To burn another day: ex-USS Shadwell recovers from beaching

All Hands, June, 2006 by Shane McCoy

In the midst of Hurricane Katrina. one of the most valuable training, testing and evaluation centers in the Navy was lifted violently from its home just off the shore of Little Sand Island in Mobile Bay, Ala., and deposited firmly aground.

Shadwell, a working labor-story for the Naval Research Laboratory with sophisticated systems for testing "real world" shipboard fire environments, became another victim of Katrina.

According to Arthur Durkin. a mechanical engineer on board. "The current condition of Shadwell, with her seven degree list and the way in which we have to board her, hast caused us to cease all operations. We haven't performed any tests since July 2005, and until the vessel is righted, re-moored and we can check all our systems, we will not be back in business."

Not having Shadwell open for business is a deal to the Navy. As a trainer, its compartments are set on fire to help the Navy see which firefighting systems will work in which situations. This information has saved many lives during the years of Shadwell's service as a trainer and laboratory.

"Shadwell has been responsible for the evaluation of systems. tactics. equipment and clothing that have been used by damage control dud fire-fighting personnel aboard a wide range of vessels to include DDG, DD(), CVN, LHA and submarines as well," Durkin said.

In fact, Shadwell has parts of the ship specifically dedicated to classes of ships and a mock up of several levels of a submarine.

"You might wonder why it's worth salvaging a ship bulk in 1944 and decommissioned in 1970," said Durkin. "It comes down to a simple matter of numbers. To recover her would cost only a fraction of the money that it would cost to replace her.

"Shadwell became a research vessel in 1987, and 19 years later, the rough estimate for the amount of money that has been put into this program is $70 million." Durkin noted. "It will cost the Navy approximately $1.3 million to re-float the ship. If everything goes right, the money that was put into all of those systems will be ready to go back to work. So it's clearly more financially viable to recover her than replace her."

Acknowledging that the ship needed to be recovered and actually recovering her were two totally different matters.

The first thing that had to happen was for salvage experts and marine architects to get to Mobile Bay and measure her current structural condition. Then they had to predict what kind of ground reaction existed between the ship and the island--in other words, how much friction the ground would cause if a tug tried to pull on the ship to upright it.

The also checked what kind of strain the ship was under, if the hull was sagging and if she would be strong enough to be recovered. On top of all that they also had to figure in the State of Maine, another test ship next to Shadwell, that had been grounded but not to the same degree.

They came up with a plan involving the use of dredging, heavy machinery and the skills of Naval Mobile Diving and Salvage Unit {NMDSU} 1.

"We are doing everything from diving and pulling up debris and doing underwater surveys to lancing, which is using hoses to blow out all the dirt and mud from under the ships." said Machinist's Mate 2nd Class (DV) Eric Cornelison.

Before the divers even entered the water, they needed to use an explosive charge to remove a mooring line under too much strain to allow it to be released from the bits.

"Nobody felt safe trying to release the line by hand, and it was stretched way beyond its limits," said LT Steven Schwedhelm of NMDSU 1. "We used a shaped charge to part the line where it would cause the least damage."

"There is no, visibility at all in this water, ou might as well close your eyes," said Cornelison. "We are working on our hands and knees feeling for everything. I stepped on a catfish yesterday and it scared the hell out of me."

Catfish are not the worst thing the divers might have to face in the brackish water. There are several alligators that call Little Sand Island home in the spring and summer months, and some of the obstacles found in the water were definitely large enough to hide one.

"We pulled out a large tree weighing a few tons, roots and all, several ladders and walkways and part of a shed." said Cornelison. "We didn't know how much was down here. It wasn't until we got in the water and started feeling around that we saw the extent of the job."

The divers also had to remove several large cement pilings either by crane or explosives.

"At one time there were three ships here, and we knew that they had these pilings," said Schwedhelm. "We just had to find exactly where and then figure out how to remove them.

After all the major obstacles had been removed the dredging could begin. A combination of dredging and the digging out of the ship on the island side was used to get Shadwell upright again. All of the silt removed from the inlet was deposited in Little Sand Island to keep it from backfilling the hole.

Finally, after months of calculations and logistics nightmares, moving day arrived.