Nick Sloan, the 52-year-old South African freelancer was the engineering mastermind behind last month’s salvaging the Costa Concordia cruise liner off the Italian island of Giglio.

Not only was it a huge technical success, but also the largest capsized passenger ship in history. The world’s eyes, courtesy the international news networks, were on the Sloan Ranger leading his salvage team to the successful rolling, or parbuckling, of the 114,500-ton submerged cruise liner.

At a cost of more than 600 million Euros ($795 million) it is the most expensive maritime wreck recovery of all time and according to Nick the “most challenging” in his 30-year career which has taken him to six continents and two warzones.

Donald Trump’s tweet sums up and salutes another remarkable South African legend “… uprighting of the ship is a MONUMENT TO GENIUS!“