Historical Foundation for Future Capabilities

Naval Sea Systems Command Supports USS Monitor Recovery

By CHRISTOPHER MURRAY

Capt. Christopher Murray, USN, supervisor of diving for the Naval Sea Systems Command, is serving as on-scene commander for the Monitor Project.

NAVSEA's Supervisor of Diving and Salvage (SEA 00C) has been working with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) for several years in the development and execution of a long-range plan for stabilization and selective recovery of portions of the USS Monitor.

The plan encompasses a three-year program that started in 2000 with stabilization of the Monitor--the recovery of the Monitor's engine will be accomplished this year; the recovery of the Monitor's 120-ton turret is scheduled for 2002.

SEA 00C is the current program manager for Department of Defense (DOD) Legacy funds that have been provided to carry out the plan.

The legendary Civil War ironclad sank in 240 feet of water off Cape Hatteras, N.C., during a violent storm while under tow to Charleston, S.C.; the vessel swamped and eventually sank in the graveyard of the Atlantic. One hundred and eleven years passed before she was rediscovered, in 1973. In 1975, the Monitor became the first National Marine Sanctuary and is now under the watchful eye of NOAA as the Monitor Marine Sanctuary.

Training-Benefits Bonus

The U.S. Navy has partnered with NOAA in an effort to save rapidly deteriorating portions of the Monitor. NAVSEA has been actively involved since 1998 with the planning and execution of the recovery and stabilization plan that NOAA submitted to Congress.

Because of NAVSEA's expertise in diving, salvage, and engineering, SEA 00C was appointed as program manager for the DOD Legacy funds made available to carry out the work on the Monitor. The funds are to be used by the Navy to assist in the recovery of valuable Monitor components while at the same time enhancing the fleet's diving and salvage capability through operational training.

Legacy funds were first provided to NAVSEA in 2000. During that year, NAVSEA--in addition to providing Navy divers for the expedition--provided program support to the Monitor recovery effort through engineering services, coordination with all of the fleet commands involved, contractor support management, and diving oversight for the evaluation of revised mixed-gas diving tables.

The Navy on-scene commander for the 2000 expedition was Cdr. Philip Beierl, the commanding officer of Mobile Diving and Salvage Unit Two (MDSU 2). The 2000 expedition was an ambitious mission to stabilize the wreck and make preparations for engine recovery in 2001. The stabilization involved pumping grout down 240 feet of water to specially made canvas bags that were used to shore up the port side of the Monitor.

A Rapidly Changing Environment

Besides the difficulties associated with operating at a depth of 240 feet salt water (FSW), Navy divers had to overcome currents of up to three knots and sometimes rapidly changing topside weather conditions. Because the Monitor lies on the edge of the Gulf Stream, currents can change from zero to a knot or two during the course of a dive. This presented a challenging dive environment. Moreover, the temperature in the water column was subject to change as much as ten degrees overnight.

While overcoming these challenges, Navy divers were able to pump more than 800 cubic feet of grout down 240 FWS and into the seven separate bags used to shore up the port side of the vessel and prevent a total collapse.

Phase II of the 2000 mission focused on the placement of an 85-ton bridge (Engine Recovery Structure, or ERS) over the Monitor that will be used to stabilize and, in 2001, lift the engine from the sea floor. The ERS structure, which now straddles the Monitor, is 37 feet high; its topside dimensions are 76 feet by 35 feet.

One of the most important reasons for NAVSEA's involvement in the Monitor project is to provide operational training for fleet units. Last year, NAVSEA conducted manned diving at sea trials in order to revise the mixed-gas tables. The fleet had been experiencing an unacceptable rate of oxygen toxicity that led to five cases of convulsions. Through its work with the Monitor expedition, SEA 00C and the Naval Experimental Diving Unit (NEDU) have been able to revise the diving tables to use a 50/50 mix (50 percent oxygen/50 percent helium) for in-water decompression (versus 100 percent oxygen at 40 feet in the water).

All of the Monitor dives during this period were recorded by dive computers and the data was then provided to NEDU. The information collected by NEDU allowed the revised dive tables to be distributed to the fleet in 12 months, thereby providing an invaluable service to the fleet and increasing diver safety.

Major Morale Booster

The 2000 Monitor mission was a major accomplishment for the fleet, allowing it to accomplish 158 dives, providing challenging operational diving, and improving new diving tables that will increase the safety of divers on future missions. The success of the 2000 operation was not only a tremendous morale booster for the divers involved but also provided positive public relations for the fleet and for NOAA.

With the completion of the 2000 expedition, the Monitor expedition team is ready for the next step, the removal of the Monitor's engine. This again will be a team effort between NAVSEA, NOAA, and fleet units. NAVSEA, Mobile Diving and Salvage Unit Two, and the salvage ships (ARSs) USS Grapple and USS Grasp will be the major players in this effort.

Divers and other support will be drawn from about ten commands. NAVSEA will again manage the DOD Legacy funds in coordination with Cdr. Barbara Scholley, commanding officer of Mobile Diving and Salvage Unit Two, the leading fleet unit.

Because of the work that must be done in the challenging depths and current, this year's mission will not be an easy task. The work will include careful rigging, cutting, and excavating of the 139-year-old engine. After thorough evaluation of what has to be accomplished and an estimate of the amount of time those tasks probably will take, it has been determined that saturation diving will be the key to giving the mission the best chance for success.

Navy divers will have to remove many tons of debris--including coal, deck plates, and fallen metal--just to get to the inverted engine. All of this will be accomplished under the watchful eye of the Monitor Marine Sanctuary director and his staff. For operational, safety, and other reasons, several cameras will be used to videotape the work progress of every dive made during the 2001 expedition.

With this mission in mind, and the recent loss of the Russian submarine Kursk in waters deeper than the fleet salvage unit capability, NAVSEA has aggressively evaluated the options available for use of a civilian saturation diving system by Navy divers assigned to this year's expedition. With the support of OPNAV, the diving program sponsor, SEA 00C's supervisor of diving and 00C's saturation expert, Master Diver Charles H. Young, carried out the research required and then recommended that a civilian saturation (SAT) system be used for this year's dives.

Innovation and Upgrading

The Navy currently has only 110 qualified saturation divers on active duty, but a functional training pipeline is in place. However, given the current shortfall in the number of divers needed it was generally agreed that the time is right for the Navy to look for innovative ways to recapture and upgrade its deepwater salvage and submarine recovery capabilities.

The first requirement was to decide on what civilian SAT system should be used. This also was not an easy task. The next step was to establish an evaluation system that would determine if the system would meet the safety requirements mandated and then to provide a valid funding recommendation to the resource sponsor. The evaluation team was led by SEA 00C4, Robert L. Warren, who was supported by personnel from NEDU, the Diving and Salvage Training Center, and other Navy commands.

The evaluation team's task was not to certify the system per se, but to evaluate the civilian certification system and determine whether the system recommended meets the civilian certification requirements. The team then compared each element that differed from the Navy's own certification requirements, analyzed the differences, and determined what the differences mean in terms of overall diver safety. The reviewers completed an exhaustive hazard analysis for each element as part of this process.

One of the systems being evaluated is the Global 1504 portable saturation diving system mounted on the Manson Gulf derrick barge Wotan. Pending final satisfactory evaluation of the system on-site at the Monitor sanctuary, the system will be used alongside Mobile Diving and Salvage Unit Two's surface-supplied diving teams. This proof-of-concept process will demonstrate Navy innovations in teaming with civilian industry to provide an affordable and efficient deep-sea diving capability.

An Ambitious Summer Schedule

This summer, surface-supplied divers led by MDSU 2, and divers from 10 other commands, were scheduled to be formed into two dive teams that would be diving 24 hours a day alongside a saturation team that will be diving from a two-man bell. In all, more than 150 divers will be involved at various times to support the effort.

The divers will be diving from the derrick barge Wotan, which is 299 feet in length and 90 feet wide and is equipped with a 500-ton crane. Wotan also is equipped with a deck crawler crane rated at 100 tons. Two hydraulic articulated cranes will handle diver decompression stages to assist the divers. Additionally, the barge, which has messing and berthing accommodations for 104 personnel, is equipped with a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) and with what amounts to its own film studio--which can be used to assist in the cataloging and processing of videos from as many as seven cameras that might be in use simultaneously.

The principal goals this year are to recover the steam engine and to make as much progress as possible in uncovering the turret, which is presently upside down and covered by the stern of the Monitor.

The Navy's involvement for this year is being carried out in three phases. Phase I, completed in April, also involved the Grapple, which was used to verify the condition of the bridge and make progress towards rigging the lifting frame. The goal of Phase II will be to recover the steam engine and to make progress toward uncovering the turret--that phase will be performed with the derrick barge Wotan, with up to 72 Navy divers at a time onboard. The Phase III work will include the documentation of new conditions and the recovery of various smaller artifacts uncovered during Phase II; this phase will be carried out primarily by divers from NOAA and the USS Grasp.

It is readily apparent that SEA 00C has an ambitious summer planned for the USS Monitor and Navy divers. The operational training that the fleet will gain while assisting in the recovery of a significant artifact of Navy history is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Moreover, the proof of concept for the saturation diving system, if successful, will give the Navy the flexibility needed to provide an affordable solution when problems occur in future deep-sea salvage operations.