For any Hunley fans...
Jim
recently updated web source for news of the salvage of the CSS Hunley
(ACW submarine in Charleston harbor). If you're interested in this
story, "point your browser to"
and follow the 'news' link. There's an archive of ~20 recent daily
newspaper articles dealing with the current state of the salvage
operation.
Jim, planning a trip to Charleston in about a year or so....
marc ...
at Charleston. Never paid much attention to the history of the place
when i was there.
Was happy to leave for Thailand in 68.
By the way doesn't the Navy still have a submarine base there?
Michael
Michael
marc ...
marc ...
Michael
marc ...
Saturday, July 8, 2000
By SCHUYLER KROPF
Of The Post and Courier staff
Engineers think they've solved how they're going to recover the Hunley:
Get a barge and crane that's flagged under the Central American nation
of Belize and re-flag it with the Stars and Stripes.
Then sail it to Charleston from the Dominican Republic ... and pray the
federal government doesn't cause trouble.
Get out your Atlas and a copy of the U.S. Maritime Code. It's going to
be a bumpy ride.
After weeks of setbacks, Hunley engineers think they've finally secured
a barge-mounted crane stable enough to lift the sub.
But it came after a bureaucratic headbutt with the federal government
over a law designed to protect the highly competitive U.S. marine
salvage industry.
Here's what happened:
In mid-June, recovery of the Confederate submarine came to an abrupt
halt off Sullivan's Island. The barge and crane donated by Detyens
Shipyard couldn't handle the offshore waves; it pitched too much in the
5-foot seas.
So divers gingerly covered the Hunley in a protective cocoon of
sandbags, kissed the 136-year-old sub goodbye and set off on a
hemisphere-wide scramble to find a replacement. Forcing their hand was
the approach of hurricane season.
They found the 175-foot-long Karlissa B - a vessel that can withstand
almost any ocean turbulence. She has six extendable legs that can lift
the barge's work platform high above the choppy surf, just like an
offshore oil rig.
Enter the feds.
Federal law prohibits any foreign-flagged vessel from salvaging a U.S.
ship if an American salvage company is available to do the same work.
The law was written to protect U.S. workers in the highly competitive
world of maritime salvage.
Customs Service lawyer Glen Vereb said that as soon as word got out that
a Belize-flagged barge was being considered to lift the Hunley, an East
Coast salvage company filed a complaint to block Titan Marine, owners of
the Karlissa B, from doing the salvage.
"Word travels very quickly in the salvage community," Vereb said Friday
from Washington.
The Customs Service's Office of Regulations and Rulings sided with the
complaining company, ruling the Hunley project is a "salvage" not a
"recovery" and that Titan couldn't do the lift.
That's when Titan agreed to re-flag the Karlissa B from Belize to the
USA.
Re-flagging is a simple procedure. Titan Marine General Manager Dick
Fairbanks said changing flags can be done after a series of inspections
by the U.S. Coast Guard to make sure the vessel is sound.
He said it is not uncommon for companies to have their vessels fly under
another nation's flag either when working in foreign waters or to save
money.
Fairbanks expects all the paperwork to be done shortly and said the
barge could be moving to Charleston by Tuesday from its current
assignment in Santo Domingo, the Dominican Republic.
Fairbanks said the company cut its rate to the Friends of the Hunley.
"We like to do high-profile things," he said.
Hunley Commission Chairman state Sen. Glenn McConnell said the cost is
about $294,000 "which is a break" from what some of the other salvage
companies have offered.
The next closest offer was around $600,000, he said.
Another advantage of the Karlissa B is that even with its extendable
legs, it is short enough to float under the Cooper River bridges, so it
can carry the Hunley to its conservation lab at the old Charleston Navy
Shipyard.
The Karlissa B started off as a U.S. vessel built by the Army Corps of
Engineers. During the Korean War, it was used as a pier for ships that
had no harbor available.
After its military use, it was sent into private service and cut up into
two salvage vessels; her sister ship is the Karlissa A.
Hunley Project senior manager Leonard Whitlock said the new barge should
get the recovery rolling again after the three-week shutdown.
The barge should arrive here in about 10 days, which means the sub
probably won't be raised until early August, three weeks behind
schedule.
Source: http://www.charleston.net/pub/news/hunley/hunbarg0708.htm
Friends of the Hunley
http://www.hunley.org/