FA+
Shop
1055
Views
Views
21
Favorites
Favorites
Category
Artwork (Traditional) / Miscellaneous
Species Unspecified / Any
Size 1200 x 909
File Size 228.8 kB
Report this content
More from Heywulf
Listed in Folders
From an ink sketch by Jerry Collins, commissioned for the Spontoon Island anthropomorphic setting. Color by Ken Fletcher. Posted with permission.
A very high-technology (for 1936) ship used in salvage operations: Recovery of sunken ships and equipment, and recovery of cargo from sunken ships and collapsed piers. A ship like this could be owned or chartered by governments, navies, or corporations for specific recovery jobs. From a home port, it might travel large distances. With 1930s technology, there would be very shallow limits to the depths that divers, diving bells, or mechanical grapples could be sent - 50 fathoms/ 300 feet/ 100 meters would be unusual & very extreme.
A very high-technology (for 1936) ship used in salvage operations: Recovery of sunken ships and equipment, and recovery of cargo from sunken ships and collapsed piers. A ship like this could be owned or chartered by governments, navies, or corporations for specific recovery jobs. From a home port, it might travel large distances. With 1930s technology, there would be very shallow limits to the depths that divers, diving bells, or mechanical grapples could be sent - 50 fathoms/ 300 feet/ 100 meters would be unusual & very extreme.
Category Artwork (Traditional) / Miscellaneous
Species Unspecified / Any
Size 1200 x 909px
File Size 228.8 kB
Listed in Folders
Jerry Collins is doing sketches on commission. http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/6612276/
In the USA, our popular-culture entertainment history is very focused on WW1 & WW2. The 1930s seem to be only known through adventure & horror films, which usually include Mad Scientists with Advanced Inventions. It makes imagining the 1930s reality very confusing. The picture has many Advanced Invention parts.
Perhaps it has lead-filled bilges?
My version of a backstory is that it does most of its salvage work in harbours, or in otherwise calm waters. The more I look at the sketch, I must have seen some photos in an old Popular Mechanics from the 1920s or 30s or sometime, with salvagers working on a wreck in shallow water, with workers on platforms hung from the side of the ship, and/or on floating rafts, lifting material up out of the water, or aiding a large flock of divers based on the platforms.
My version of a backstory is that it does most of its salvage work in harbours, or in otherwise calm waters. The more I look at the sketch, I must have seen some photos in an old Popular Mechanics from the 1920s or 30s or sometime, with salvagers working on a wreck in shallow water, with workers on platforms hung from the side of the ship, and/or on floating rafts, lifting material up out of the water, or aiding a large flock of divers based on the platforms.
I actually disagree slightly with your analysis, and point to the case of the SS Egypt (there's an entry on Wikipedia for it).
That ship was carrying approximately one million pounds' worth of gold and silver when it sank, on May 20, 1922, in the English Channel, after colliding with another steamship in fog. The ship ended up in approximately 560 feet of water. While recovery was very difficult, given prevailing technology, an Italian firm used divers in armoured suits to blast through layers of the ship's structure to get to the strong room, and after a decade or so, 98% of the bullion cargo was recovered.
So this hypothetical ship could have operated in moderately deep waters. And note the Channel is not exactly calm waters, either.
That ship was carrying approximately one million pounds' worth of gold and silver when it sank, on May 20, 1922, in the English Channel, after colliding with another steamship in fog. The ship ended up in approximately 560 feet of water. While recovery was very difficult, given prevailing technology, an Italian firm used divers in armoured suits to blast through layers of the ship's structure to get to the strong room, and after a decade or so, 98% of the bullion cargo was recovered.
So this hypothetical ship could have operated in moderately deep waters. And note the Channel is not exactly calm waters, either.
I defer to your better research and examples! (The one example that I could find quickly was about a submarine recovery that was in about 300 feet of water. I had read a book about that event, perhaps 10 years ago, and it had covered some of the technical requirements for the 1920s, so it made a good default.)
I am cautious about the hypothetical weather conditions (during salvage) because of the large loading doors in the sides of the forward hold. I'm sure that there are secure and strong doors that can be closed, so that absolutely Nothing Can Go Wrong in stormy seas.... For travel, I suppose that the diving bell could be winched up so it was enclosed within a 'well' inside the hull.
I am cautious about the hypothetical weather conditions (during salvage) because of the large loading doors in the sides of the forward hold. I'm sure that there are secure and strong doors that can be closed, so that absolutely Nothing Can Go Wrong in stormy seas.... For travel, I suppose that the diving bell could be winched up so it was enclosed within a 'well' inside the hull.
The only reason I remember the S.S. Egypt affair was that it was in one of those "neato facts" books of the 1940s that my father had. It stuck in my mind at the time.
I do recall that there were primitive recovery efforts done in the 17th century and 18th century on Spanish galleons, too, but obviously the Egypt was a more modern, and deeper case.
I do recall that there were primitive recovery efforts done in the 17th century and 18th century on Spanish galleons, too, but obviously the Egypt was a more modern, and deeper case.
Comments