At 21:08 3/28/2000, Joel Walker wrote:
>so when one of the group members starts off on a story about how
>his grandmother beat him unmercifully with a frying pan and that
>is probably why he hates wheel covers, let's all be respectful
>and wait until he's finished talking ... and THEN we can hoot and
>holler about how stupid he is. :)

>Date: Thu, 23 Mar 2000 21:32:26 -0500
>From: Phil Beierl <pgbeierl@pilot.infi.net>

[He thought about buying a Vanagon once... <g>]

>Hi guys,
>
>Had an interesting adventure last month that I thought might interest
>you.  I don't know if any of you read in the papers about the Navy
>losing one of its floating drydocks and chasing it halfway accross the
>Atlantic, but I ended up being one of the chasers!
>
>The 522 foot long, 125 foot wide, 10,000 ton dock had been under tow
>from Norfolk to Jax when off Hatteras the tug got into trouble in rough
>seas, tried to turn the tow back toward Norfolk and ended up parting her
>2-1/4 inch tow wire.  A commercial tug (under contract to the Navy) was
>able to hook up with temporary towing rigs a couple or three times over
>several days but these rigs kept breaking in the rough seas.  They used
>an apparatus called an Orville Hook which is sort of like a giant
>logging chain hook that they tow on a large nylon line with a buoy to
>hold the hook close to the surface.  By trailing the Orville hook and
>turning the tug sharply around the end of the tow, they can often hook
>the broken tow bridle chain hanging straight down from the tow.  This
>went on for several days until the tug thought they had good enough
>weather to pull the Orville hook up on deck and connect the chain bridle
>directly into their tow wire.  The weather wasn't good enough!  They
>managed to get the the two legs of the bridle on deck but then one leg
>got caught in one of the screws.  Picture this tug with its stern only a
>few feet from the lurching drydock and a piece of 2-1/4 inch chain
>wrapped around one propeller with one end of the chain connected to the
>drydock and the other connected to the other bridle leg (and the other
>side of the dock) and to 500 feet of the original tug's tow wire hanging
>straight down.  Somehow they managed to cut both legs of the bridle with
>a torch and miraculously the chain in the screw unfouled itself and came
>free.  This left the drydock without its main tow bridle.
>
>Now every smart tow rigger puts a secondary tow bridle onboard for just
>such and emergency, right?  Right.  The other end of the dock had a
>similar chain bridle but only a 10 inch nylon beyond the chain and that
>wouldn't have been strong enough.  And anyway it had self deployed in
>the lousy weather so the line was all fouled in the bridle and couldn't
>be recovered. Did I say that smart tow riggers probably don't tow
>drydocks in the winter?
>
>Meanwhile I was innocently attending a conference at the Navy Diving
>School in Florida when I got the word to meet up with the USS SUPPLY in
>Jacksonville with a team of divers.  SUPPLY is a brand new AOE designed
>to keep up with and replenish the carriers and its the second biggest
>ship in the Navy after the carriers.  She is not my idea of a salvage
>ship however!  Washington and Norfolk were socked in with a snow storm
>so I could only get a few of my guys on a plane south and borrowed some
>other divers and equipment from Jacksonville.  We loaded about ten
>pallets of chain, wire and all manner of rigging gear provided by a
>NAVSEA salvage contractor and took off at 28 knots to chase down the 520
>foot drydock that had by now been adrift for over a week.  We met up
>enroute with another replenishment ship this time the USNS SATURN that
>carried a detachment of two H-46 helos and together gave chase to the
>errant dock.
>
>Oh, did I mention that I had met this dock before?  She had been tied up
>at my very own pier in Little Creek (we had to move all our boats and
>craft to the other side of the pier) for a week or two while she was
>rigged for tow.  Despite my warnings (to the contractor responsible for
>rigging the tow)  that her moorings were inadequate, she had still
>broken loose and smashed up against the quay wall before the tow even
>started.  It also turned out that on the tow out of the bay the dock had
>run over one of the Thimble Shoals channel buoys!
>
>We finally caught up to the dock as it made a bee-line for Bermuda now
>in company with two commercial tugs one of which had just managed to
>catch the secondary bridle with its Orville Hook.  The helos agreed to
>deliver our gear to the drydock but didn't want to try to lower people
>into the dock so we started running my team over to the dock in two
>RHIBs (rigid hull inflatable boats) from the SUPPLY.  Unfortunately the
>SUPPLY was an unrep ship not a salvage ship and apparently didn't use
>her boats a lot.  Both were out of commission by the end of the morning
>with only 12 of 16 in the salvage team delivered to the dock.  The
>fourth boat run that I was supposed to be on never happened.   At one
>point one overheating and smoking boat was towing the other boat whose
>shaft was broken until  finally they both crapped out.  They struggled
>all day to get a boat back up while the salvage team re-rigged a new
>bridle forward on the dock.  When the team was ready to return to the
>ship and still the repairs weren't complet, SUPPLY finally conceded that
>it was time to ask for help and SATURN sent over her RHIB, which in the
>heaving swells promptly punctured her pontoon on a broken ladder on the
>drydock and had to return empty handed.  Meanwhile we had brought a
>Zodiac inflatable with us and and had it rigged for launching from the
>high side of the SUPPLY in case of last resort. Without advising the
>bridge, the deck force pushed the boat out over the side and it  flipped
>over sideways so they lowered it to try to get it upright.  This worked
>but their plan to quickly retrieve the boat did not as the hook on the
>lowering line disconnected itself and the zodiac surfed along wildly on
>its bow line as the ship steamed ahead at about 15 knots!  After
>stopping the ship we manage to salvage the zodiac but it was in no
>condition for use without repair.  Finally an hour before dark one of
>the RHIBs was repaired and sent off to pick up the first half of the
>team.  We cheared when they got safely aboard and then groaned when
>halfway back to the ship the boar lurched to a stop with its shaft jury
>rig broken again.  With little daylight left we sent a helo over with a
>pallet of provisions and blankets and the remaining six men settled down
>in the long unused berthing compartments in the wingwalls of the
>drydock.
>
>Almost forgot,  after the salvage team rigged up a new bridle forward
>they called in the second tug to connect to it and in the process of
>connecting the tug sank into a deep trough and the corner of the very
>lively drydock sat right down on the tugs stern nearly capsizing the tug
>and crushing her starboard quarter bulwark.  We sent her to Bermuda for
>repairs.
>
>Next day after several more false starts with boats, we finally got
>everyone off.  All this time one of the tugs continued to tow the dock
>(really be towed by the dock) on the Orville hook.  We convinced
>COMSECONDFLT to let us take the dock to Bermuda for re-rigging since
>that's where she wanted to go anyway and by next morning had managed to
>get positioned off the sea buoy for the narrow channel through Bermuda's
>outer reef.  The second tug returned to us unrepaired but ready to help
>and in the shelter of Bermuda we were able to transfer our salvage team
>(this time me included) to the dock directly from the tugboat.  We
>promptly connected the new bridle to the damaged tug (using her stern
>towing rollers to keep the tow line out of the damaged bulwark) and the
>first tug released her Orville Hook and came aroung to take the tow from
>the damaged tug.  Somewhere in this process the drydock got caught by
>the freshening breeze and the tow line was overstressed and the doubled
>10 inch nylon spring parted.
>
>This was not a good thing.  We were about two miles from the reef
>drifting at a bit more than two knots on a track that was within a few
>degrees of the reef and it was not obvious whether we would clear of
>not. (even if we cleared the next stop was the Azores).  Anyway after a
>few moments of "I can't believe this is happening to me!", we called in
>the un-damaged tug (the damaged tug now also had the nylon line in its
>screw) and managed to get a wire shackled in to the wire legs of the new
>tow bridle.  This got us away from the reef but we had lost our window
>to get into the channel with enough time to clear the channel before
>dark.  The next three days we spent on the drydock with helicopters
>bringing us food and water while we waited for the weather to calm
>down.  We had winds gusting to 50 knots at one point but because we were
>in the lee of the land the seas were relatively calm.  Finally we were
>able to get tugs and pilots to bring us into port.
>
>I figured we'd spend a couple days helping with re-rigging and then go
>home.  Sorry not to be.  A couple days turned into two weeks of fixing
>one thing after another.  Everytime we thought we had things under
>control we or some expert from the states would find something that
>needed fixing.  Mostly things that should have been done before it was
>towed in the first place. We had to weld up a crack accross the 7/8 inch
>steel deck of one wingwall.  We had to replace nearly one hundred of the
>500 bolts that hold the end sections of the drydock to the center
>section.  We had to weld new towing padeyes.  The new chock we ordered
>ended up in London instead of Bermuda.  The 3 inch wire we ordered (600
>feet of this stuff weighs 10,000 pounds which is enough to break
>standard cargo airplane pallets in case you're wondering) showed up with
>out end fittings so we had to fly in a technician to install poured
>sockets.  There is no marine chemist in Bermuda to gas free tanks so we
>had to import one.  Most of the manholes to access the tanks had
>stripped threads and had to be held in place with welded strongbacks.
>And on and on and on.  All of this on top of the basic job of rigging
>new, stronger towing bridles.
>
>I know you're not feeling sorry for me having to spend two weeks in
>Bermuda, but we worked everyday and didn't get much liberty.  The hotel
>and food however were pretty nice (should be at $190 a night).
>
>The tow home was not my responsibility and I went home after we safely
>towed the dock out past the sea buoy however I did continue to monitor
>the docks progress and all went smoothly until she (we all concluded the
>drydock was definitely a she!) was making her approach to the pier in
>Jax a week later.  I'm told there is a fork in the river just before the
>shipyard to which she was heading  and as the lead tug cast off the tow
>wire the four tugs alongside (not made up with lines) were unable to
>prevent the dock from doing a complete 360 turn as she got caught in the
>current. Had to make one last desparate break for freedom.  Finally she
>was subdued and brought to her I hope final resting place at the
>shipyard.
>
>Sorry if I rambled but this story has so many twists its easy to lose
>focus.  At any rate it was an adventure and mostly fun. Hope you found
>it entertaining.
>
>Phil

David Beierl - Providence, RI
  http://pws.prserv.net/synergy/Vanagon/
'84 Westy "Dutiful Passage"
'85 GL "Poor Relation"