How'heavy is 88 tons of steel at 5000 ft?

[Mr Cassandra]

If the thing ways anything like 88 tons in the first place.

I can't even imagine what kind of equipment you would need to lower a mass of 88 Tons 5,000ft.

I thought that's what you were doing in your avatar

 

[Woodlouse]

Do ships operating in oil slicks have special cooling systems not reliant on sea water?
What about those ordinary shrimp boats towing booms?

The oil is on the surface, where as the cooling water intakes would be well under the waterline. So I can't imagine the presence of oil makes any difference.

 

[[3889]]

The depth of 5000ft or any other depth makes no difference to the weight of the steel as water in incompressible.

A pedant writes:
Not strictly true. Water density does vary with depth due to compression which is why oceanographers tracking water masses use potential temperature (sigma theta) as opposed to in situ temperature (sigma t) to account for adiabatic temperature change. The difference is sufficient to make a water column unstable.
It would not be significant in this case, however.

 

[CLP]

Do ships operating in oil slicks have special cooling systems not reliant on sea water?
What about those ordinary shrimp boats towing booms?

The slick is actually a "sheen". According to BP's web site it is only .0001mm (that's one ten thousandth of a millimetre) thick

 

[boomerangben]

If the thing ways anything like 88 tons in the first place.

I can't even imagine what kind of equipment you would need to lower a mass of 88 Tons 5,000ft.

I am sure that I will be corrected if this is wrong, but I imagine the funnel would have been lowered into position using a drilling rig and it's drill string. Wire ropes and the like would be very long (obviously) and very stretchy, making landing the thing interesting to say the least. The drillstring (effectively lengths of steel pipe screwed together) would normally be heave compensated and somewhat less elastic than wire rope. As for the weight, given that modern rigs are rated to drill to 30,000 feet total depth (IIRC) 88 tonnes in air/ 75 tonnes in water I don't suppose it would be too much of a problem. The interesting bit would be getting the funnel off the supply boat, under the rig and attaching it to the drill string, unless of course it fits through the moonpool.