Justin C wrote:

In article ,
Gogarty wrote:

I would like to know more about the underwater topography there. I understand
the ship is resting on a ledge a couple of hundred feet down but is in danger
of slipping off and falling into the abyss. How deep is that?


It's in the med for cryinoutload, not the Mariana Trench. According to
my atlas (I don't have Mediterranean charts) it's about 600 feet.

Its hard to believe that they let her sink after
she was afloat for more than 16 hours after
hitting the reef. That is enough time to
helicopter in a _bunch_ of pumps, and get some
underwater welders going.

It's also seems strange that someone wouldn't
raise her from these paltry depths. A salvage
operation would only need to put a habitat and
crew of saturation divers down there to weld up
the gash in the hull. After that, it would just
be a matter of pumping down enough air to bring
her back to the surface. At 600 ft, the needed
pressure would only be 280 PSI.

Of course, she's going to be a real mess now after
hitting the bottom a glancing blow. Also, when
she came back to the surface she'd probably be
upside down--a minor engineering challenge.

I wonder what that ship is worth?

Don W.