Sunday, January 29, 2012

Scuttle!



This is coolbert:

From the core.com headlines of today we have this item regarding the capsized [only partially so] cruise ship:

"Up to 10 months to remove capsized cruise ship"

"GIGLIO, Italy (AP) — The cruise ship that capsized off Italy's coast will take up to 10 months to remove"

"Removed" meaning either righted and re floated or broken into bits for scrap. There is a well-worked out methodology for all this? First plug the holes in the hull of the ship, pump out the water, inject air into those compartments still flooded and the ship can be "righted' and made sea-worthy, towed away to a more secure and convenient location!

[this is all predicated on that cruise ship not slipping into deeper waters. The cruise ship as we speak slowly but surely sliding into deeper waters! Someone has to act fast here!]

A methodology as worked out in detail from two previous incidents, scuttled warships in both cases raised from the bottom in a similar manner, sold for scrap.

1. The raising from the bottom and selling for scrap the German High Seas fleet as scuttled at Scapa Flow, in the aftermath of World War One.

"Cox's [Ernest Cox entrepreneur] company eventually raised 26 destroyers, two battlecruisers and five battleships."

2. The French fleet as scuttled  at Toulon [World War Two] to some extent a number of ships raised from the bottom and made seaworthy again in some cases or sold for scrap!

"Most of the cruisers were salvaged by the Italians, either to restore them as fighting ships or for scrap."



The Marseillaise after scuttling.

The intuitive reaction is that such a ponderously large steel vessels such as they cruise liners and warships when sunk are irreparably gone but this is not the case. NOT ONLY NOT the case but there existing for some time now the means and methods to "right", make sea-worthy and bring back into business a sunken ship of such size. YES!

coolbert.

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