Posted on 03/05/2004 8:03:58 PM PST by knak
NEWPORT NEWS, Va. - (KRT) - Sonar images released Friday show the sunken Bow Mariner with huge chunks missing from the deck, an eerie sign of the violent explosions the ship and its crew experienced before sinking 260 feet into the Atlantic.
"It obviously had some catastrophic explosions before it sank," said Lt. Todd Haupt, executive officer of the sonar ship. "There are portions of the deck and the bow that are missing."
Sonar provided a color-coded, three-dimensional view of the ship, 50 miles off Virginia's Eastern Shore.
The smokestack seems in place on the stern of the 570-foot ship, as does the jackstaff on the bow, where the Bow Mariner's flag once flew. But most of the deck is missing from the left and right sides. There appears to be a break sliced through the deck near the bow, with wreckage piled up on the seafloor nearby.
"We do this every day," Haupt said. "And it's amazing to us."
Coast Guard officials would not speculate on what caused the damage, but a spokesman for the recovery efforts played down the importance of the sonar images.
"They are beautiful," said George Nelson, spokesman for the shipping company that managed the Bow Mariner. "However, they really don't show a lot."
The sonar ship, the Rude (pronounced Rudy), is a 210-foot vessel operated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. It routinely searches shipping channels for underwater hazards and obstructions. The ship uses multibeam sonar affixed to a pole that's placed into the ocean. The sonar sends 240 sound beams into the water in a fan shape that in this case covered the entire length of the ship.
Oil recovery stopped Friday, as the ship that has been removing small oil slicks about 18 miles east of the wreckage couldn't find any more areas to treat and sought protection from bad weather forecast for this weekend.
Sonar images also showed what appeared to be a coating of oil on the Bow Mariner, but Nelson said it wasn't unusual for a sunken ship to have several slow oil leaks.
"That's not a stunner," he said.
Ceres Hellenic Shipping Enterprises, the Greek company that managed the Bow Mariner, is filing claims with its insurance company to pay for the clean-up effort. The Coast Guard paid for the search and rescue. There are no running tallies yet on the coast of either operation, Nelson said.
A submersible craft with cameras will likely take underwater images of the wreck next week. The recovery team plans to use underwater hoses to remove the remaining oil and chemicals on the ship.
The Bow Mariner was carrying 48,000 gallons of diesel fuel, 190,000 gallons of fuel oil and 3.2 million gallons of ethanol when an explosion sank the ship last Saturday night. Six crewmen survived, three died and 18 remain missing.
So, where are they?
I wanna see it! </pouting>
Water damage is ALWAYS the most expensive to repair.
So which end is it that's sunk - the pointy end or the flat end?
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