Quote:
Baillie said another option is to make the repairs in place by installing an underwater sea wall and pumping out the river water. That way, visitors could watch the progress.
This seems to be fast becoming the popular way to do hull repairs on museum ships. Until recently I had never heard it proposed as an idea. The USS Yorktown museum already decided to do the same thing. (Read:
USS Yorktown to be Repaired in Place at Patriots Point). It would seem to make sense to use a cofferdam on large ships such aircraft carriers, seeing as they are so big, but I'm surprised they would consider it for a ship as small as a WWII era sub. No matter what ship this technique is used on, however, it allows the museum to continue operating, and that seems to be the big attraction of it.
There are a large number of museum ships that are coming up due for dry docking as of late, the USS Olympia and Texas come to mind. Aside from those two, its the fact that most museum warships in the U.S. date from WWII and haven't been out of the water since their decommissioning. For a successful story of dry-docking check out the famous USS Laffey which had its hull replaced in 2009. NavSource has an excellent set of photos of the work:
Destroyer Photo Index DD-724 USS LAFFEY_________________
Tri-State Warbird Museum Collections Manager & Museum Attendant
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