What is the latest news about the Calypso (Cousteau's boat)?

[Anthony Appleyard]

I read somewhere about conifer trees growing on a mountainside, at an angle away from the ground, then gradually turning to straight up, in a natural curve, handy to make a ship's rib from.

I read that naval oak forests were grown with wide gaps between the trees, so the trees would grow with wide crowns with plenty of big bent branches to make into knees and elbows for ships.

 

[skippy311]

I heard that's one of the main challenges to rebuilding the Notre Dame. The wood that was used in the beams in the roof doesn't exist anymore..

It would be really nice to see the Calypso in all her splendor

 

[Akimbo]

I heard that's one of the main challenges to rebuilding the Notre Dame. The wood that was used in the beams in the roof doesn't exist anymore..

Don't be too shocked to see glue-lams instead. At least custom bends are easy and available. Lams aren't the same but look better than alternatives... which includes waiting a few hundred years to grow replacements.

 

[broncobowsher]

I heard that's one of the main challenges to rebuilding the Notre Dame. The wood that was used in the beams in the roof doesn't exist anymore..

It would be really nice to see the Calypso in all her splendor

Don't forget that those old cathedrals were build with cutting edge technology (for the day).

Old rotten wooden boat. Key pieces get saved, the rest can go to the compost pile. Too late to preserve, not enough left to call it a restoration. Best you could do is a recreation with a few original pieces. And the recreation would be expensive to build, expensive to keep up, and expensive to store. Other than a little nostalgia for a few older people, has no value.

 

[Storker]

Don't forget that those old cathedrals were build with cutting edge technology (for the day).

Don't forget that some of that cutting edge technology wasn't abandoned for better technology, but for cheaper technology.

Cleaved planks are better, but a lot more expensive than sawn planks. Same thing with finding a suitable piece of wood versus using glue laminated material.

 

[Akimbo]

Don't forget that some of that cutting edge technology wasn't abandoned for better technology, but for cheaper technology.

Cost-effective technology might be a better descriptor. Hand made products would be cost-effective today if skilled tradesman still made $5 a month. One of the reasons they made so little is their productivity was low (relatively). It always comes down to producing a product for a price that a buyer finds more valuable than the money. The "better" part of the equation is also infinitely debatable, as is beauty.

 

[Storker]

Cost-effective technology might be a better descriptor.

I'll give you that.

 

[Popgun Pete]

Background.

The sister ships. NavSource Auxiliary Minesweeper Photo Archive

BYMS-2026
BYMS-1 Class Motor Minesweeper:

• Laid down 12 August 1941 as BYMS-26 by Ballard Marine Railway Co., Inc., Seattle, WA

• Launched 21 March 1942

• Sponsored by Isobel Prentice, the daughter of the Ballard Marine Railways foreman

• Completed and transferred to Great Britain 22 August 1942

• Commissioned HM J-826 in February 1943

• Renamed HM BYMS-2026 in 1944

• Decommissioned in 1946 and laid up at Malta

• Struck from the Navy Register 10 June 1947 and transferred to the State Department, Foreign Liquidation Commission

• Returned to U.S. custody 1 August 1947

• Sold to Joseph Gasan, converted to a car ferry and named Calypso

• Operated between Malta and Gozo

• Sold to Thomas Loel Guinness and leased to Jacques Cousteau for one Franc per year

• Struck by a barge 8 January 1996 and sank at Singapore

• Salvaged 25 January 1996 and towed to Marseille, France

• Presently at LaRochelle, France awaiting her fate.
  Specifications:

• Displacement 270 t.

• Length 136'

• Beam 24' 6"

• Draft 8'

• Speed 15 kts.

• Complement 32

• Armament: One 3"/50 dual purpose gun mount, two 20mm mounts and two depth charge projectors

• Propulsion: Two 800bhp General Motors 8-268A diesel engines, Snow and Knobstedt single reduction gear, two shafts.

Given the numbers built there may be other survivors.

If you look at the photos after she was first raised the "Calypso" looks to be in reasonable shape, but doing nothing for years let the vessel rapidly deteriorate.

 

[skippy311]

Background.
View attachment 592178

The sister ships. NavSource Auxiliary Minesweeper Photo Archive

BYMS-2026
BYMS-1 Class Motor Minesweeper:

• Laid down 12 August 1941 as BYMS-26 by Ballard Marine Railway Co., Inc., Seattle, WA

• Launched 21 March 1942

• Sponsored by Isobel Prentice, the daughter of the Ballard Marine Railways foreman

• Completed and transferred to Great Britain 22 August 1942

• Commissioned HM J-826 in February 1943

• Renamed HM BYMS-2026 in 1944

• Decommissioned in 1946 and laid up at Malta

• Struck from the Navy Register 10 June 1947 and transferred to the State Department, Foreign Liquidation Commission

• Returned to U.S. custody 1 August 1947

• Sold to Joseph Gasan, converted to a car ferry and named Calypso

• Operated between Malta and Gozo

• Sold to Thomas Loel Guinness and leased to Jacques Cousteau for one Franc per year

• Struck by a barge 8 January 1996 and sank at Singapore

• Salvaged 25 January 1996 and towed to Marseille, France

• Presently at LaRochelle, France awaiting her fate.
  Specifications:

• Displacement 270 t.

• Length 136'

• Beam 24' 6"

• Draft 8'

• Speed 15 kts.

• Complement 32

• Armament: One 3"/50 dual purpose gun mount, two 20mm mounts and two depth charge projectors

• Propulsion: Two 800bhp General Motors 8-268A diesel engines, Snow and Knobstedt single reduction gear, two shafts.

Given the numbers built there may be other survivors.

If you look at the photos after she was first raised the "Calypso" looks to be in reasonable shape, but doing nothing for years let the vessel rapidly deteriorate.
View attachment 592181

If only Guinness didn't become Diageo...

 

[Anthony Appleyard]

I heard that's one of the main challenges to rebuilding the Notre Dame. The wood that was used in the beams in the roof doesn't exist anymore......

Same with Ely Cathedral in England, after wood-rot was found in the bottom ends of the main long wooden beams in the central octagon :: oak tree trunks that long don't exist any more.