The USS New Orleans LPH-11

[justleesa]

....is sitting over here and is waiting to be scrapped. If nothing comes up they want to sink it as a target....What would we have to do for them to sink it as an artificial reef (don't have time to sift thru the mumbo-jumbo)? Anybody interested?

More links on the USS New orleans.
USS New Orleans LPH-11

 

[DA Aquamaster]

Sounds like a tough one. With four Apollo/Apollo Soyuz and Skylab spaceflight recoveries I can see why it was initally put on the donation list. Too bad no one was interested.

But sinking it as a target in deep water is a pretty cheap way to dispose of a ship compared to cleaning one up to the higher standard expected by the EPA and then doing all the paperwork, site surveys, permits, etc, for use an an artifical reef in shallow water.

I am not sure yet whether the EPA and Navy have realized that the cleanup done on the Oriskany was overkill.

I suspect you would have to start at the state level to get them to support the idea as part of the state's reefing program since the state will end up bearing much of the cost aand responsibility for the project.

Does the governor owe you any political favors?

 

[justleesa]

Does the governor owe you any political favors?

I wish

 

[kidspot]

That would be an incredible asset to both the reef system and the dive community over here, plus a good draw for dive tourism.

 

[MauiScubaSteve]

Does the governor owe you any political favors?

With Hawaii's current political / public relations snafu I doubt anyone in the State government would approve funds for another large military transport ship

Too bad as that ship would be a really cool artificial reef.

 

[justleesa]

No diving Millionaires/Billionaires out there looking for a tax write off?

 

[okamiotoko2004]

This is a big ship and the waters here might be a bit shallow for this ship. Plus to clean up the ship is rather expensive. All the oil has to be removed and all the tanks cleaned which on a ship that size is alot considering it carried jet fuel and marine diesel fuel. Alot of the gear would have to be removed and some of deck coverings removed. Rather expensive and time consuming process. There is a lot of hazardous materials on the ship that left in the water would contaminate the waters. A ship that old there is alot of abestos, heavy metals, and other materials that have to be removed.
If it is going to be target they do the same minus some of the gear removal considerng they sink it in very deep water usually close to the marianas. As a target they usually shoot at with 50 cals, then 5" rounds. Also depends on how they want to sink and how long they want it to take to sink. If they want it to float awhile and hit it more they will close all the valves on the ship and weld all the doors shut. A ship that size will take several missile hits and a couple torpedos before it will sink. I watched a WWII heavy cruiser sunk this way.

 

[rockjock3]

It would definitely give us really cool technical dive opportunities for a long time to come. It would take quite a while to explore all of a ship that size.

 

[scuby-doo]

....is sitting over here and is waiting to be scrapped. If nothing comes up they want to sink it as a target....What would we have to do for them to sink it as an artificial reef (don't have time to sift thru the mumbo-jumbo)? Anybody interested?

More links on the USS New orleans.
USS New Orleans LPH-11

Hi Leesa-

I'm interested. Let's try and get a petition going from the divers here on O'ahu, expanding to other people who like the idea as well. Contacting whomever made the other artificial reef projects happen would be key. If you want to lead the charge, I'll help any way I can.

PM me if you want to discuss off-list.

Aloha

Patrick

 

[onfloat]

I'm in. I'll help in any way I can. Sounds like okamiotoko has the list of questions that need to be answered to get to the "How"