Yesterday, Monday, salvage experts commenced the operation to refloat the partially sunken hull of the cruise ship COSTA CONCORDIA which has been laying on its side for twenty months on an island off Italy. The vessel weighs 114,000 tons and the process being utilized is called "parbuckling" which was also used to refloat the USS OKLAHOMA after Pearl Harbor. After fifteen painstaking hours they had her partially upright where ballast tanks would further assist. The plan is to have her anchored on a man made seabed for towing in the spring to be scrapped. There is worldwide interest in this engineering feat and of particular local interest as the Titan Salvage partners involved are a subsidiary of Crowley Maritime Corp. my former employer. Global media are covering this and it is worthwhile following.
tjs
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/16/costa-concordia-salvage-operation_n_3933227.html
I'm following the rescue operations, which many of my friends believed would be impossible to achieve. I'm proud to be an ex-Crowley employee.
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