Salvaging Cougar Ace

[Tracy White]

Wired posted a fascinating article about the salvage of a Ro-Ro that nearly capsized off of Alaska a year or so ago:
http://www.wired.com/print/science/disc ... seacowboys

Warning: May be NSFW (Not Safe For Work) if you corporate firewall doesn't like the "F" word.

[chuck]

There is a fascinating sequence of the photos of Italians rolling the completely capsized battleship Leonardo Di Vinci back upright. They first let the turrets drop out of the capsized dreadnought, which had suffered a magazine explosion. Then they lifted the upside down ship off of the bottom and towed it into a dry dock, still upside down, where they cut of the superstructure and patched up the hole on the hull and made it watertight all round. Then they installed flood valves on one side of the ship and attached heavy ballast to the keel,which is not uppermost on the ship. They finally towed the ship, still upside down, out into a deep part of the harbor and let water flood one side of the capsized hull, and 24,000 ton dreadnough hull spun around its long axis like a bathtub toy and roll back up full upright in 40 seconds, causing a minor tsunami in the harbor. I'll try to find the photos.

[Tracy White]

The US Navy did something somewhat similar with Oklahoma when they righted her at Pearl Harbor... they kept a bubble inside intact so that the ship was at least somewhat buoyant and rolled over the bottom instead of digging in. Of course, they had to dump a lot of crushed coral in the roll path to firm up the harbor mud somewhat...

[Werner]

Speaking of Oklahoma, an article in the USNI Proceedings on her loss and salvage (40th or 50th anniversary of the loss) indicated the depth of the harbor and the buoyancy of Oklahoma were actually insufficient to allow capsize. They suggested a late arriving barrage of torpedoes (which indeed hit well above the armor belt) served to "push" the ship over.

[Tracy White]

Is that the one by John DeVirgilio?

If memory serves the last thunder fish actually struck the main deck.

[Werner]

Is that the one by John DeVirgilio?

If memory serves the last thunder fish actually struck the main deck.

I will have to rummage my stacks to find out....

[Timmy C]

thunder fish

Haha, nice literal translation there, Tracy ^^

[Werner]

I really think we could clean up a lot of mercantile problems if there was a two-port system. Premier ports would only be available to US flag ships with USCG approved equipment, subject to inspection and control of the USCG. Foreign registry ships could go to smaller ports with lower capacity, where they would be inspected by DHS before offloading.

[Tracy White]

What kind of mercantile problems are you talking about? In the west part of our problem is the union's resistance to change... although that seems to have abated in the PNW ports the last 5-6 years or so.

Timmy: It's a term I've heard often describing the Japanese torpedos. I can't seem to find the origin now, but it may be a literal translation.

[Werner]

Well, these morons were obviously not equipped to man the cargo vessel.

[Timmy C]

It is, Tracy, both in Chinese and Japanese.

The first character means "fish", the second means "thunder". Same thing for ground mines - ground thunder.

[Lesforan]

Werner,

That sounds like a good idea to me. In fact, the USCG is now a part of DHS. The controlling agency was changed from DOT after 9/11. Prior to that, USCG was part of the Treasury Dept. In times of declared war, USCG falls under control of the USN.

[Werner]

It would be a quick way to restore the US Merchant Marine.

US ships with US crews could ordinarily be equipped and trained to help in detecting and locating potential WMD.

[chuck]

American morons are no better equipped to deal with ships than foreign morons. The difference is American morons will charge you more upfront and sue your ass off later for capsizing your ship. Better stick to foreign morons, that way your loss is limited to just the ship.

[Werner]

American morons are no better equipped to deal with ships than foreign morons. The difference is American morons will charge you more upfront and sue your ass off later for capsizing your ship.

Maybe we could make being a lawyer part of the requirements for being a mariner. That might sop up some of the huge excess of them that spoil our lives.

[Tracy White]

I dunno, "sea lawyers" have never been popular with ship's captains

[Rob]

I really think we could clean up a lot of mercantile problems if there was a two-port system. Premier ports would only be available to US flag ships with USCG approved equipment, subject to inspection and control of the USCG. Foreign registry ships could go to smaller ports with lower capacity, where they would be inspected by DHS before offloading.

You'd need to be careful on this one as it has all the hallmarks of being a trade barrier. Where would foreign flag ships with equally high safety standards fit into this?

Rob

[Werner]

I'm sure we could work out an agreement where countries who actually enforce maritime standards could use the first tier ports provided they take training on detection of WMDs here or in their own country and the ship carries equipment to detect WMDs and the crew knows how to use it.