Salvage Divers Beach a Sunken Pier at Umm Qasr Port
Navy News Service
Story Number: NNS110628-02
6/28/2011
By Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Peter D. Lawlor, Commander, U.S. Naval Forces Central Command/5th Fleet Public Affairs
UMM QASR, Iraq (NNS) -- Mobile Diving and Salvage Unit (MDSU) Two, Company 2-4 divers assigned to Commander Task Group (CTG) 56.1 beached a sunken pier at the port of Umm Qasr, Iraq, June 14, after three years of excavation.
The floating pier was sunk in the early 90's according to Senior Chief Navy Diver Anthony Mabry, a master diver assigned to CTG 56.1, who supervised the overall dive operation during two separate missions to raise the sunken pier.
Mabry said the pier needed to be relocated from its previous resting point at the bottom of the deep-water harbor because it posed a potential hazard to navigation.
Multiple dive teams had attempted to raise the 90-foot by 30-foot rusted, barnacle covered pier. In addition to MDSU Two's first attempt May 10-21, other MDSU teams had tried and been unable to raise the then seemingly unmovable pier since the first attempt in Nov. 2009.
Traditional methods of extraction were attempted to raise the pier, using tools of the trade, such as cranes and lift bags to pull the wreck from the harbor's grip, but the pier had several lines still attached to nearby mooring stations and other debris not visible through the muddy and racing current holding the pier in place.
"The biggest challenge for us was that the visibility here in the river was zero," Mabry said of the difficult conditions. "Once your head left the surface, you were working with your hands only. Along with that, you have anywhere from a 15-foot to a 19-foot tidal shift."
"So when the current really got moving through here, it was moving maybe four, five, or six knots… and we had to dive through that," Mabry said.
To move the pier, the dive team maneuvered a 110-foot fuel barge over the project and connected it to the pier with 16-rigging points to use the massive tidal shifts to their advantage and create 200-tons of lift to free the pier from its sunken state.
Chains and lines of Spectra (type of rope), along with rigging harnesses attached to 10-ton chain falls were constantly adjusted topside on the barge during the carefully coordinated lift, with precision accuracy needed to properly distribute weight evenly as the tides raised and lowered the project.
Submerged divers tunneled through 15 feet of mud using water pushed through a fire main and amplified by a P-100 fire pump to remove excess weight on the sunken pier and access its structural features to hook up rigging points.
"In total we had 147 hours of dive bottom time, which combined is roughly a little over six days of divers on the bottom working on the project," Mabry said. "Many days we were working 18, 19 hour days because at certain points in this operation, once you get started you just can't stop because it gets dark, so you work right through."
"It took a lot of hard work, but we came out here and did it," Mabry said. "The guys do what they always do. They're professionals and they got it done safely. It's a good feeling for us."
Mabry also gave credit to the skipper and crew of U.S. Army vessel Landing Craft Utility Five Forks (LCU) 2018 for their expert piloting skills, sharp deck hands, and logistics support throughout both missions conducted by MDSU Two, company 2-4.
"Kudos to the Army for helping us out," Mabry said. "Without those guys we would not have been able to do this."
The U.S. Army also provided their own divers from the 7th Engineer Dive Team to assist the U.S. Navy divers.
U.S. Army Sgt. Andrew Damon with the 7th Engineer Dive Team said he enjoyed the chance to work jointly with the Navy and was proud to be able to contribute to the mission.
"They're a great group of guys," Damon said. "I enjoy working with the Navy. They're hard workers. I also learned a lot of great rigging techniques from them."
Army Chief Warrant Officer 2 Frankie Caraska, Five Forks vessel master and commander of the 709th Transportation Det. 1, said his crew was happy to support the mission.
"We're a support element and we did everything we could to support them," Caraska said.
He and his crew provided transportation for the diver's equipment, meals, and security during MDSU Two's recent missions in Umm Qasr. Five Forks also served as the diver's operating platform.
"We saw how hard the divers were working out there and their job is incredibly dangerous. They're so dedicated to their mission that they've actually been an inspiration to my crew," said Caraska. "I have a new-found respect for Navy divers and we hope to do more work with them in the future."
After two missions, and months of preparation, the bollards on the top portion of the pier poked through the surface as the tide began to descend at the port on the border of Iraq and Kuwait.
By low tide on the evening of June 14, MDSU Two, company 2-4, divers stood on top of the beached pier at Umm Qasr for the first time without dive helmets or an air supply.
Mabry said, "We had a lot of failures; we had a lot of setbacks, but no one ever got discouraged. They just kept doing their job and the pier is up on the beach, so mission accomplished."
CTG 56.1 supports maritime security operations and theater security cooperation efforts in the U.S. 5th Fleet area of responsibility.
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