Buffalo Naval Park: Refloat operation for USS The Sullivans continues

[SVPete]

Buffalo Naval Park: Refloat operation for USS The Sullivans continues

https://www.wgrz.com/article/news/local/refloat-operation-for-uss-the-sullivans-continues-buffalo-and-erie-county-naval-military-park/71-d79acf14-4565-47da-b45e-95005ddb2c06

Sixteen days ago the hull of The Sullivans was breached and the historic World War II ship started taking on water. The Sullivans could be seen listing on the shore of Lake Erie. The dramatic scene has caused onlookers to flock down to the waterfront to get a look.

Coast Guard Buffalo Sector Captain Lexia Littlejohn says at this time the emergency refloat operation is going well, adding that the list of the ship has significantly improved. According to Littlejohn, a number of holes have been plugged; however, work is far from over.

"Thirty-three holes were plugged, with wooden plugs. A number of additional holes were repaired with Marine-grade epoxy. That has enabled us to be able to conduct the re-float operation," she said.

For some history of the ship, https://www.hazegray.org/danfs/destroy/dd537txt.htm.

[Eupher]

I've been somewhat following this story as well.

About 3-4 days ago or so, they put out a video that explains how they plug holes. Yeah, the ship is literally rusting away but as I understand it, the amount of water the ship was taking in was being handled by more than a few pumps - the only problem was, the power went out and the pumps stopped working. I believe at her worst, she was at a 30+ degree list toward starboard. The last video I saw, they were saying that the list was corrected to about 15 degrees. They had to test their pumps and were finishing that part of the operation when they were going to coordinate their pumps such that the entire ship would rise (I believe the aft end of the ship was touching the river bottom) more or less at one time.

[Eupher]

A very interesting video by Shane at the Buffalo Naval Park, explaining the aft end of the ship and why the transom section of the ship was flooded back in 2002 - to compensate for the removal of her propellers. Shane was concerned that the flooded section of the ship's transom had degraded to the point where additional holes had developed. They take a camera down into the bowels and inspect. It's a good look at that section of the ship.

The upshot is, the list is now corrected to something like 5 degrees toward starboard and getting better with the additional pumping. They are very enthused about the progress so far.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NwFplyFKlPE