In April 2026, the Port of Antwerp had three maritime incidents in ten days: an oil spill from the MSC Denmark VI that shut down the entire Scheldt, a barge that punched a hole through the hull of the Silver Sun car carrier, and the inland vessel Sola Gratia sinking 18 meters deep near the Royerssluis after a steering failure.

Pauline and Michiel dig into what happens after the headline. They walk through the actual response chain — multibeam sonar scans that map a wreck before any diver goes in, the rigid five-step salvage process (survey → seal → fuel removal → cargo removal → lift), floating cranes like the Hebo Lift 10 that raised the Bayesian superyacht, and why oil containment booms fail above 0.7 knots of current while skimmers only recover about 10% of spilled oil.

They also look at prevention: why 45% of marine casualties in Europe happen in port areas despite the Scheldt having one of the world's most sophisticated vessel traffic services, the gap in safety mandates between seagoing and inland vessels, and where AI is starting to help — from LSTM models that predict collisions 20 minutes out to Orca AI's SeaPod digital watchkeeper.

Three takeaways for forwarders:

1. Port disruptions cascade in hours but recover in weeks. The salvage sequence is rigid — you can't speed it up.
2. The inland waterway tech gap is your blind spot. Mixed-traffic ports are where collision risk concentrates.
3. Understand the response chain, not just the headline. Current speed, boom placement, and lock status tell you more about your actual disruption window than any news photo.