Famous sinkings

I have to bring here sad news: Today at around 2:30 in the morning the MFV "CORDERO" capsized suddenly when coming back to port in a gale. Result for the time being: One dead and four dissapeared sailors.

More (in spanish): http://www.elperiodico.com/default....a=CAS&idnoticia_PK=474660&idseccio_PK=1021&h=

 

Sea Battles Now to be Fought on YouTube

It is a new world -- and that is a good thing. Be alert to governments with an agenda and disinformation

“You furnish the pictures, I'll furnish the war.”—Wm. Randolph Hearst to Frederic Remington in Havana, Cuba, March, 1898. Cause of the sinking is still a mystery.
It is chilling to think about how many US wars were brought about by, or hastened by, attacks or alleged attacks on US vessels. Historically all governments' misdeeds have been aided and abetted by media that have been manipulated.

Dueling videos can be a lot more powerful than guns and torpedoes in the 21st century. It is noteworthy that both the US DOD and the Iranian Navy are using YouTube to make their case to the world's public.

See videos about another famous incident of patrol boats almost sinking a US Navy ship – the USS Liberty in 1967, when 200 Americans were killed or wounded in the largest loss of life in US Naval history since WW II. These videos are disturbing and proceed at your own risk of high blood pressure…
manipulate here

Eve of Destruction

 

Guillermo, looks like the winter crop of sinkings is upon us again! I grieve for those fishermen, but know that more will follow. Sad I know but each winter brings more calamity as the accountants ashore push more seamen (of every description) into taking bigger risks to pay the huge debts that the accountants got them into in the first place! The answer? it will take a cleverer man than me to give that one! sure I have some ideas, we all do; but are they practicable? I doubt it!

 

thanks

Charlie, great picture of the Flying enterprise. How they towed it that way for almost 400 miles is beyond me. I'll look to see if our library has trhe book on the Yucatan disaster

 

Not so famous but intresting

A little salvage job I had to do today on a 25 Bayliner.

 

AAAAAKKKKKK! Where is your pollution contaiment!!!

Don't let the IMO see those pictures!....

 

Just found the pics.......looks like the owner will have some work to do before the salmon hit, eh?

 

Ayep :0

 

I'm a couple days late on this article...

Twenty-five years after a vicious winter storm ripped across the Atlantic Ocean and helped sink the world's largest and most advanced oil rig, memories of the Ocean Ranger tragedy are still painful and fresh.



The Ocean Ranger was considered the mightiest oil rig in the world when it sank early on Feb. 15, 1982.
(CBC) All 84 crew members died when the Ocean Ranger toppled and then sank on the Grand Banks in the early hours of Feb. 15, 1982.

read the full news article:
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/newfoundland-labrador/story/2007/02/15/ranger-25.html

Interesting case - I think they determined that it capsized due to the fact that as the rig tilted down by the head the ballast pumps on the stern couldn't pump ballast to correct the trin of the rig.
--Chuck

 

It's hard to believe that it was so long ago. They were building a sister, the Ocean Alliance on the Clyde at the time and major alterations were made, after she was launched, when the reasons for the tragedy became clear. Huge blister tanks were added at the bow and stern corner legs from the pontoon tops to well above the waterline to increase bouyancy. I worked on it for about eight months doing other changes while all this was going on.
The Ocean Ranger was in everyone's minds as this work was being done.

 

Here's another tragic sinking of a rig, although not an oil rig.

http://njscuba.net/sites/site_texas_tower.html

"Texas Tower #4, located approximately 75 miles due east of Barnegat Inlet NJ, and 58 miles out of Fire Island Inlet NY, was one of three offshore radar installations ( #1 was never built ) intended to provide advance warning of enemy air attacks, all part of the Distant Early Warning system (DEW line) encircling the United States and Canada. This technology is not used today, as it was quickly made obsolete by newer airborne radars. The "Texas Tower" nickname came from the platforms' resemblance to offshore oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico.

The first two towers, off of Nantucket and Boston, were driven into a rocky ocean bottom in relatively shallow water ( 50 and 80 foot depths. ) TT #4, however, was more of a challenge. It would stand in 180 feet of water, and rise nearly 70 feet above the surface. The triangular platform measured 187' per side, and the structure weighed 3,200 tons. Each leg was 300' long, 12.5' in diameter, and weighed 450 tons. TT #4 was considered an "engineering triumph" when it was floated into position in the summer of 1957, and was built to withstand winds up to 125 mph and waves up to 60' high. This design was thought sufficient to get the tower through any storm known.

The battering delivered by storms combined with the soft mud and sand which formed the foundation for the Tower's legs, however, soon began to take their toll. Repairs were made after each of the two hurricanes which hit the Tower, but its stability continued to decline, and TT #4 soon earned the nickname "Old Shaky". Most of the 70-man Air Force crew was evacuated near the end of 1960, but a skeleton crew of 28 men ( 14 airmen and 14 civilian repairmen) remained through the winter, despite the urging of the Tower's commander that they all be evacuated until repairs could be completed in the spring. In January of 1961, yet another storm struck the tower. Rescue ships were dispatched, but were too late. On January 15, less than four years after it began operation, Texas Tower #4 disappeared from a rescue ship's radar screen and collapsed into the sea, killing all aboard. The immediate rescue mission, which evolved into a month-long recovery and investigative operation, recovered only two bodies."