Almost Titanic 2

Cosimo · 16 Sep 2013 at 17:13

Update:

The salvage operation will take at least another six hours, engineers have announced, with work continuing into the evening and possibly into the night.

Cables and jacks will continue to pull the ship upright for another four to six hours.

Gravity will then take over - the giant hollow boxes on the left-hand side of the hull will be flooded with water, helping to pull the ship fully upright. That process could take several more hours.

Cosimo · 16 Sep 2013 at 17:17

Approx three hours worth of uprighting since 14:20....

Dis86 · 16 Sep 2013 at 17:26

hard to judge how much it's moved due to the tide etc.

MooMoo444 · 16 Sep 2013 at 17:31

Dis86 said:
hard to judge how much it's moved due to the tide etc.

Fair play, totally forgot about the tide.

Dis86 · 16 Sep 2013 at 17:43

MooMoo444 said:
Fair play, totally forgot about the tide.

Goes both ways though, it could be even less impressive movement depending on how the tide's shifted!

Cosimo · 16 Sep 2013 at 17:46

Dis86 said:
hard to judge how much it's moved due to the tide etc.

The tide will be a matter of a few inches so you can judge the movement.

Dis86 · 16 Sep 2013 at 17:51

Google suggests about half a metre

m4cc45 · 16 Sep 2013 at 17:55

Lazder said:
why dont they just bomb it.

Probably because they want to recover the bodies of the people on there and also get some cash back from the scrap.

It would be a tad insensitive to the families who have un-recovered bodies on there to blow it up.

M.

Django x2 · 16 Sep 2013 at 18:34

Cosimo said:
The tide will be a matter of a few inches so you can judge the movement.

What kind of sea tides do you experience? Most are more like feet rather than inches...

What I can't envisage yet, is, are they expecting the boat to float? What I see happening is, a righted boat, with the entire lower half submerged.....

Jez · 16 Sep 2013 at 18:42

Django x2 said:
What kind of sea tides do you experience? Most are more like feet rather than inches...

What I can't envisage yet, is, are they expecting the boat to float? What I see happening is, a righted boat, with the entire lower half submerged.....

You envisage exactly right, but;

The large tanks on the side are ballast tanks, once upright, they will weld the same to the other side, pump all the water out of them, and the boat will float up to the surface and be dragged away with the tanks providing the floatation

Django x2 · 16 Sep 2013 at 18:48

hopefully....

ElectroBlaster · 16 Sep 2013 at 18:48

Jez said:
You envisage exactly right, but;

The large tanks on the side are ballast tanks, once upright, they will weld the same to the other side, pump all the water out of them, and the boat will float up to the surface and be dragged away with the tanks providing the floatation

The salvage team have built a stand or something afaik? The ship is righted and then rests on this stand/shelf. More tanks are added so the ship will float away to the scrapper. After this has been done, all the hardware is dismantled and removed.

Seems a massive amount of work! Should make an interesting tv programme if they do go and make one, problem is people died on that thing and two are still un-accounted for!

MOOGLEYS · 16 Sep 2013 at 18:49

Django x2 said:
What kind of sea tides do you experience? Most are more like feet rather than inches...

What I can't envisage yet, is, are they expecting the boat to float? What I see happening is, a righted boat, with the entire lower half submerged.....

It's being pulled up onto a big metal frame under the water. Once sitting on the frame in the upright position the water will be drained from the ballast tanks and it should float. The Ship itself is unable to float unaided.

Jez · 16 Sep 2013 at 18:50

Django x2 said:
hopefully....

will be interesting to watch

Cosimo · 16 Sep 2013 at 18:57

Django x2 said:
What kind of sea tides do you experience? Most are more like feet rather than inches...

The Mediterranean has low tides. The tides at Montalto di Castro which is quite close to Isola del Giglio has a tide of 0.2 to 0.3 metres:

http://www.tides4fishing.com/it/lazio/montalto-di-castro

areksnumbr1sxylady · 16 Sep 2013 at 18:59

Craig1981 said:
I guess because they dont want to litter the area with exploded ship parts. Not very good for the local ecology.

m4cc45 said:
Probably because they want to recover the bodies of the people on there and also get some cash back from the scrap.

It would be a tad insensitive to the families who have un-recovered bodies on there to blow it up.

M.

But this is Italy we are talking about, this is normal for them.

MadMan-JaMeS · 16 Sep 2013 at 19:25

Once its at a certain point they'll fill them tanks with water which will help speed up the process and help control everything.

Its taken some time but you only get one chance and these things, so you gotta be spot on !

Cougar Ace Article

Regy53 · 16 Sep 2013 at 19:42

half a billion for this operation alone?

really?

Jeez.

surely it is cheaper to cut up there thats the most ludicrous thing i have read

MadMan-JaMeS · 16 Sep 2013 at 20:26

Regy53 said:
half a billion for this operation alone?

really?

Jeez.

surely it is cheaper to cut up there thats the most ludicrous thing i have read

They can't because the impact it would have on the local environment would probably go way beyond the half billion pounds.

Its the insurers and owners who are paying to have this done !

thingemajib · 16 Sep 2013 at 20:44

There are lights on in some of the rooms/cabins that have just been recently un-submerged. What's the deal there?