Photo Credit: U.S. Coast Guard
Posted on 03/11/2011 6:20:04 AM PST by Bean Counter
Oregon & Washington *ping*, please...
ok I like diving, but I think I’d have to pass on where those guys are going.
....when I was stationed at Ft Eustis,VA there was a ‘mothball fleet’ of Liberty ships moored nearby....they probably should have been scrapped by now....surely they couldn’t be seaworthy after all these years.
Here in Washington when you pay for your boat license, there is a derelict fee or tax added to it. No kidding. Us with good boats have to pay to get rid of others derelict boats.
This brings back memories. When I lived in Alaska growing up they had two Liberty ships that they had run aground and filled with rocks to make a dock. Don’t imagine that they worried any about oil leaking out (this was the 60’s). They are still there rusting away.
We returned to the slip. We fueled up before we put her into the slip.We met a Tow Boat operator that told us a large yacht was sinking off the coast and the Coast Guard was heading out. We told him we saw the guy and we then all realized what this guy was doing. He was sinking the 60 foot wooden craft. No marina would allow them into a slip because that is how owners walk away from disposal. Some marinas wanted $10,000 up front for these big old boats to come in and use the slip. That dude was sinking the old craft on purpose and probably endagering many boaters. Wrecks are charted on GPS. Not this one. I do not know if the boat sinker was ever caught. We never got a call from the Coast Guard.
It seems to me that a wall could have been pounded in place around it and saved a lot of time and money ,, dismantle it in place..
They are talking about cutting the stern free and floating it out intact. If they cannot get the bow out the same way they may cofferdam it, pump it out, and scrap the hull. The problems with that are many, including the river current, condition of the bottom of the river at that spot and the additional costs involved. No telling what a cofferdam would cost but it won’t be cheap.
The problem here is that the vessel had a crew aboard last fall illegally trying to scrap it in the water. They literally hollowed out most of the front half of the vessel and the only thing left in places is the outer shell plating. One of those pictures shows one of the fore and aft structural stringers bent like a pretzel, and where that big empty space is, there should be more stringers.
Absolutely illegal in every way you can think, but they worked on it for a couple of months unbothered by any number of agencies that could have (and should have!) intervened years ago.
And there are at least 10 more vessels on the lower Columbia River that are just as vulnerable to illegal salvage efforts.
Our tax dollars at work.
Those salvage divers were a different breed of cat.
“ok I like diving, but I think I’d have to pass on where those guys are going.”
That’s gotta be extreme drift diving there.
Definately NOT a pleasure dive. I’ve been in situations where visibilty is so poor you literally cannot see your hand on your mask lens.
Having logged more than 6000 dives, and as comfortable as a fish in water, that kinda low vis is spooky to say the least.
I’ve done the low vis diving off Venice beach here in Florida (Gulf Coast). Looking for fossilized sharks teeth.
Visibility at times is about 6” until you start stirring up the sand, then it drops. You try not to think about all the bull sharks in those waters while you’re doing that.
I wouldn’t want to dive in the contaminated water these guys are in. Granted its not very deep but it would be a nasty way to die.
Say WA? Evergreen State ping
Quick link: WA State Board
FReepmail sionnsar if you want on or off this ping list.
Ping sionnsar if you see a Washington state related thread.
Say WA? Evergreen State ping
Quick link: WA State Board
FReepmail sionnsar if you want on or off this ping list.
Ping sionnsar if you see a Washington state related thread.
Part of my commercial dive training was conducting operations (other than welding:) with the face plate masked off.
I know an old guy that was a navy demolition guy. One of the trainings they did was to take abart a storage tank at the bottom of the river/bay - out east - Cheasapeake? He said the first time he went down he couldn’t find the tank. I suppose with radio he said he couldn’t find it, and the guys all had a good laugh - and then told him “look above you!”
The silt/muck was so fine that he had sunk into it while the larger tank was higher up in the muck. But all muck nonetheless!
I dove a farm pond with a metal detector looking for a diamond wedding ring. It was soo dark I couldn't see out of my mask. Had to work by sound (detector)and feel.By the way I didn't find the ring.
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