Last week we saw a hapless container ship vaulted to fame, where people converged on its combination of mind-boggling size suffering an easily relatable problem of getting stuck. Now that it is moving again, armchair engineers who crave more big ship problem-solving should check out [David Tracy]’s writeup on the salvage operation of an overturned car carrier ship, the MV Golden Ray published by Jalopnik. If the ship’s name doesn’t ring a bell, the writeup opens with a quick recap.
Written for an audience of gearheads, [Tracy]’s writeup walks through some technical aspects of the salvage plan and initial results of execution. Citing from the official entity in charge, the St. Simons Sound Incident Response Unified Command, and augmented with information from elsewhere. Even though the MV Golden Ray is “only’ half the length and a third of the gross tonnage of our meme darling MV Ever Given, it is still a huge ship. Every salvage operation this big is unique, requiring knowledge far beyond our everyday intuition. At this scale, most Internet “Why don’t they just…” comments range from impractical to absurd.
Fortunately, people who actually know how to perform salvage work designed plans, submitted by multiple bidders, each making a different tradeoff in cost and speed among other factors. The chosen plan was to cut the ship into sections small enough to be carried by barge for further processing elsewhere. This required a huge floating crane, a chain pressed into cutter duty, custom fabricated lugs for lifting, and similarly custom fabricated cradles for the barges.
But we all know that no plan survives contact with reality. While this plan was seemingly chosen for speed, it hasn’t gone nearly as fast as advertised. Certainly the pandemic was a huge hinderance, but cutting has also been slowed by pieces built far stronger than spec. Delays also meant more sediment buildup inside the wreck, compounding headaches. Other bidders have started saying that if their plan had been chosen the job would be done by now, but who’s to say their plan wouldn’t have encountered their own problems?
In time St. Simons Sound will be cleared as the Suez Canal has been. Results of their respective investigations should help make shipping safer, but salvage skills will still be needed in the future. At least this operation isn’t as controversial as trying to retrieve the radio room of RMS Titanic.
Somehow I read that as a “big chip shop”. I must stop browsing HaD whilst cooking dinner.
Thank you, Hackaday, for adding a ‘confirm’ (at least I think that’s what the js method is called) on the ‘report comment button’. That will be all.
I stopped breathing too. I will hold my breath again for another 01 or t10 years until the “edit” button shows up after on sends a comment.
Glad to hear someone noticed!
Also check out MV Tricolor for a similar salvage operation a few years back. From the pictures, their “saw” seemed a bit more refined than this.
Indeed I was quite surprised that the cutting chain here looks like an ordinary (if very large) chain with links at 90 degrees to each other. It’s difficult to imagine the forces that can pull such a chain through heavy steel. I expected something more like a chain-saw chain.
Yes, cables were used to cut through the burning wellheads in Kuwait, making it easier to attach valves to shut off the flow of oil.
Could you just mention that this Georgia is in the USA, and not in Asia?
Georgia is as much in Eastern Europe than in Western Asia.
I thought of using the word “Eurasia”, but it has a clumsy feel to it.
You mean the USA one, right?
At least their votes don’t count.
I had it in an earlier draft but I cut it for length. I thought it is an impressive engineering project no matter where it is in the world. Anyone who wanted further details (such as exact location) can follow the links.
“our meme darling MV Ever Given”
mv ship prefix is a designation given to ferries. the ever given is a container ship, so its prefix is cs. it is the CS Ever Given.
Odd. https://gcaptain.com/watch-operation-backtwist-the-ever-given-salvage-operation/ refers to it as MV. CS can also apply, but MV = Motor Vessel. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ship_prefix Those who make a living in commercial shipping use the correct designation.
Pff. I could have done that with a 55… Oh sorry, wrong post…
:)
Reminds me of the salvage of the kursk.
i thought it was the burned OVH datacenter in Strasbourg. :)