Plans announced to REORIENT SPIEGEL GROVE
Rich
Rich
KEY LARGO, Florida Keys - The president of a South Florida marine salvage
company detailed plans Monday to reorient and complete the sinking of a
retired Navy ship in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary.
The 510-foot Spiegel Grove sank prematurely Friday, hours before crews had
planned to scuttle it to create an artificial reef. The ship is upside down
in about 130 feet of water, its bow protruding out of the sea six miles off
Key Largo.
Joe Farrell, president of Resolve Towing and Salvage, of Fort Lauderdale,
said his firm will effort to rotate the ship, but cautioned a week of
engineering and testing is required before an attempt is made. He added that
while the objective was to stand the ship upright, he could not guarantee
success.
"Our intent is to roll her up on the starboard (right) side," Farrell said
Monday at a news conference at the Key Largo Bay Beach Marriott resort.
Farrell said preliminary plans call for air to be injected in ballast tanks
and other hull areas to remove water and lighten the ship.
"We need to introduce at least 2,000 tons of buoyancy into the port (left)
side of the hull," he said.
After that, plans call for divers to attach and inflate about 35 underwater
lift bags, each capable of surfacing 10 tons of weight.
Two or three tugboats, providing about 120 tons of pull, along with
assistance from any prevailing ocean current are to assist the rollover
effort.
"The current may have had substantial impact on why it rolled over Friday,
but it is also going to help us to get it upright," Farrell said.
Farrell said that a 100-foot support boat equipped with mammoth air
compressors and other equipment should arrive at the Spiegel Grove site by
Wednesday.
He estimated costs at about $250,000, saying it was well below his firm's
normal rates because of a desire to help the community and a promise by
local dive industry representatives to assist with underwater work.
"We know we have a very valuable resource and the fact that the Spiegel
Grove will be the best artificial reef in the world," said Stephen Frink, a
project organizer and member of the Key Largo Chamber of Commerce.
The Chamber consummated a contract with Resolve Sunday afternoon, after
receiving proposals from three salvage companies.
"We're going to invest what we have to, to make this ship right," Frink
added.
Already more than a $1 million has been expended in cleaning and other
activity. Frink said several local groups, including the Ocean Reef
Community Association on North Key Largo, pledged additional financial
support Monday. He said the chamber is also counting on additional revenue
from the sale of Spiegel Grove commemorative medallions.
Because the ship is anchored on the sandy bottom and was stripped of all
contaminants, it poses no environmental threat to the ocean or nearby
natural coral reefs, according to Lt. Commander Dave Score, Upper Keys
region manager for the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary
Wreck diving experts have said the ship is the largest ever intentionally
sunk to create an artificial reef. Such reefs attract underwater wildlife
and are popular with scuba divers, who already are a $33 million per year
industry here.
The Spiegel Grove - named for the Ohio home of President Rutherford B.
Hayes - was decommissioned in 1989 and sat in a Navy shipyard in Virginia
for almost eight years.