US Extreme Process of Salvaging Massive Ship After a Bridge Collision

Hello everyone and welcome back to the Fluctus channel. When a giant warship is too badly damaged to cross an ocean safely, the Navy can place the entire vessel aboard another ship. This extraordinary technique became essential after the guided missile destroyer USS John S. McCain suffered a devastating collision near Singapore in 2017. John S. McCain, designated DDG-56, is an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer built by Bath Iron Works in Maine. Commissioned in 1994, the ship is approximately 505 feet long and displaces about 9,000 tons when fully loaded. Its gas turbine propulsion, Aegis combat system, missiles, guns, sonar, and aviation facilities allow it to defend carrier groups and operate independently across vast areas. On August 21, 2017, the destroyer collided with the merchant tanker Alnik MC east of the Strait of Malacca. The impact opened the port side of McCain and flooded berthing, machinery, and communication spaces. Ten sailors died. Although the crew stabilized the ship and reached Singapore, the damaged hull could not safely make the long voyage to its repair facility at Yokosuka, Japan. The solution was MV Treasure, a semi-submersible heavy-lift vessel. Unlike an ordinary cargo ship, these heavy-lift vessels could deliberately flood their ballast tanks, allowing the broad cargo deck to sink beneath the surface. Before loading, engineers calculated McCain's weight, underwater shape, center of gravity, and the exact arrangement of supports needed beneath its hull. Blocks and securing equipment were positioned across the submerged deck. With treasure ballasted down, only raised structures remained above water. Tugboats and line handlers then moved the damaged destroyer over the hidden deck. The process demanded slow, coordinated movements because the destroyer had to align precisely with the prepared supports. Mooring lines controlled forward, backward, and sideways motion while survey teams checked its position. Once McCain was centered, Treasure began pumping water from its ballast tanks. The carrier deck rose gradually beneath the destroyer until the supports accepted its weight. As the heavy lift vessel emerged, McCain was lifted completely clear of the sea. The first loading attempt revealed that McCain's hull had developed a crack, forcing crews to return the destroyer to Changi Naval Base for additional stabilization. After temporary repairs, it was loaded again at Subic Bay and carried aboard Treasure in November. The strange silhouette of one major ship riding on another represented the safest method of moving the wounded destroyer. The voyage also avoided placing an incomplete repair under continuous ocean stress after reaching Tokyo Bay in December 2017 Treasure reversed the operation ballast tanks filled in a controlled sequence lowering the cargo deck while teams watched McCain's trim and the securing structures restraints were removed at the correct stage tug lines took control and the destroyer became buoyant again tugs eased it away from Treasure and toward Yokosuka. There, the ship repair facility and Japan Regional Maintenance Center began extensive restoration. Damaged hull sections, pipes, cables, compartments, and equipment required replacement before McCain could return to sea. The recovery demonstrated that salvage does not always mean towing a disabled vessel through open water. Sometimes the safest answer is to submerge a transport beneath it, lift thousands of tons from the sea, and carry the entire ship as cargo. A later catastrophe in Baltimore demanded an entirely different solution, because the ship was surrounded by a collapsed bridge. In the early hours of March 26, 2024, the container ship Dolly lost power while leaving Baltimore and struck a support pier of the Francis Scott Key Bridge. The mainspan collapsed across the Patapsco River, trapping the ship beneath steel and blocking the Fort McHenry Federal Channel, the principal deepwater route into the Port of Baltimore. This was not a simple towing operation. Twisted trusses rested across Dolly's Bow, containers remained stacked high above the deck, and large pieces of bridge lay on the riverbed salvers first surveyed the wreckage established exclusion zones and calculated how each cut or lift could shift weight divers sonar teams engineers crane operators the Coast Guard and the Army Corps of Engineers worked through a unified command container removal began on April a crane barge positioned beside Dali lifted selected boxes from the ship rigging crews attached slings to each container, checked the connection, and guided the suspended load away from damaged steel. Removing weight and clearing access allowed teams to reach bridge sections lying across the bow without destabilizing the remaining stacks. On nearby wreckage, excavators equipped with hydraulic shears bit through bent truss members. Cutting plans mattered, because a truss carries forces through connected members. the wrong piece too early could release stored tension, swing unexpectedly, or shift a much larger section. Heavy crane barges handled the major lifts. Divers and remotely operated equipment identified lifting points. Riggers, connected cables, and crews slowly applied tension. On April 16, salvers removed Section 1B, an approximately 300-ton portion that had blocked much of the Fort McHenry Channel. The crane raised it from the river, controlled its rotation, and transferred it to a barge. At Sparrows Point, another 460-ton section was cut into smaller pieces for easier handling and disposal. Meanwhile, clamshell dredging buckets descended into the murky river, closed around submerged steel and concrete, and lifted debris from the bottom. Each load was deposited on a material barge, while hydrographic surveys checked the channel depth and searched for remaining obstructions. During the first 28 days, crews created temporary channels for limited traffic while continuing the larger clearance operation. Progress depended on sequencing rather than speed. Unload containers, separate trusses, lift large sections, process recovered steel, dredge the bottom and resurvey the river. Temporary routes required depth and width limits, one-way traffic controls, and Coast Guard coordination. Survey boats repeatedly mapped the bottom because removing one object could reveal another beneath it. These measurements told commanders which vessels could pass and where salvage equipment should work next. Much still remained after April, including bridge material pinning Dali in place. Yet the method steadily transformed one enormous wreck into pieces that cranes, barges, and trucks could manage. Where McCain had been lifted intact onto a semi-submersible carrier, Baltimore's response worked in reverse. Crews dismantled the obstacle around the ship until both the vessel and the vital shipping channel could finally be freed. Long before modern aircraft recoveries, Navy divers proved their value after the December 7, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor during 1942 and part of 1943 divers worked around sunken and damaged warships amid unstable metal gas and unexploded ammunition navy personnel completed 4,000 dives and spent 16,000 hours underwater while civilian divers contributed another four thousand hours Modern salvage teams combine that experience with sonar, underwater cameras, remotely operated vehicles, lifting equipment, and precise navigation. When an aircraft disappears beneath deep water, search crews may deploy a towed pinger locator. A ship pulls the sensitive hydrophone near the seabed along planned search lines. The device listens for acoustic pulses from an aircraft's underwater locator beacon. Comparing signal strength and direction helps narrow the search area until sonar or cameras can confirm the wreckage. In 2014, the Navy's Toad Pinger locator was placed aboard Australian defense vessel Ocean Shield during the search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370. Although that operation involved a civilian airliner, it demonstrated how Navy salvage technology can support an international search across an immense ocean area. On July 22, 2015, Navy divers and explosive ordnance disposal technicians assigned to Commander Task Group 56.1 recovered an F/A-18 Super Hornet from the seafloor in the United States Fifth Fleet area. Teams first located and examined the aircraft, then planned rigging around a structure damaged by impact and immersion. Divers descended with tools and lifting lines, cleared snag hazards, and attached rigging to strong points. Above them, a crane gradually took the load while supervisors monitored tension. The aircraft rose through the water, shedding mud and seawater before reaching the surface. Recovery preserved evidence and removed a navigation or environmental hazard. It also prepared salvage specialists for an even more unusual challenge — extracting an intact patrol aircraft from shallow Hawaiian water. The Boeing P-8A Poseidon is a military patrol aircraft derived from the 737-800ERX. It carries advanced radar, acoustic sensors, communications equipment, and weapons for anti-submarine warfare, maritime surveillance, and search missions. maximum takeoff weight exceeds 189,000 pounds. On November 20, 2023, a P-8A assigned to Patrol Squadron 4 overshot the runway while landing at Marine Corps Air Station Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii. The aircraft entered shallow water with nine people aboard. Everyone escaped without serious injury, but the jet remained in a sensitive marine environment just beyond the runway. Before extraction, divers entered the bay to document both the aircraft and the seabed. They photographed contact points, examined the fuselage, and checked surrounding coral and sediment. Engineers then used the survey to determine how the heavy aircraft could be moved without breaking its structure or causing additional damage. Crews installed recovery equipment around the Poseidon. Rigging had to distribute force across reinforced areas, since pulling from a weak section could tear the airframe. Machinery then moved the aircraft under continuous monitoring. From December 2 into December 3, sailors, marines, government agencies, and private specialists slowly extracted the P-8A from Kaneohe Bay and brought it onto land. The four operations revealed the range of American salvage engineering. A destroyer rode across the ocean aboard a submerged heavy-lift ship. Bridge wreckage surrounding Dali was cut, lifted, dredged, and removed piece by piece. Divers raised a fighter from the seafloor, while a patrol aircraft was surveyed and carefully pulled from a Hawaiian bay. Every recovery began with the same principle—understand the load. control every movement, and protect people before applying immense force. That's the end of this video. I hope you enjoyed it. Make sure to subscribe to this channel so you don't miss any of our new content. See you next time.