Salvage Tug Data Feed: North Sea Trial
A salvage operator asked whether deck telemetry could stream to the tug command before boarding. Six weeks of integration later, the answer was yes.
A North Sea salvage operator approached us after the Morning Midas casualty with a specific question: could the live deck telemetry from an instrumented PCTC be streamed to the tug command before boarding decisions are made? The answer required six weeks of integration but ended up being a yes.
What had to be built
- A read-only data path from the vessel server to a shore relay during emergency conditions.
- A simplified telemetry view scoped to deck thermal state, no operational data.
- An access protocol triggered only by the master's explicit authorisation.
What changed in the salvage approach
The salvage operator was able to see deck-by-deck thermal state during the tow-in approach, including which decks were still escalating and which had stabilised. Boarding decisions changed; tug positioning relative to wind direction changed. The qualitative feedback was that the data shifted the approach from "manage the unknown" to "manage the known."
Questions, answered
Can deck telemetry be streamed to a salvage tug before boarding?+
Yes. After the Morning Midas casualty, a North Sea salvage operator asked whether live deck telemetry from an instrumented PCTC could reach the tug command before boarding decisions. Six weeks of integration delivered live telemetry pre-boarding, and the methodology was accepted.
What had to be built for the salvage data feed?+
A read-only data path from the vessel server to a shore relay during emergency conditions, a simplified telemetry view scoped to deck thermal state with no operational data, and an access protocol triggered only by the master's explicit authorisation.
How did the telemetry change the salvage approach?+
The operator could see deck-by-deck thermal state during the tow-in approach — which decks were still escalating and which had stabilised. Boarding decisions and tug positioning relative to wind direction changed; the feedback was that data shifted the approach from managing the unknown to managing the known.
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