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To: finnman69; Doohickey
In the closeup, what you are looking at is FROM the starboard side of the ship, looking aft towards the port side - which is severely crushed and bent away. Little damage on the upper part of the stbd main ballast tanks at this elevation (28 feet above the keel). Even the paint is unscarred. Underneath?

But the port side? This is where they must have hit vertical wall or spike shaped cliff - it destroyed the port side, but not the stbd steel as bad.

Completely bend and torn away in MBT1B. The are 6 MBT's forwards - each of the three "circular sections is divided in the middle into a port B and and stbd A tank. These MBT's BEGIN immediately after the circular dividing plate (frame) that is visible. Somebody pointed out the "holes" where the plastic (fiberglass, about 1" thick) sonar dome is attached. Those are the "little" black "circles", but each bolt is about 3/4" in diameter, and the bolt head (what's visible) is about 1-1/2" across.

The whole sonar dome is ripped off.

The sonar sphere is a watertight (until the boat hit the bottom!) sphere attached to this plate. It goes forward and holds 4 large electronics racks of transducer connection and wires.

The rectangular hatch is an access opening into these tanks I used all the time when the boat was in drydock or for maintenance.
97 posted on 01/25/2005 5:08:15 PM PST by Robert A Cook PE (I can only donate monthly, but Kerry's ABBCNNBCBS continue to lie every day!)
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To: Robert A. Cook, PE

" ... The survival of the ship after such an incredibly hard grounding (nearly instantaneous deacceleration from Flank Speed to 4 KTS) is a credit to the ship design engineers and our day-to-day engineering and watchstanding practices. The continuous operation of the propulsion plant, electrical systems and navigation demonstrates the reliability of our equipment and the operational readiness of our crews as a whole. The impressive Joint and Navy team effort which resulted in SFO returning to port safely says volumes about the ingenuity and resourcefulness of all our armed services. For all who participated in this effort, thank you and your people."


35+ knots to 4 knots. Wow. Just wow. I can't think of a surface vessel of any tonnage that could do this and still float, let alone navigate.


101 posted on 01/25/2005 5:39:12 PM PST by Blueflag (Res ipsa loquitor)
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