Today's word: Parbuckling
A variety of marine salvage. Righting a sunken vessel by using leverage to rotate it.
The sunken cruise ship -- the MS Costa Concordia -- is being parbuckled today.
Wikipedia has the definition:
Parbuckle salvage
Reuters
has the story:
Engineers start Costa Concordia salvage off Italian island
Engineering teams on the Italian island of Giglio began lifting the wrecked Costa Concordia liner upright on Monday in one of the most complex and costly maritime salvage operations ever attempted.
The vast hulk of the 114,500-tonne cruise liner has lain on its side for more than 20 months, dominating the tiny port in the Tuscan holiday island where it ran aground and capsized on January 13, 2012, killing 32 people.
After a three-hour delay caused by an overnight storm which interrupted final preparations, salvage crews started the so-called "parbuckling" operation at around 9.00 a.m. (0300 ET).
The first signs the wreck was shifting were registered at around midday as underwater cameras recorded water swirling in the area where the metal was resting on the sea bed.
"It's all quite within projections, both in terms of measurements and the way the wreck's behaving," Sergio Girotto, project manager for contractors Micoperi, told reporters.
A bit more:
At a cost estimated so far at more than 600 million euros ($795 million), it is expected to be the most expensive maritime wreck recovery ever, accounting for more than half of an overall insurance loss of more than $1.1 billion.
Yikes -- the whole ship only cost $570 million USD when she was handed over in 2006. Memo to self -- do not stray from the route, even if people are waving from shore.
Posted by DaveH at September 16, 2013 10:08 AM