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Kursk Finally Lifted

Posted by timothy on from the long-way-back dept.

Michiel writes: "This site, dedicated to the salvage of the Kursk by Mammoet Smit, announced today that the Kursk has been lifted from the seabed and is currently on it's way towards surface. The Giant 4 (which is lifting the Kursk) is at the same time already heading to Murmansk. Mamoet Smit expects to reach Murmansk Monday morning. More information about the Kursk (and its salvage) can be found at Strana" You might to revisit this post about just how the lifting is done as well.

31 of 118 comments (clear)

  1. It's not lifted yet... by wowbagger · · Score: 4, Interesting

    It may be out of the mud at the bottom, but until it is actually on the tender boat, it ain't lifted yet. The cables could snap, the sub could break apart, any number of really bad things could happen.

    I saw that Yahoo (the online service, not the Aussy actor) had made the same mistake.

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    1. Re:It's not lifted yet... by Jburkholder · · Score: 3, Informative

      Lifted, yes. Raised, not yet. The last story on this had a little slideshow on how it was going to go. The sub isn't going to be raised out of the water while at sea at all.

      The plan, IIRC, was to lift the vessel from the bottom to the underside of the Giant 4 which will carry it to port where floats will be attached (submerged, filled with water) and then the floats will be "blown" to raise both the Giant and Kursk higher in the water so that both can sail into a dry-dock. The Giant will then deposit the sub in the dock and sail out. From there you pump out the dry-dock and you can start slavage or whatever.

  2. Another good site... by Ed+Bailey · · Score: 2, Informative

    Try http://www.kursksalvage.com/ for more info and pictures...

    Ed

  3. Wondering.. by tcc · · Score: 3, Interesting

    If the real intentions behind lifting that sub was to get the crew back (at least not abandonning them in the bottom of the sea) or because they were affraid others might get their torpedo technology... makes you wonder...

    If it would have been the first case, why wasn't it done before? If it's the second case, doesn't it sound like "coincidence" that since war is grooming, they didn't want to leave anything that could give an edge to someone else? (not that the taliban have subs but..)

    Makes me wonder... Anyhow, I'm sure it's a "good" thing for the families of the people that got trapped in there, at least they will get a proper ceremony and burial place, that doesn't change much, but if my brother/sister or dad would have been caught in there, it would have made one for me knowing he's not resting undersea (but I'd still be pissed at how much time it took them to do this).

    --
    --- Metamoderating abusive downgraders since my 300th post.
    1. Re:Wondering.. by zyklone · · Score: 5, Insightful

      If they were terribly worried about the torpedo technology they would not have left the torpedo section on the bottom of the sea.

      It was cut off to remove the risk of a second explosion.

    2. Re:Wondering.. by Jburkholder · · Score: 3, Informative

      Exactly. Seems like if your only concern was keeping the weapons tech out of anyone else's hands, you needn't go to the trouble of raising her.

      This is a nuclear sub, right?

      "We have experience of sunken Russian reactors," he added, referring to the Komsomolets nuclear submarine which lies at a depth of 4,500ft off north west Norway.

      The Komsomolets, which sank in 1989 following a fire which killed 42 crewmen, is slowly leaking plutonium, although the depth of the water means it is less of a threat to marine life than the Kursk.

      But Greenpeace says any possibility of radiation leakage was too much, and has demanded the Kursk be raised to the surface as soon as possible rather than just contained as other vessels have been.

      Recovering human remains may be an important part of this mission, but I would think recovering the reactor would be the primary motivation.

    3. Re:Wondering.. by zpengo · · Score: 2
      Makes me wonder... Anyhow, I'm sure it's a "good" thing for the families of the people that got trapped in there, at least they will get a proper ceremony and burial place...

      What better and more proper burial for a sailor than in his ship at the bottom of the sea? More appropriate there than in a wooden box in a pile of dirt somewhere...

      --


      Got Rhinos?
    4. Re:Wondering.. by seanmeister · · Score: 2
      What better and more proper burial for a sailor than in his ship at the bottom of the sea?


      Speaking as a former sailor, I can tell you that not all of them would agree with you. For many sailors, it is "just a job", and they'd much rather be buried on dry land, by their families.

    5. Re:Wondering.. by markmoss · · Score: 2

      [Wondering if] they were affraid others might get their torpedo technology. It's not likely that any secret torpedo technology survived what seems to have accidental torpedo detonations in the bow torpedo room. (Are the Russians still implying it might have been something else, like a torpedo fired _at_ the Kursk that just happened to hit it in the torpedo tubes? Anyhow, it looks pretty clear that the first bang set off at least one warhead, and those contain over a ton of high explosive.) Take a big heavy steel tube with the ends closed, put several one-ton+ bombs _inside_ one end, set off one of them, and what do you think is going to be left of the equipment attached to those bombs?

      Anyway, that part of the ship was cut off and left on the ocean bottom. But if the Russians are really paranoid, lifting the rest of the sub (especially the reactor) makes it safe to stack up more high explosive to smash anything that's left and spread the fragments around -- like blasting a jigsaw puzzle over several square miles...

      doesn't it sound like "coincidence" that since war is grooming? This has been many months in the planning and preparation, since long before Sept 11. Even if the dutchmen had the right equipment and team sitting around ready to go, it would take more than a month to get it into position, do the undersea cutting, and hook up the cables. And before then they had to do months of work to customize their "Giant 4" pontoon by cutting a hole in the middle to take the conning tower. So the Russians had to have made a down payment (at least) several months ago -- assuming that the dutchment did six months or so of planning merely in hopes of getting a contract...

    6. Re:Wondering.. by banuaba · · Score: 2

      The Kursk was a nuc. I don't think that anyone, even the russians, want a nuclear reactor sitting there at the bottom of the ocean, slowly rusting through. The torpedos were left there, and the sea has always been a fitting and honorable burial place for dead sailors.

      --


      Brant

      Argle. Bargle.
  4. Videos by mnordstr · · Score: 5, Informative

    Check out the videos. They are really awesome.

    1. Re:Videos by zpengo · · Score: 2
      Check out the videos [koersksalvage.com]. They are really awesome.

      You think that's awesome, check out the tech specs.

      --


      Got Rhinos?
  5. BBC Coverage by pallotta · · Score: 3, Informative

    The BBC has some good info on the practical aspects of the operation.

    Low-tech, but still nice.

  6. Olive will be happy! by gosand · · Score: 5, Funny
    Ay, the kursk has been lifted, eh? That'll teachk me to eats me spinach and go punckin mummies. I needs to go find Olive Oyl, I tolds her it didn't happen to every guy, that I was kursked.

    --

    My beliefs do not require that you agree with them.

  7. more information by Orlando · · Score: 3, Informative

    Mammoet's site on the salvage which has some nice simulations and technical details of the lifting mechanisms. also slightly OT but interesting none the less is information on the building of Mammoet's new office (flash), a 10 storey steel and concrete building that will be built off site, and transported lock stock to it's final resting place by canal. these guys don't do things by half measures!

    --
    -= This is a self-referential sig =-
  8. Hmm... by RareHeintz · · Score: 3, Interesting
    Are the Dutch members of NATO? Just curious... I mean, even a few pictures of the interior (bridge, sonar room, engine spaces, etc.) could be a major intelligence win if one were of that disposition.



    OK,

    - B

    --
    http://www.bradheintz.com/
    - updated
    1. Re:Hmm... by powerlord · · Score: 2

      Actually I remember hearing talk of Russia possibly joining NATO (talk about changing times). Anyone else hear anything about this? (or any progress that has been made?)

      --
      This space for rent. All reasonable inquiries will be entertained at proprietors discretion.
    2. Re:Hmm... by Galvatron · · Score: 3, Informative

      There were some preliminary talks about them joining NATO or the EU (forgotten which) but these broke down when NATO started bombing Yugoslavia. The majority of the Russian population is Slavic, and so they have historically protected the Slavs in the Balkans. That's how WWI started, when A-H wanted to retaliate against Serbia, Russia stepped in to defend the Slavs (so Germany supported A-H by attacking France, an ally of Russia, in a pre-emptive strike, and the rest is history).

      --
      "The question of whether a computer can think is no more interesting than that of whether a submarine can swim" -EWD
    3. Re:Hmm... by snake_dad · · Score: 2
      Are the Dutch members of NATO?

      Yes. Dutch aircraft (IIRC, from the squadron where I served, 323 sqn) also took part in the operations in the Balkan a couple of years ago. Check the official NATO site.

      --
      karma capped .sig seeking available Slashdot poster for long-term relationship.
    4. Re:Hmm... by hughk · · Score: 2, Informative
      The Dutch are in NATO. There are a lot of divers with North Sea experience on the team including British and American as well. I know that several British commercial divers from the North Sea got their training in the Royal Navy.

      However, only Russians are allowed inside. The retrieval of the crewmens' bodies earlier was by Russian divers only.

      I don't know how this works about the bow section though. This would have been cut from outside but it is inevitable that a lot of information could have been gathered by divers after the bows were removed. Even just looking at the hull cross section would have been interesting (sound damping, etc.).

      --
      See my journal, I write things there
  9. nit pick by Alien54 · · Score: 2
    First they lift it, then they secure it, they they transport it.

    They are not securing while they are transporting it Murmansk.

    As it say if you dig into it a bit:

    The Kursk was hoisted under the Giant 4 at 17.30 hours Dutch time. Transport to Murmansk at a speed of four nautical miles per hour will commence within two hours of the Kursk being firmly secured to the pontoon. The Giant is expected to arrive at Murmansk with the Kursk on Wednesday
    a nit pick on how the story was originally posted. but it is sort of important.

    Thank God they got it up before the Winter Ice closed in.

    --
    "It is a greater offense to steal men's labor, than their clothes"
  10. Say that five times fast by sharkey · · Score: 3, Funny

    Murmansk Monday morning

    --

    --
    "Outlook not so good." That magic 8-ball knows everything! I'll ask about Exchange Server next.
  11. REALLY NICE VRML simulation of lifting by jgaynor · · Score: 4, Informative

    Got this from the strana site -

    Theres a really well done VRML simulation of how it was all done. Its really just a series of still environment snapshots from various stages of the salvage operation but someone took ALOT of time on it. Good job -

    http://www.parallelgraphics.com/vrml/kursk/index.h tml?eng

    I usually dismiss VRML as crappy and slow but Im really impressed with this one.

  12. Perhaps more interesting... by Durandel1020 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The torpedoes on the submarine are at least as interesting then the recovery effort. Quite remarkable actually, of course if they dont explode before launch that is. :)

    Here is a very good article about them
    For the goatse.cx weary...

    http://www.janes.com/defence/naval_forces/news/j dw /jdw010910_6_n.shtml

    1. Re:Perhaps more interesting... by darkwhite · · Score: 3, Informative

      You've confused Granit with Shkval.

      What you've linked to are the Granit anti-ship cruise missiles. Those are the vertically-launched ramjet missiles, taken to ramjet speeds by a booster, and capable (or so the military says) of flying under the radar height in formation, then one rises up, turns its radar on, and dispatches the targets to others. Those are supposed to be capable of taking out an entire aircraft carrier battle group.

      What possibly sank Kursk are the Shkval torpedoes - the supercavitating supersonic torpedoes that use jet propulsion and swim in a straight line to their target.

      Both are supposed to be the most advanced missile and torpedo technologies in use by Russians, both have not been fully tested.

      --

      [an error occurred while processing this directive]
  13. Is it a keeper? by loosenut · · Score: 2, Informative

    10-9-01

    After 10 hours of pulling cables, the Kursk has finally been brought to the surface. Russian inspectors onboard the Giant 4 entered the sub, and returned five minutes later. After a brief announcement that "all the vodka rations had been destroyed", the Kurst was dropped back into the Barents Sea.

  14. Discovery Channel Show by flewp · · Score: 2, Informative

    I believe the Discovery channel is having a show on the raising of the Kursk. Unfortunatly, I cannot connect to their website at the moment to find out what time and what day it will be aired. Anybody know when the show might air?

    --
    WWJD.... for a Klondike bar?
  15. WHOA. by joshwa · · Score: 2

    It's not just a series of still environment shapshots at all! If you click on one of the actions, then click play, you can watch the raising (and any of the preliminary actions) from several different views!

  16. The US tried this in 1974 by Decimal+Dave · · Score: 2, Interesting

    This reminds me of a CIA operation from the early 70's where the US built a specialized ship to raise a sunken Soviet nulear submarine from the bottom of the Pacific. I only hope that the Kursk lifting device is slightly more reliable, as the Glomar Explorer's "claw" kind of fell apart midway through the raising.

    --

    "Leave the strategizing to those of us with planet-sized brains." -Tycho
  17. Re:Nostradamus on kursk by Skip666Kent · · Score: 2

    The quatrains of Nostradamus are a backwards-looking Rorschach test for the magical-thinking paranoid child in all of us. I say backwards-looking because the 'meanings' of his quatrains can only be 'divined' after some event has been found that seems, to one degree or another, to 'fit' a given quatrain (usually after quite a bit of linguistic hammering, duct-tape and misdirection).

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    **>>BELCH
  18. Weird site aliases.... by driehuis · · Score: 2
    I missed the smily on the parent, so let me make the obvious point: kursksalvage.com is the same site as koersksalvage.com.

    It's totally beyond me why Smit Tak registered the latter. It doesn't make sense in Dutch, it doesn't make sense in English.

    --

    Bert Driehuis -- All I asked was a friggin' rotatin' chair. Throw me a bone here, people.