14K478
Well-Known Member
Both my previous boats had sunk and been raised and refitted before I bought them, but they were teak built sailing boats with minimal electrical equipment. I took the view that a boat that had tried it once would not want to do it again and this proved correct.
On a larger scale, I was responsible for this one at her P&I Club…she capsized and sank while trying to lift a big item in New Orleans because the shippers had under stated the weight - basically my job was to get the wreck cleared as she was obstructing the fairway, and the easy way to do that was to raise her and refloat her and sell the wreck for scrap by sealed tender… but she wasn’t finished!
Before her little mishap:

Halfway up again:
afloat again…

And back in business!

So it can be done!
The trick was that she sank in fresh water (in the Mississippi at New Orleans) and the people who bought her had worked out that the cost of the refit at a US yard would qualify her for the Jones Act under US flag, (she had been built in Holland and was flying the Dutch flag when she went for her swim) so they got the only US flag heavy lift ship and lots of lovely Government contracts!
On a larger scale, I was responsible for this one at her P&I Club…she capsized and sank while trying to lift a big item in New Orleans because the shippers had under stated the weight - basically my job was to get the wreck cleared as she was obstructing the fairway, and the easy way to do that was to raise her and refloat her and sell the wreck for scrap by sealed tender… but she wasn’t finished!
Before her little mishap:

Halfway up again:

afloat again…

And back in business!

So it can be done!
The trick was that she sank in fresh water (in the Mississippi at New Orleans) and the people who bought her had worked out that the cost of the refit at a US yard would qualify her for the Jones Act under US flag, (she had been built in Holland and was flying the Dutch flag when she went for her swim) so they got the only US flag heavy lift ship and lots of lovely Government contracts!
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