In the case of Crescendo, the boat lay deep in the ocean, but not deep enough to eliminate serious environmental impacts. The vessel had to be raised.
And so, in late August, three ships from Ocean Blue Environmental, a Long Beach salvage company, were dispatched to Crescendo's last known coordinates to clean the pollution caused by the boat, which included some 700 gallons of diesel fuel.
UP, UP AND AWAY
Recovery crews generally have limited options when it comes to salvage. In the case of the Crescendo, Ocean Blue sent divers to survey the wreckage, even though, at its depth, divers could only stay under water for 30 minutes.
After several days of survey, floatbags were attached to the bow and stern of the vessel, and then partially filled with air to allow for the boat's slow ascent. Even half-full, the bags, which are under pressure, expand as they rise.
Glen JusticeFloatbags bring Crescendo up from the depths, near the rocks that sunk her. The jetty protects the channel in Newport Harbour.
The vessel, which had listed on its descent to the ocean floor, was first raised just a few feet so that divers could fully inspect damage to the hull. The crews determined the yacht could be raised without fracturing into pieces.
Had the inspection been a bust, it would have been up to the divers to cut the fuel tanks and batteries from the sunken ship–a risky proposition–to fulfill the requirements of the state and federal regulators.
Even thereafter, Coast Guard officials said that cutting the ship into pieces and raising it might still have been necessary to avoid the danger of the boat being washed into the channel, where it could hurt other ships.
At times, recovery efforts can border the extreme, particularly when it comes to recovering environmentally-sensitive pollutants.
After the glass-bottomed boat Phoenix sank in June of 2006 off the coast of Malibu, Califirnia, Ocean Blue employed robotic submersibles to reach a depth of more than 800 feet and recover fuel and oil tanks.
Crescendo was a considerably easier job, though it still took more than a month of labor-intensive, painstakingly careful work.
