Yes, I heard its the largest vessel to ever be parbuckled. Also, let's not ignore the fact that there were very significant engineering and project planning costs here.
"In an unprecedented and painstaking process that involved massive pulleys, cables and steel tanks, the 500-person salvage crew from 26 countries rolled the 114,000-ton vessel off the rocks on which it had rested since it ran aground."
My ex's uncle was in charge of the search for the Thresher. Interesting guy, he died about 12 years ago.
http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/sh-usn/usnsh-t/ssn593-k.htm
mad_machine wrote: I realize this ranks me up there would being a sick pup... but I would have -loved- to have been on the cruise. Talk about the adventure of a lifetime. I would be the guy being interviewed who raved about certain members of the crew rather than whining about how my vacation was ruined.
And now we know the mad in mad_machine is for crazy mad, not angry mad. 
In reply to alfadriver:
It's mind-boggling to think how big modern cruise ships are, huh? Yeah, I think you are right, this will be the single largest ship. Overall tonnage/complexity was probably higher for Scapa Flow and Pearl, but no single ship was as big. I wonder how expensive Kursk was?
In reply to Javelin:
It's more mind boggling to consider that the Costa Concordia is half the size of the biggest cruise ships. Having been on both of them, it makes me shudder to think what it would take to recover them.
As for the Kursk, remember that Howard Huges' company was involved. Totally insane. And by that I mean the creativity of that company to even attempt that. For someone to think it was possible, design the idea, and then talk someone in the CIA that this was a great idea... geez . No wonder most of their budget is classified. And it almost worked.
In reply to alfadriver:
That was the K-129. The Kursk was the modern nuclear one that Russia themselves brought back up.
nocones wrote: I went to the Satellite view of the island and can't believe how close to the shore it is. The captian would have had to make one hell of a turn to not plow right into the other side of the harbor. It's funny that the ship looks in the satellite view like a separate island near the island.
Once he realized she was going down, he ran her aground (probably the only good decision he made). Probably saved a lot of lives doing that. That is why it is so close to shore.
NGTD wrote:nocones wrote: I went to the Satellite view of the island and can't believe how close to the shore it is. The captian would have had to make one hell of a turn to not plow right into the other side of the harbor. It's funny that the ship looks in the satellite view like a separate island near the island.Once he realized she was going down, he ran her aground (probably the only good decision he made). Probably saved a lot of lives doing that. That is why it is so close to shore.
I thought he took it to sea, and once the power all died, the ship (thankfully) blew/drifted back to shore. The orignal gash was on the port side, and when it drifted back to where it stayed- it flipped from one side to the other.
Had it just gone out to sea, the list would have capsized the ship in much deeper water, and there was already a delay to use the life rafts that the starboard side could not be lowered. Massive mess.
Have to check my cruise boards for the whole story.
In reply to NGTD:
The wiki page has the timeline a inbetween:
Gash flooded engine room, the whole ship post all power, so it could not move on it's own- it drifted.
BUT it could steer, so as it went past the island, the captain did steer it back to drift into the island. So "by means of intertia and the rudder" it moved.
Adrian_Thompson wrote: It's not just the man hours. They have to amortize the cost of a lot of very, very, (let me add another couple of very's there) expensive equipment that only gets used a few times a decade at most.
Reminds me of a visit to a friend's dad's tow shop.
Big by huge by ENORMOUS garage full of specialty trucks. Giant tow trucks for grabbing the front wheels of a semi and dragging it and trailer. Mobile cranes of all manner of grotesque design. Weird stuff I couldn't even identify. Probably $5 million easily in hardware, most of which probably only gets used once or twice a year at the very best, given the amount of dust on them.
Next time you see a tractor-trailer accident where they have to yank it up off of a bridge or other unusual situation, think about how much the tow company has to charge to make it worthwhile to keep that hardware around.
Time lapse raising.
http://www.cnbc.com/id/101042973?__source=yahoo|finance|headline|headline|story&par=yahoo&doc=101042973|Time-lapse:%20Raising%20the%20C
Venturi Effect on a bigass ball valve. The initial water intake was from a silver solder failure.
Curmudgeon wrote: My ex's uncle was in charge of the search for the *Thresher.* Interesting guy, he died about 12 years ago. http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/sh-usn/usnsh-t/ssn593-k.htm
So when are the going to refloat this thing?
can't find a good estimate of the time, but I would expect a few months of fabrication before it has enough flotation to make the journey.
Rooms are booking now for the next cruise, starboard side WAY cheaper than port, but try to get on the upper decks!
Better video. If it were not on the rocks, would it have sunk?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JK-2ly-1chI&feature=youtu.be
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