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The Spiegel Grove
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Click here for awesome INTERACTIVE Sun-Sentinel graphic Righting the Spiegel Grove |
| Miami Herald's Susan Cocking:
Work
on Spiegel Grove continues
AP's Mark Long: Sinking of Spiegel Grove remains work in progress |
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Posted on Sun, Jun. 02, 2002 BY SUSAN
COCKING
Working between intermittent thunder squalls, 14 divers from Resolve Towing and Salvage, plus 14 volunteers, are expected to finish attaching between 30 and 35 airbags to the port side of the ship today, Resolve president Joe Farrell said. The 510-foot Spiegel Grove, touted as the largest ship deliberately sunk to create an artificial reef, is lying upside down with its bow sticking up about 35 feet above the surface in 130 feet of water six miles off Key Largo. It went down prematurely May 17 when volunteers pumped water too quickly into its ballast tanks. Farrell said another 24 air bags, some of them with 25 tons of lift, arrived in Key Largo on Saturday. He said workers are only partially filling them. ''We don't want any surprises,'' he said. ``We don't want to fill them and have this thing shift prematurely.'' Farrell is trying to line up two tugboats with 100 tons of pull for what could be the final phase: filling the air bags to roll over the ship, with help from the tugs, if needed. ''We feel the ship will move without the tugs, but with this additional energy, the additional 100 tons of pull on the surface could get it to roll all the way over,'' Farrell said. Phase
2, rolling the ship from its side to an upright position, would be costly,
involving the attachment of more air bags and using a 300-ton hydraulic
lift jack to crank the ship rightside up.
PHOTO: Kevin Mousante, a technical diver from Resolve Marine Group, uses a torch May 30 to cut holes in the upside-down hull of the Spiegel Grove. The holes will be used to affix giant lift bags as part of an effort to rotate and fully sink the 510-foot retired Navy vessel as an artificial reef in the Florida Keys National Marine Santuary. AP photo by Bob Care/Florida Keys News Bureau Return to newspaper story index
Team is close to finishing job Posted on Sun, Jun. 02, 2002 BY MARK
LONG
The plan was hatched at a bar in 1994. Leaders of the Key Largo dive community wanted to procure a retired Navy ship and sink it to create an artificial reef. Simple enough, right? Eight years, dozens of delays and more than $1 million later, the idea that turned into an ordeal is close to completion. The final hurdle -- getting the Spiegel Grove righted in the water and then rested on the ocean floor -- could be finished this week. Like every step in this ship's final voyage, sinking the 510-foot vessel hasn't been easy. ''It's like catching a tiger by the tail,'' said Joe Farrell, president of Resolve Towing and Salvage, the Fort Lauderdale-based company hired to finish the project. The Spiegel Grove sank upside-down May 17 hours before it was to be scuttled as the largest ship ever intentionally sunk to create an artificial reef. The ship is in about 130 feet of water, its stern on the bottom but its bow protruding above the sea six miles off Key Largo in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary. SALVAGE VESSEL Divers from the Lana Rose, a 100-foot salvage vessel, have begun attaching giant inflatable lift bags to the ship's hull, Farrell said. When inflated, the bags -- some of which will stand 24 feet high -- will provide 500 tons of buoyancy. Divers also will feed air hoses into the ship's ballast tanks. The goal is to displace 2,000 tons of water from the left side of the vessel, Farrell said. This must be done without bursting the tanks or pumping air into unintended parts of the ship. If all goes as planned, the left side will begin to float. Tugboats, and hopefully the strong prevailing current, also will help roll the ship into position. ''With enough time and money we were able to put a man on the moon,'' Farrell said. ``There's not that kind of budget here, but we still have to prevail. The biggest problem is the size of the ship and the water depth. There's a lot of work to be done just to get her ready. ``It's quite a challenge.'' OPEN TO EXPLORE Spiegel Grove organizers want the ship to come to rest upright so its upper decks approach within 40 feet of the surface. Its nooks and crannies would be visible to snorkelers, and scuba divers of all levels would have something to explore. If the Spiegel Grove just turns on its side, Farrell said he will attach chains to one side of the ship and use hydraulic jacks on barges to turn the vessel upright. He might have already done that, but he is trying to minimize costs for the already over-budget reef project. ''We've been in business about 24 years and we've never failed on a job,'' Farrell said. ``We feel very confident, but I'm being cautious on this one. Nothing is guaranteed. ``Is it all going to come together? I know we can eventually do it. There's no doubt about it. But will it work given the direction and the procedures that we're heading? I don't know.'' The dive industry spent nearly eight years fighting red tape and trying to persuade state, federal and local officials the project would be environmentally sound. The Spiegel Grove, named for President Rutherford B. Hayes' estate in Fremont, Ohio, and decommissioned in 1989 after service in the Atlantic and Mediterranean, was towed in June 2001 from the James River Reserve Fleet in Virginia to a shipyard in Portsmouth, Va., where cleanup barely began when the contractor ran out of money. It was moved again in January to Chesapeake, Va., where a new contractor finished the job, removing petroleum products, peeling paint, asbestos and other contaminants. Key Largo officials expect the ship annually to attract 50,000 to 70,000 divers who will spend $14 million in the Keys. PAYING COSTS The Monroe County Commission has approved the Keys tourism council's request to pay about half of the more than $1.1 million needed for the cleaning, towing and sinking. The rest will come from selling commemorative dive medallions. ''We know we have a very valuable resource. . . . The Spiegel Grove will be the best artificial reef in the world,'' said Stephen Frink, project organizer and a board member of the Key Largo Chamber of Commerce. ``We're going to invest what we have to to make this ship right.'' |
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| Thank you for visiting our Spiegel Grove update pages. Much of the information here is copyrighted by other news agencies, as noted. This information is presented for the convenience of the members of South Florida Divers, by their newsletter editor, in order to bring all of the news to one central location. DO NOT use these images or stories for newsletters, web pages, or any other publications. You may print one copy for your own personal use only. Thank you. |
The
president of the salvage company hired to complete the sinking of the Spiegel
Grove said workers could be ready to flip the ship sometime between Wednesday
and Friday.
