Re floating the cruise ship that ran aground

How would you get it to float again?

I'd secure all of the damages by sealing up any tears or holes on the bottom of the vessel then pump out the water and it should be able to sail away.

 

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Pretty much, except you would probably have to tow it away since the engines are likely damaged by water.

 

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One of the next steps was to remove the fuel anyway, just so it doesn't cause a nice environmental disaster.

 

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Wouldn't the engine compartment have a way to seal itself off so that no water would get into it? Of course if the rocks ripped into it that's a whole other story.

 

If they can even right it to a point of floating again, I doubt they'd try and fire her up. Prolonged time in that position for the engine probably wasn't good for it (some engines aren't designed to be turned sideways or upside down, they depend on gravity), as well as any damage from the crash and exposure to other components that would be needed to run the ship again. Just easier to tow it. But given the size, it might be scrap metal at this point.

 

I'd think not myself. It looks like the vessel is intact and only the holes in the bottom are the main problem. I'd think that with enough welding of temporary seals that they could get the ship upright once again and tow it back to dry dock. The cost to rebuild that ship would be a billion dollars today.

 

Intact would be easier in all aspects, even if it becomes salvage. It'll be weighing how much it costs to strip out everything that's been compromised by salt water. I suppose the bare hull is worthy of saving, but electronics, furnishings, all the interior...that's a project.

 

Yes it is ,ikely they will refloat this ship but it is not likely they will refit it as it is not a new ship and the cost of repairing everything thst would need to be repaired would likely run close to building a new ship. You have to remember that these ships are modualr built which means they build around obejects and then put them together like giant lego blocks so to speak. So the likly hood of this ship ever getting repair is slim at best.

 

Maybe the Scientologists can buy it.

 

They should fill it with ping-pong balls.

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That's the most important consideration at the moment.
It could take a month to get the oil out because it needs heating to become fluid. The boat is on a shelf, so any disturbance could cause it to slip into deeper water.
Fingers crossed that the weather keeps calm for the time it takes to get the oil out.

 

They could also just decommission the vessel and use it as a floating hotel/casino type of attraction somewhere. While it willl take allot to fix the ship I'm sure it wouldn't be as much as building a totally new one as long as the entire ship doesn't sink underwater.


Cunard’s QE2 – RMS Queen Elizabeth II headed to Dubai’s Palm Jumeirah as floating hotel

Gulf News reports that Istithmar, which has bought the QE2 from Cunard for $100 million, will receive the ship in November 2008 and spend several months refurbishing it. The Queen Elizabeth 2 cruise ship will jettison its casino in its conversion into a floating luxury hotel at the Palm Jumeirah Island.

http://ixpats.com/dubai-expats/2007...ed-to-dubais-palm-jumeirah-as-floating-hotel/

 

They are very afraid of the ship falling into deeper water now.

Might it be a good idea to pump liquid gas into the fuel tanks to keep the oil solid? Nitrogen perhaps?

Then they could take longer to re-float the ship, if that is possible.

Just an idea to play with really. Make Sense?

@cosmic
Yes your idea about reusing the ship for other purposes would make sense.
But would people fear being on board for irrational reasons?
Wouldn't bother me that people had died on it,
but gamblers are superstitious creatures.

 

But the waters right next to the ship are 200 feet deep, which still ius shallow enough to work on refloating it. They could just patch up the hull right away and pump out all the water instead of trying to remove the fuel first.

 

200 feet is not an unusual working depth for commercial divers, but nowhere near as easy as the job at present.
It might be colder as well, so the oil would be harder to make flow.
I don't know if the pressure would make much difference.
Let's hope it remains where it is until the oil is off.
Last month there were storms nearly all the time.
Good job it didn't happen then.

I could do without seeing birds covered in oil.
That always makes me feel depressed,
and my winter gloom is just lifting.

These top heavy ships.
Does their design need to be reconsidered?
They have always looked unsafe to the inexpert eye,
but you trust designers to make things safe, don't you?

If it can be proved that one of the causes of this was bad design,
then the payout could be far more than the cost of the ship itself.

 

I don't think design helps when you run them into the rocks. They aren't top heavy anyway, otherwise they wouldn't be sea worthy.

 

You are right that the ships must meet international standards.
They do look top heavy to an inexpert eye, but they must be seaworthy.
Granted.

Still, it should have been capable of running into rocks and still have been able to stay afloat.
At least long enough to get people into lifeboats.
There must be some problem either with the design of the ship, or the response of the Captain.
The sea itself was like a millpond.

The cause of the Titanic disaster was that the ship could not cope with a long tear along the broadside.
Surely this shipwreck 100 years later cannot have been caused by the same reason.

 

Not at all. This newest cruise liner ship wreck was when the captain got to close to the shore causing the ship to hit the rocks that were in shallow water. The Titanic was sunk by a ice berg and it sank very quickly to the bottom of the sea floor over 500 feet down. This vessel sank in less than 50 feet of water and almost all of the passengers were saved. The Titanic lost over half of the passengers when it sank. The tear in the hull of the vessel was similar only that is was long and large but this vessel had better safety features which helped keep the ship afloat so that passengers could escape.

 

For what it's worth, ships this size aren't designed to run in waters this shallow. One report says that she is in 20 feet depth, and needs at least 26 feet draught to float. So what happens when the bottom drags along the seabed? It tips over. Has nothing at all to do with why it was in distress.

Perhaps if the ship had remained in waters it was designed to run in, then it would have stayed upright and made rescue a bit easier. Granted, there's a lot of factors we still have to learn.

 

But people die onboard cruise ships everyday. There's always older people who have a stroke, heart attack of just give out due to old age on those types of ships. So your thinking that gamblers would be "superstitious" wouldn't make sense knowing that many people die onboard many cruise ships already.