She is coming up.
Funds have been raised to lift the Säntis from her watery grave and Switzerland will have a new attraction.
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Neat. It sounds like they’re solving some interesting engineering issues with this salvage. I just did a cursory read of the site and couldn’t find the reason for DS Santis’ sinking. Do you know?
It was outdated, and would have cost more to scrap than to sink.
Not certain why this would be attractive to tourists. Particularly as there are still a number of similar boats still plying Swiss lakes.
Well the DS Rigi from, I think 1850, draws visitors to the Verkehrshaus in Luzern. So why should the Säntis not do the same in her role as a museum ship.
Although I have to admit the Rigi is a sleek eye watering beauty.
The ship was intentionally sunk as she was no longer fit for purpose.
There’s a long history behind using lakes and seas for waste disposal.
And that is one of the reasons it has to be raised now, because in (if memory serves) after 2035 a law engages where nothing can be brought up again.
That includes munitions, ships, aircraft, anything that could cause contamination, or anything that has or could have a historical or cultural value has to be retrieved from lakes and rivers or it will remain underwater for ever.
You’ll be interested in this recent-ish animation of the recovery process. It starts on the 18th.
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Yeah, I watched that and was surprised that they are going to let it go back down to 12 meters before the final lift. I would have expected it to be done in one go.
I imagine its much safer close to shore in 12m of water, in case anything goes wrong. Due to buoyancy, the ship becomes relatively 13% heavier when exiting the water, plus the weight of the water stuck in the ship above waterline until it can empty out, which might in turn cause the hull to roll uncontrollably. They dont want to have to go back down to 200m if they have a bad day.
I figure it’s very much a matter of stability. All in one go would require that the balloons be on the side of the hull (like they plan for phase 16), that would lower the center of gravity and reduce stability. Provided the ship is stong enough to bear the load in the first place. Keep in mind that they don’t really know what to expect, how strong hull and keel still are, until after it’s out of the ground (that’ll be why the lifting is designed to stop immediately after).
Also, they need to assume that not all water contained will flow off if out of the water until after they’ve made sure it does.
I find it fascinating just how well artifacts remain intact in lakes. Low oxygen content and darkness preserve these things very well indeed.
There are a load of ships in the great lakes that look as if they sank yesterday and there are even wrecks with the crew still on board.
The tragic tale of the SS Kamloops is worth a read up. German aircraft lifted from Norwegen fjords looking like they could just be filled up with gas, had an oil change and flown out again.
Or one of my favorites; the wreck of a Hellenic trading ship found in 2000 meters in the Black sea, 2500 years old and perfectly preserved. What is so fascinating is that it looks exactly like the ships shown on ancient vases.
Or the Vasa, I saw it first in the eighties as it was being preserved and a few years back in the museum. I´t worth visiting Stockholm just to see the Vasa.
For a few years, there was a market for steel from battleships sunk prior to nuclear testing, as the steel did not have the higher background radiation from steel made after the nuclear age.
Low Background steel, cast before the first atomic bombs were set off. Steel produced after 1945 was contaminated by radiation.
By now however since the end of atmospheric testing radiation levels in the atmosphere are back to natural levels and the only reason war graves are now being desecrated is for the scrap value on the Chinese market.
Sadly the first attempt to raise the Säntis failed. One of the cables got entangled on deck and could not be pushed under the hull.
Not sure when they are going for the second attempt.
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This weekend, make it or break it.
Pretty excited about this new attempt.
…they broke it. The lifting platform sank uncontrolled onto the wreck after something broke.
And, as they say, that was that. The Säntis will remain where it is for ever.
Prize money for theories on how to retrieve tons of ammo in the lakes…
That’s nothing:
In the UK, at the mouth of the river Thames:
The wreck of the SS Richard Montgomery remains on the sandbank where she sank in 1944. The wreck lies across the tide close to the Medway Approach Channel and her masts are clearly visible above the water at all states of the tide. There are still approximately 1,400 tons of explosives contained within the forward holds.
If it blew up, and there is sill danger of that if the rusting masts (seen in the photo) collapse onto the holds where the explosives were stored, it would be one of the world’s biggest non-nuclear explosions.
There has been speculation of a tidal wave reaching London.
Our ship would pass that every trip out from the UK and it always gave us the heeby-jeebies.
I think they have removed the masts to stop them from collapsing onto the wreck and causing the ordnance to “high order”
But even so the thousands and thousands of tons of dumped ordinance in the seas is causing trouble.
Explosives, chemical and biological weapons. Nuclear waste. All the nasty stuff you can think of got dumped at sea.
Beaufort’s Dyke in the Irish channel for instance is another looming nightmare.
What where they thinking?