Parbuckle Salvage

Parbuckle salvage, or ''parbuckling'', is the righting of a sunken vessel using rotational leverage. A common operation with smaller watercraft, parbuckling is also employed to right large vessels. In 1943, the was rotated nearly 180 degrees to upright after being sunk in the attack on Pearl Harbor, and the Italian cruise ship ''Costa Concordia'' was successfully parbuckled off the west coast of Italy in September 2013, the largest salvage operation of that kind to date.

Mechanical advantage and difficulties

While the mechanical advantage used by a laborer to parbuckle a cask up an incline is 2:1, parbuckling salvage is not so limited. Each of the 21 winches used to roll the ''Oklahoma'' used cables that passed through two 17-part tackle assemblies (17:1 advantage). Eight diameter sheaves, eight diameter sheaves, and one diameter sheave comprised just half the mechanical effort.

A major concern during salvage is preventing rotational torque from becoming a transverse force moving the ship sideways. , lost like the ''Oklahoma'' in the Pearl Harbor attack, was meant to be recovered by a similar rotation after the ''Oklahoma.'' As the ''Utah'' was rotated, however, its hull did not catch on the harbor bottom, and the vessel slid toward Ford Island. The ''Utah'' recovery effort was abandoned.

Righting of ''Oklahoma''

''Oklahoma'' weighed about . Twenty-one electric winches were installed on Ford Island, anchored in concrete foundations. They operated in unison. Each winch pulled about by a wire operated through a block system which gave an advantage of seventeen, for a total pull of 21×20×17, or . In order to increase the leverage, the wire passed over a wooden strut arrangement (a '' bent'') which stood on the bottom of the ship about high.

Oil had been removed from the ship through the bottom. The ship was lightened by air inside the hull. There was a large amount of weight in the ship which may have been removed prior to righting, but not all could be accessed. About one-third of the ammunition was taken off together with some of the machinery. The blades of the two propellers were also taken off, but more to avoid damage to them than to reduce weight.

Tests were made to check whether restraining forces should be used to prevent sliding toward Ford Island. It was indicated that the soil under the aft part of the ship prevented sliding, whereas the bow section rested in soupy mud which permitted it. To prevent sliding, about 2200 tons of coral soil were deposited near the bow section. During righting, excess soil under the starboard side was washed away by high-pressure jets operated by divers.

The ship rolled as it should have and was right-side up by 16 June 1943, the work having started 8 March 1943. The mean draft of the ship after righting was c. .

Righting of ''Costa Concordia''

Following its capsizing and sinking in January 2012, the hull of ''Costa Concordia'' lay starboard side to the seaward face of a small outcropping very near the mouth of the harbor of Giglio, Italy, resting precariously on the incline to deeper water. To right the vessel, four key pieces of apparatus were required:
* a "holdback" system of chains attached to the island on one end and the hull on the other to ensure ''Costa Concordia'' rolled in place;
* a man-made ledge inserted into the island face to provide a landing surface for the vessel;
* a series of sponsons attached to the hull's port side so as, when flooded, to increase the torque on the hull and to unburden the strand jacks;
* an arrangement of cables rising from the edge of the ledge over the sponsons on the port side of the hull.
Tensioning the cables started the roll of the ship. At about the halfway-to-vertical position the sponsons were filled with seawater, and ''Costa Concordia'' completed its roll to upright upon the ledge. The hull was rotated 65 degrees to become vertical.

Parbuckling was accomplished in three phases:
#Freeing the hull
#Phase of rotation using cables
#Rotation by ballasting with sponsons
At the completion of parbuckling, ''Costa Concordia'' rested on the ledge at a depth of .

Holdback system

The holdback system consisted of 56 chains in total, of which 22 chains were attached to the port side to go under the hull to the island. Each chain was long and weighed about . Each link weighed .

Ledge

The ledge was part steel and part grout. There were six steel platforms. The three larger platforms measured each; the three smaller platforms measured each. The 6 platforms were supported by 21 pillars of diameter each and plunged for an average of in the granite sea face of Giglio. The grout filled the space between the land side of the platforms and the sea bed. It totaled 1,180 individual bags with a volume of over and over in weight. The grout bags contained an "ecofriendly cement," and were built with eyelets to aid post-recovery cleanup.

Sponsons

Eleven steel sponsons were installed on the port side of the hull: two long horizontal sponsons; two long vertical sponsons and seven short vertical sponsons.
*Each long horizontal sponson
**measured ,
**weighed about ,
**provided of buoyancy.
*Each long vertical sponson
**measured ,
**weighed of about ,
**provided about of buoyancy.
*Each short vertical sponson
**measured ,
**weighed about ,
**provided about of buoyancy.
Two steel "blister" tanks were connected together at the hull's bow. They measured in length, in height each, and had a total breadth of about . The whole blister structure (the two blister tanks, the tubular frame and the three anchor pipes) weighed about . They provided a net buoyancy of to the bow section.

Cables

The cable system provided a force of about to start the ''Costa Concordia's'' rotation.

Phase 1 – freeing the hull

The hull of ''Costa Concordia'' rested on two spurs of rock, and was severely deformed from the weight of the ship pressing down on the spurs. This phase began when the strand jacks exerted force and the ship started to return to an upright position. This was "without doubt one of the most delicate phases of the entire recovery plan."

Phase 2 – rotation using cables

This phase began when the hull lifted from the seabed. Rotation continued by tensioning the cables operated by the strand jacks, and continued until the sponson water intakes reached sea level.

Phase 3 – rotation by ballasting with sponsons

The hull continued to rotate, pulled down by the weight of seawater added to the sponsons. The strand jacks and cables went slack. Redundant systems were designed as a guard against failure. For example, two seawater inlet valves were provided to each sponson.

List of parbuckle-salvaged vessels

*
*
*
*
*
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* MS ''Herald of Free Enterprise''
*
*MV '' Janra''
*MV '' Repubblica di Genova''
* MSC ''Napoli'''s separated stern section
*Barge ''Larvik Rock''
*Fishing trawler ''Nieuwpoort 28''
*Fishing vessel '' Sandy Point''
* MS ''Costa Concordia''
* Jackup work barge ''Sep Orion''

References

External links

*
Pearl Harbor Raid, 7 December 1941 Salvage of USS ''Oklahoma'', 1942–44Salvage of the battleship USS ''Oklahoma'' following the attack on Pearl Harbor 1942–46The Parbuckling Project: ''Concordia'' wreck removal project informative website
*{{YouTube, nVxWhQVUaoI, The salvage of the ''Herald of Free Enterprise'', March 6, 1987

Marine engineering
Marine salvage
Rotation