Tricolor To Be Raised...

Admiral Valdemar · Post by **Admiral Valdemar** » 2003-07-10 11:12am

In nine separate pieces. Apparently the ferry is being a bit too much of a pain in the arse, what with it lying on its side in the middle of the busiest shipping lane in the world (the English Channel for the uninformed).

The ferry has the 3,000 cars it was transporting until it sort of capsized in December last year, but any hope of salvage is off now as Smitt Salvage, the firm that brought the Kursk up and other wrecks, has sent two salvage vessels to join the coastguard that has been guarding the wsunken vessel all this time.

The cool thing is that the vessel is so big that they're going to use industrial grade cheesewire to slice the thing up then raise the pieces, such a feat of this scale has never been done before.

I can only imagine what'd look like after that, especially with all the cars in the thing too.

Warspite · Post by **Warspite** » 2003-07-10 11:29am

Any links?

Admiral Valdemar · Post by **Admiral Valdemar** » 2003-07-10 11:35am

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/3055021.stm

Bwahaha, who said carbon fullerene "buckytubes" don't have their uses in real-life? (Okay, okay, so they aren't buckytubes, but same concept.)

I hope they film this, it'd be cool to watch.

Warspite · Post by **Warspite** » 2003-07-10 11:54am

Oh, yes I remember this one...

The operation should be interesting to watch.

Cal Wright · Post by **Cal Wright** » 2003-07-10 08:21pm

Wow! I didn't know that the channel was so shallow the ship actually is above the surface.

Post by **Sea Skimmer** » 2003-07-10 09:00pm

I'm more impressed by the raising of the Oklahoma. No cheap cut it up tricks in that one, big cables, huge winches, a huge pile of rock as a pivot point and lots of welding brought her up.

Post by **Sea Skimmer** » 2003-07-10 09:12pm

Cal Wright wrote:Wow! I didn't know that the channel was so shallow the ship actually is above the surface.

It only comes partly above the surface at low tide. The Straits of Dover and the seas to the north and east are generally around 30-40 meters deep though the further north east you go that can decease to less then 25. There are also vasy numbers of shoals, which can be as shallow as 4 meters.

Quite a lot of tankers and even some container ships can't transit the area and must go around the UK.