Va explosion

[scubaspider]

Hey all,

I dont know how much water this holds,(sorry for the play on words) but I heard there was an explosion of a ship off of Va on Saturday. Does anyone know anymore info on this, I have been unable to find it on the net.

 

[Genesis]

It went down.

Seriously, there are folks trying to get an exact fix on it. It appears that it may be within the "technical diving" range, and I hear that boats in that area are already setting up charters (perhaps a bit premature, but what the heck, right?)

 

[Scubaroo]

http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/South/02/29/tanker.explosion/index.html

This is an older story - about 18 people are believed lost at sea. Search has been called off.

 

[erikharwell]

yes there was an explosion. it was a 570 foot tanker with 3.5 million gallons of ethanol on board and several 100 thousand gallons of fuel oil and diesel. it has created a pretty large oil slick that is headed out to sea. only a couple of members survived and the rest are presumed dead. the virginian pilot newspaper has printed several articles on it and they are on the web. they say it is in 200 plus feet of water, I dont know if that is to the sand or what. the pictures showed it sinking upright, a 570 foot ship should have a high relief so I hope that number is to the sand. prayers out to the crew.

 

[Don Burke]

Hey all,

I dont know how much water this holds,(sorry for the play on words) but I heard there was an explosion of a ship off of Va on Saturday. Does anyone know anymore info on this, I have been unable to find it on the net.

http://www.hamptonroads.com/pilotonline/

The Coast Guard District office is just across the river from Norfolk, so the local paper gets a pretty good feed.



Here are some Coast Guard news releases:

https://www.piersystem.com/external/index.cfm?cid=651&clientID=365475

 

[erikharwell]

hey don I see you're on here also

 

[FredT]

From another board.

FT
-----------------

The following is official information and coordinates from the 5th District, USCG:

The BOW MARINER rests in 260fsw (she must have buckled). The coordinates are:
37 52.8N, 74 15.3W

At this time there is no USCG-established safety zone around the wreck site, and no prohibitions to diving it. There are also no current plans to establish one for an investigation, etc. However, they did state that there is a large amount of oil and debris in the area of the wreck, and they are advising vessel to avoid transiting through. Doesn't sound like there will be any clean-up.

For those wishing to confirm this, feel free to contact unified command at 757-668-5565.

The following link contains some images as well as an audio file with the original mayday call from the BOW MARINER:

https://www.piersystem.com/external...w&pressid=33268

 

[TwoBitTxn]

The depth reports seem to be inconsistant. Using Burk's link the paper is reporting the depth to be 160'. There is also a report that the USCG and NOAA are going to go take some sonar pictures to see if it's salvagable.

TwoBit

 

[Don Burke]

My guess is that Mr Dorsey was told a least depth and interpreted it as a water depth.

Anyone thinking of salvage is off his rocker.

 

[FredT]

There is also a report that the USCG and NOAA are going to go take some sonar pictures to see if it's salvagable.
TwoBit

ANY ship in that depth is salvageable, if thre is a high enough need to do so.

Cargo from any unruptured tanks may be recoverable, although not as easily with alcohol as the cargo as with oil. It's not possible to use the water pressure to force the alcohol to the surface since it will rapidly mix into the salt water.

The the diesel and any remaining bunker fuel oil in unruptured tanks can usually be fairly readily removed by attaching a suitable valve and hose to the top of the tank and poping a hole to sea in the bottom of the space, or simply opening the service plug/valve at the lowest point of the tank inside the hull if it's accessable.

Given the lifting of the Kursk and the equipment necessary to install offshore oil production equipment anything under a couple hundred yards long in any depth commercial divers can reach IS salvageable.

The question is if the scrap metal is enough to make it economically salvageable. I'd put long odds to the side that is not going to be the case.

If only a few of the 28 cargo tanks on board are ruptured the remaining tanks may be repairable, and if so it may be possible to refloat and repair the hull using a saturation diving crew. The sinking photos did not indicate a fire in the engine and hotel compartments. At minimum a refit would require replacing most of the mechanical and all of the electrical equipment in the the propulsion and crew spaces. As ships go tankers are pretty cheap to build in relation to their cargo tonnage so it may be cheaper to replace the vessel with a new one than to try and rebuild that hull.

FT