I remember my mom getting mad cuz I kept filling the bathtub to play with them.
Posted on 12/13/2003 12:02:49 AM PST by SAMWolf
I remember my mom getting mad cuz I kept filling the bathtub to play with them.
Good question. In the case of this particular cofferdam, we ran two 1/4' cables around the hull of the destroyer to some padeyes attached to the cofferdam. A chain-fall is attached to the cable and the cofferdam. We then tightened the chain-fall (see photo three).
The venturri valve was a brass valve mechanism (T shaped). We hooked a 1-1/2 fire hose to one end. With the hose charged at all times, water passed through the venturri section and discharged out the other end. The flowing water under pressure created a suction on the third opening of the valve. That suction drew the water out of the box (cofferdam) and at the same time outside water pressure on the box held the box in place.
When we used the venturri valve on other projects, like plugging intake areas on the hull, the suction was so great, the cofferdam couldn't be removed. Only closing the valve on the firehose would release the pressure. Care had to be take that the firehose valve was tagged and assurances that the ships fire protection pumps wouldn't be secured.
Hope that explains and answers your question.
Oh, btw, it wasn't all work for us. We did manage to go fishin' a few times. One trip netted us 13 lobsters. Forget the mess decks for dinner that night. :)
U.S. Navy Frogmen
In 1955, one of America's favorite cereal companies introduced what would become one of the best-selling premiums of all time, the U.S. Navy Frogmen. Powered by mom's baking powder, they would "swim, dive, and surface all by themselves!" Each diver (3 divers per pack) is 3.5 inches tall..
From the deep, a mission diver writes home
Michael Stedman
A British deep-sea diver has been telling a television channel-s website back home of the weeks he toiled underwater on the Kursk salvage mission, writing via e-mails he sent from a shipboard pressure-chamber the size of a bathroom. Mark Girdlestone was one of 12 divers who spent up to a month at a time working on Kursk-s hull 108 metres deep in Russia-s Arctic Barents Sea, preparing for the vessel-s successful lift last week.
Between gruelling seven-hour shifts below the waves hauling massive lift-gear weighing 22 tonnes into holes bored through Kursk-s battered frame, Mark rested with his shipmates aboard Norwegian diving support ship Mayo, part of the Russian Northern Fleet-s mission task force. And from those cramped quarters, he told BBC television-s weekly Real Time series of the conditions the experienced 42-year-old former Royal Navy ?saturation diver¦ endured daily as the project proceeded.
Mark worked to help raise Kursk under seabed pressures of about ten times those the human body is used to in the air.
Within minutes, this environment threatens those working beneath the waves with a decompression sickness called ?the bends,¦ when helium and oxygen manufacture a deadly cocktail in the human body. The permanently-pressurised chamber aboard Mayo was that safeguard, protecting him from a danger ever-present for those working in the deep, one he faces regularly on other contracts building and maintaining oil rigs, platforms and pipelines in the North Sea. And one that recalled a previous assignment in 1982, when he worked on recovery of the British Navy-s first submarine, HMS Holland 1, which sank in 1913.
Mark shared his living space with two Russian divers, lowered with them to the seabed daily in an already-pressurised diving "bell." After each shift, the bell was winched back on board, then clamped to the chamber, also at seabed pressure. Food, clean clothes, life-support systems and daily requirements were seen to by others on the crew, passing what was needed through an air-lock. Via hand-written notes through the air-lock, he told the TV channel-s audience of a final task on the seabed v laying a memorial stone at the wreck site and remembering in prayer those who died in the submarine.
"A lot of the divers and crew are ex-armed forces and felt an affinity for the Russian sailors lost on the Kursk and those we have been working with," Mark wrote before beginning four days of decompression at the end of the mission. "When the Kursk was finally raised, I felt pleased, relieved and proud of a job well done. I also felt we have helped the relatives of the lost Russian sailors. I made many Russian friends on board the Mayo, who I will keep in contact with and who I hope to visit in St. Petersburg next year with my wife."
"Raising the wreck to the surface and bringing it to shore is in itself a triumph of engineering," BBC Russian affairs analyst Stephen Dalziel said, noting that "vital work lies ahead." The BBC News website said "everyone accepts that this is one of the most ambitious deep-sea salvage missions ever."
Mammoet / Smit - Kursk salvage operation
In June 2001 NCA was awarded the contract for cutting holes in "Kursk" from the joint venture of Dutch companies Mammoet and Smit International. The scope of work included cutting open access holes in the outer hull and 26 holes in the inner hull where the special designed gripper units was to be installed. The cutting was an important part of the total concept for salvage of the 18000 ton submarine, due to requirements for accuracy of hole size and positioning; and the need for a smooth hole edge in the contact zone to the grippers.
After an intensive engineering period, building of special designed subsea cutting manipulators, and a succesful test cutting at the Kryov Institute of Shipbuilding in St. Petersburg, two complete abrasive waterjet cutting spreads and several hydraulic driven guillotine saws where mobilised on the DSV Mayo to the Barents Sea. The cutting operation on Kursk started 21. July.
Divers installed the special designed cutting manipulators while all cutting were remote controlled from the vessel. NCA personnel operated two parallel abrasive cutting systems from the deck of DSV Mayo. This enabled two holes to be cut at the same time, which contributed to the project progress. All 26 holes in the inner hull were completed according to schedule at 28. August.
Cut plate of the inner hull
Cut plate of the outer hull
Puncturing high pressure ballast air system
Halliburton Subsea - recovery of casualties
In October 2000, NCA was responsible for cutting access holes during Halliburton Subsea's operation to recover casualties using the DSV "Regalia". The project objective where to recover as many bodies as possible from the submarine. In less than 5 days, the equipment were mobilised to the Diving Support Vessel "Regalia", leaving for the location.
For this project NCA completed the following tasks:
cutting of 4 access holes in the outer hull (compartment 3, 4, 8 and 9)
cutting 3 pressure release holes in the ballast air piping systems
cutting of 3 entrance holes in the inner hull (compartment 4, 8 and 9)
All cutting were done with subsea abrasive waterjet cutting technology.
The project was executed with Oil States MCS in UK as a sub supplier.
The sawn-off bow section will remain on the sea bed
The Sea Cliff was in San Diego at the Submarine base. Typical jobs for the subs were to retrieve test torpedoes and perform repairs to hydrophones placed on the ocean bottom. However, the Sea Cliff was also involved in the raising of a sunk Russian submarine with the Glomar Explorer.
Project Jennifer
Hughes Glomar Explorer
The Hughes Glomar Explorer [HGE] was built in 1973 by Sun Shipbuilding and Drydock Co. for an intricate CIA undertaking. The mission of Glomar Explorer was to raise a Soviet nulear submarine that had sunk in the Pacific, resting on the ocean floor nearly 17,000 ft. (5,200 m) down. The Soviet Golf-II Class ballistic missile submarine sank on April 11, 1968, approximately 750 miles northwest of Hawaii. Naval intelligence at Pearl Harbor had tracked the submarine and learned of its fate through underwater listening devices. After months of futile searching by Soviet vessels, it became apparent that only the US knew the location of the sunken submarine.
Oceanographers have long known that parts of the Pacific sea floor at depths between 14,000 ft. and 17,000 ft. are carpeted with so-called manganese nodules, potato-size chunks of manganese mixed with iron, nickel, cobalt and other useful metals. In the 1970s, Howard Hughes used the Deep Ocean Mining Project [DOMP] search for nodules as a cover for building the ship Glomar Explorer. Global Marine supervised construction of the Glomar Explorer , at a cost in excess of $200 million dollars, and operated it from 1973 to 1975 under contract to the US government. Glomar Explorer went to sea on June 20, 1974, found the sub, and began to bring a portion of it to the surface. The Soviets watched the "deep-sea mining" operation with interest, but did not attempt to thwart it. An accident during the lifting operation caused the fragile hulk to break apart, resulting in the loss of a critical portion of the submarine, its nuclear missles and crypto codes. However, according to other accounts, material recovered included three nuclear missles, two nuclear torpedoes, the ship's code machine, and various code books.
History Channel covered the dive on the wreck of HMS Prince of Wales. Here is one site on the event.
Miniature frogmen charged in demolition of Greenpeace vessel Rainbow Warrior
LOL! My bet is that it was the guy with the Limpet mine. Mr. Yellow.
Good read on the Kursk Salvage job.
I used to watch Sea Hunt all the time one of my favorite shows back then.
History Channel covered the dive on the wreck of HMS Prince of Wales.
Snippy and I watched that one ,good show, gave the background to why the ships were sent, the sinking and the dive.
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