The USS the Sullivans is Sinking (and I don’t want to swim)

PetermansRedemption · April 16, 2022

Not sure of the outcome here. Even if they can get her repaired with patch, it’s a band aid solution. Needs a long term solution that the naval park will likely never be able to afford. Something like an 8 million dollar coffer(spelling?) dam. Or a dry dock for the ships to be moored. It’s a feat of engineering they have survived this long given the brutal weather they endure.

Nextmanup · April 16, 2022

35 minutes ago, PetermansRedemption said:

Not sure of the outcome here. Even if they can get her repaired with patch, it’s a band aid solution. Needs a long term solution that the naval park will likely never be able to afford. Something like an 8 million dollar coffer(spelling?) dam. Or a dry dock for the ships to be moored. It’s a feat of engineering they have survived this long given the brutal weather they endure.

Good point. The long term solution here is to simply get rid of the ship.

If past Navy practice is anything to go by, they will make it floatable, tow it to a deep part of the lake, and sink it!

If it's rotting from within I'm not even sure it makes sense to strip it down for scrap metal.

ExiledInIllinois · April 16, 2022

5 hours ago, PetermansRedemption said:

Not sure of the outcome here. Even if they can get her repaired with patch, it’s a band aid solution. Needs a long term solution that the naval park will likely never be able to afford. Something like an 8 million dollar coffer(spelling?) dam. Or a dry dock for the ships to be moored. It’s a feat of engineering they have survived this long given the brutal weather they endure.

Tack it onto the infrastructure bill!

4 hours ago, Nextmanup said:

Good point. The long term solution here is to simply get rid of the ship.

If past Navy practice is anything to go by, they will make it floatable, tow it to a deep part of the lake, and sink it!

If it's rotting from within I'm not even sure it makes sense to strip it down for scrap metal.

Make it a reef for fish. In the Corps we had a hopper dredge in Buffalo District... It was the "Markham"....It's now a reef, structure off of the North Carolina coast.

https://www.dredgingtoday.com/2015/03/09/brief-history-of-tshd-markham/

PS: @BringBackFergy @Beerball @Mike in Horseheads @Gugny...

Did you know there was a publication out there called: DredgingToday.com

Man... They got everything! 😉

PetermansRedemption · April 16, 2022

I was shocking to find out the hull of the Sullivans is only 3/8 of an inch thick. That seems an unbelievable number. I assume to keep her light enough to maneuver, but man, one bullet probably could have had the power to sink her back in the war.

ExiledInIllinois · April 16, 2022

58 minutes ago, PetermansRedemption said:

I was shocking to find out the hull of the Sullivans is only 3/8 of an inch thick. That seems an unbelievable number. I assume to keep her light enough to maneuver, but man, one bullet probably could have had the power to sink her back in the war.

Not quite. They could isolate things. There's water tight hatches, doors through bulkhead compartments.

Back in the early 1980s... We camped out on Little Rock for a weekend. We scoured every inch of The Sullivans, opened every hatch, door, went through every bulkhead...etc... Giant hide and seek game! Boy were our leaders and the Naval Park staff (did they even have staff back then) mad as hell... Boy did we get chewed out!

I think we had a campout the following year and they began to rope areas off! 😆

Besides Philmont 2 times, Algonquin/ADK park canoe trips every year... That Little Rock/Sullivans campout ranks up there!

I am dating myself at 54 years old. This was the entertainment of the year on that Little Rock outing when the lights went out!

Mine had the new pass feature! 😆