Abstract
This study focuses on a simple analytical approach to calculate crane lifting forces for a sunken ship. The method takes into account the relation of lifting forces acting in wire rope slings to the inclination of the vessel including the effect of lug positions. The importance of the sunken ship salvage is explained from the statistics of ship casualties during last 15 years. Euler angles are introduced to represent the inclination of a sunken ship in developing the static force and moment equations,. Three dimensional examples with one redundant degree of freedom for a GT1500 oil tanker are analyzed and the results show that the information obtained by the method could be useful to salvors to conduct salvage work.