share a ...

of '' Abeille Bourbon''. It was built at the Myklebust Verft shipyard in

Gursken Gursken or Haugsbygda is a village in the municipality of Sande in Møre og Romsdal county in the western part of Norway. The village is situated on a narrow strip of relatively flat land along the Gursken fjord on the west side of the island o ...

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

, which is part of the Kleven Maritime group. It was delivered in October 2005 and officially inaugurated on 17 November 2005. ''Abeille Liberté'' is owned by Abeilles International, a unit of Groupe Bourbon. The crew is made up of sailors of the merchant marine. It is chartered to the French government and can be called upon by the

Maritime Prefect A maritime prefect ( French: ''Préfet maritime'') is a servant of the French State who exercises authority over the sea in a particular region under French jurisdiction, known as a maritime arrondissement (''Arrondissement maritime''). His admini ...

of the English Channel and North Sea at any time.

Notable operations

It was one of two French tugs called upon to tow the damaged

container ship A container ship (also called boxship or spelled containership) is a cargo ship that carries all of its load in truck-size intermodal containers, in a technique called containerization. Container ships are a common means of commercial intermodal ...

MSC ''Napoli'' in January 2007. In March 2018 the ''Abeille Liberté'' was one of several vessels which towed the cargo ship ''Britannica Hav'' to the

Port of Le Havre The Port of Le Havre is the Port and port authority of the French city of Le Havre. It is the second-largest commercial port in France in terms of overall tonnage, and the largest container port, with three sets of terminals. It can accommodate al ...

after it collided with a

Belgian Belgian may refer to: * Something of, or related to, Belgium * Belgians, people from Belgium or of Belgian descent * Languages of Belgium, languages spoken in Belgium, such as Dutch, French, and German *Ancient Belgian language, an extinct languag ...

fishing vessel A fishing vessel is a boat or ship used to catch fish in the sea, or on a lake or river. Many different kinds of vessels are used in commercial, artisanal and recreational fishing. The total number of fishing vessels in the world in 2016 was es ...

References

External links

*
''Abeille Liberté''
at Netmarine.net Tugboats of France 2005 ships Ships built in Norway {{boat-stub