When the massive passenger liner, Costa Concordia, ran aground on the island of Giglio off the Italian coast in 2012, Captain Nicholas Sloane took on the challenge of leading a team to parbuckle and refloat her off the rocks before delivering her to the yard in Genoa for scapping. It was the most complex and expensive refloating job ever undertaken. 

The successful operation earned him the Cavaliere del Lavoro della Repubblica Italiana, an Italian order of knighthood; and the Deutscher Meerespreis 2015 (German Ocean Award).

Having reached the milestone of 60 years old and soon to be President of the International Salvage Union, we speak to Nick about his life in salvage and get his thoughts on the Ever Given grounding in the Suez Canal, the state of the salvage market and his ambition to catch an iceberg!