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Refloating of EX-USS SHADWELL
By: LCDR Eric Brege
Initial Discovery of EX-SHADWELL
When they returned to work following
the 4th of July weekend,
the crew of the EX USS-SHADWELL
were surprised to see her resting on the
bottom of Mobile Bay, flooded to the
waterline aft of Frame 36, and listing 8
degrees to STBD. After discovering the
incident, the Naval Research Lab (NRL)
immediately notified SUPSALV to begin
recovery efforts. Within hours of notification,
SUPSALV’s East Coast Salvage
contractor, along with CDR Chris Addington,
a salvage officer from SUPSHIP
Gulf Coast, provided the initial response.
Similar to most salvage operations,
the symbiotic relationship between pollution
control and salvage response existed
for the EX-SHADWELL. When
they arrived on station, initial responders
were greeted with an unknown quantity
of burnt diesel fuel which had been used
for previous firefighting testing operations.
In order to contain the fuel that
was dispersed throughout the well deck,
contractors deployed boom around the
ship, and absorbent pads throughout the
spill area. Drum skimmers were also
installed to recover the diesel fuel. The
recovered fuel was then pumped directly
to a bunker barge moored alongside.
As the pollution response phase was
being executed, the salvage plan was finalized
and approved, and additional salvage
equipment and personnel were deployed.
LCDR Eric Brege (SUPSALV)
relieved CDR Addington as Project Manager,
and several truckloads of pumping
equipment were offloaded onto a crane
barge for transit to the EX-SHADWELL.
Executing the second leg of the Salvage
Triad, NRL requested additional salvage
support from MDSU 2 who then
began preparations to deploy Company
2-2. While waiting for the main body
to deploy, LT Sean Doherty and MDV
Eric Eberle from MDSU 2 arrived on
scene as the MDSU advance party.
Prior to commencing the next phase
of the salvage operation, the salvage
plan was briefed to the USCG and other
key stakeholders. The salvage plan was
fairly straightforward and consisted of
isolating leaks, cofferdaming the stern
gate grating, and overcoming leakage
with Salvage pumps. Before the salvage
pumps could be installed, the watertight
integrity of BLKHD 36 was compromised,
and SHADWELL was flooded to
the waterline over the entire length of the
ship. The newly flooded compartments
were sounded, and the POSSE Model
was updated to reflect the most recent
condition prior to commencing the dewatering
operation. Additional salvage
pumps were incorporated into the salvage
plan to ensure dewatering occurred
evenly throughout the length of the entire
ship, and that sagging stress would
be reduced while regaining buoyancy.
As the salvage pumps were being
installed throughout the ship, the MSD-
SU 2-2 advance party began templating
and fabricating the stern gate cofferdam
from sheets of plywood, rubber, and allthread
that were available on station. As
January 2016 21