This page of Houston Maritime Museum’s blog will be dedicated to articles and issues happing in the maritime community. We will post interesting stories or articles we may come across for your reading pleasure.
Week of: 7-12-2010 /7-18-2010
Skimmers Mass at Gulf Oil Spill Well Site
The Unified Area Command announced Sunday that the skimmer fleet supporting the Deepwater Horizon Response Operations doubled the volume of oil skimmed near the well site Saturday. The skimming armada capitalized on good weather conditions and surged to the site to confront the anticipated increased oil flow from the current operation to remove the top cap and install the capping stack. The skimmers were able to skim an estimated 25,500 barrels of oily water Saturday, doubling the amount collected the previous day.
“As BP transitions to the new cap, we have massed our best skimming forces at the source of the oil, 40 miles offshore,” said Rear Adm. James Watson, Federal On Scene Coordinator for the Deepwater Hoizon Response. “The skimmers join a total force of 65 vessels that are supporting an effort to kill the well and collect the oil offshore before it hits the beaches and marshes. This represents the world’s largest collection of skimmers located in one area. These are a very important few days and we will continue to work around the clock and use everything at our disposal to mitigate the oil’s impacts.”
Currently 46 skimmers are operating at the well site, where crews continue to work around the clock to place a new capping stack on the blowout preventer to contain the oil. The skimmer force working at the well site is part of the fleet of more than 570 skimmers conducting the largest oil spill response in U.S. history.
Controlled burn task forces operating in a wider band around the source were able to conduct 15 controlled burns Saturday, further assisting the skimmer fleet and the Q4000 containment vessel in mitigating the additional flow from subsea operations.
| “Skimmers Mass at Gulf Oil Spill Well Site.” Marine Link. 1.0. Marine Link, 13 July 2010. Web. 13 July 2010. <http://www.marinelink.com/news/deliver-trains-unique334750.aspx>. | ||
Week of: 7-5-2010/ 7-11-2010
Unique MSC Ship Trains to Deliver Fuel
(U.S. Navy photo by Ed Baxter, Sealift Logistics Command Far East)
The crew of Military Sealift Command (MSC) offshore petroleum distribution system ship MV Vice Adm. K.R. Wheeler trained recently to do something that no other ship in the world can do: pump fuel to shore from a tanker as far as eight miles out to sea. The training took place June 21-26 off the coast of Pohang, Republic of Korea, and gave the ship’s crew, operators and shoreside support personnel an opportunity to practice the first and final phases of a complex evolution that allows the unique, MSC-chartered Wheeler to quickly and efficiently deliver fuel to soldiers and Marines operating ashore where port facilities are inadequate or non-existent.
The 349-foot long ship is designed to operate as an at-sea pumping station, receiving fuel pumped to it from a commercial or military tanker at sea, and in turn, pumping that fuel to shore. The exercise provided an opportunity to practice deploying and re-deploying the eight miles of yellow, flexible pipe that Wheeler carries aboard its weatherdeck wrapped around five, 35-ft.-tall spools. No liquid was pumped during the training exercise.
“Our units have never supported Wheeler or a mission like this before,” said Navy Lt. Sal Lopez of MSC’s Fort Worth, Texas-based Expeditionary Port Unit 113, one of the two MSC Reserve units participating in the exercise. “This is a great opportunity to train in something completely new.” Sailors from EPU 109, which is based in Jacksonville, Fla., also participated.
The first step in getting the pipe to shore was to run a line between Wheeler and the beach that would serve as a guide for the pipe. Upon arrival June 21, Wheeler’s crew launched one of the ship’s two, 45-ft. amphibious watercraft, called a LARC, and positioned on the beach to serve as the shoreside anchor for that guiding line. The next day, the line was taken to shore in one of Wheeler’s small boats and secured to the LARC’s winch. The other end of the line was then secured to the pipe still aboard Wheeler and the LARC used its winch to bring in about 3,000 feet of Wheeler’s pipe onto the beach where the pipe was attached to a receiving device called a beach terminal unit that delivers fuel to nearby storage facilities and is stored aboard Wheeler. Over the next three days, Wheeler steadily deployed its pipe to shore at a rate of approximately 60 feet per minute. At the same time, the ship slowly moved forward at a speed less than one knot as the pipe was deployed to the seabed in about 70-100 feet of water.
By the afternoon of June 24, all eight miles of the pipe had been deployed and Wheeler immediately began to retrieve the pipe. By June 26, the entire pipe was back on board the ship. In a real world scenario, Wheeler’s crew can run the full length of pipe ashore, run a float hose to a tanker and be ready to pump fuel at a rate of about 1,400 gallons per minute – up to 1.7 million gallons in 20 hours.
“Unique MSC Ship Trains to Deliver Fuel.” Marine Link. 1.0. Marine Link, 1 July 2010. Web. 8 July 2010. <http://www.marinelink.com/news/deliver-trains-unique334750.aspx>.
week of: 6-28-2010/7-4-2010
Engine Troubles Lay Up USCG Cutter Polar Sea
The U.S. Coast Guard announced an unexpected engine casualty aboard Coast Guard Cutter Polar Sea, one of the service’s three polar icebreakers, will prohibit the icebreaker from getting underway for its fall 2010 Coast Guard Arctic patrol and will most likely keep the cutter from providing standby capability for Operation Deep Freeze to support the resupply of McMurdo Station, Antarctica.
Polar Sea will likely be in a maintenance status and unavailable for operations until at least January 2011. The Coast Guard’s other heavy, polar icebreaker, the Polar Star, is in the process of being reactivated for service, but will not be ready until 2013. The Coast Guard Cutter Healy, a medium polar icebreaker, remains operational.
Inspections of the Polar Sea’s main diesel engines revealed premature excessive wear in 33 cylinder assemblies. A root cause failure analysis to determine the underlying cause of the excessive wear is underway and expected to be complete in August. The Polar Sea was commissioned into service on Feb. 23, 1978, and has exceeded its intended 30-year life; in 2006 the Coast Guard completed a rehabilitation project that extended its service life to 2014. The Polar Star was placed in a caretaker status in 2006 and is currently completing a seven to 10 year, service life, extension project that is expected to return it to an operational status in early 2013.
The Healy is capable of conducting a wide range of Coast Guard missions in the Polar Regions including supporting scientists working in the Arctic. The Healy is the most technologically advanced polar icebreaker in the fleet.
Marinelink. 1. Maritime Activity Reports, Inc., 27 June 2010. Web. 28 June 2010. <http://www.marinelink.com/news/troubles-engine-cutter334708.aspx>.
