Sea Technology

SEP 2012

The industry's recognized authority for design, engineering and application of equipment and services in the global ocean community

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achieved back then, but a requirement was specified for a faster drop speed in order to approach the target 2,000 meter mark. Oceanscience engineers were able to implement an improved line loading regime for the UnderwayCTD's probe tail spool, leading to a sustained CTD fall rate of more than 3.5 meters per second for the first 1,100 meters of the descent. NOAA's NDBC technicians were among the first groups to test the new system. The 2012 mooring cruise saw the UnderwayCTD depth record bro- ken four times in a row. Then, at DART Station 52405, NDBC technicians were able to send the CTD down to 2,041 meters, with no currents to drift the probe. It is not possible to go much deeper than the present record, Oceanscience said. Further development of the Un- derwayCTD will focus on speeding up the profiling process. Pulse 8X Detects Warwick Shipwreck Remnants Divers have recovered a cannon, navigational tools, rudder hardware, parts of barrels and fragments of ce- ramic containers this summer from the English naval warship Warwick, which was wrecked during a hurricane in Bermuda in 1619. JW Fishers Mfg Inc.'s (East Taunton, Massachusetts) Pulse 8X underwater metal detector has been successful at finding a range of targets for the wreck, including cannonballs, musket shot, bar shot and various lead artifacts at depths up to 3 feet below the seabed. A cannon has been found buried as deep as 6 feet. The Warwick is one of the largest and most coherent pieces of early 17th century ship structures ever found. The wreckage, which has 70 feet of the hull structure preserved, lies in 15 to 30 feet of water in a protected harbor. Studying the wreck could shed light on the early years of England's great century of overseas expansion, when the first English colonies were being planted in North America and other parts of the world. The JW Fishers' Pulse 8X underwa- ter metal detector is also being em- ployed by the African Slave Wrecks Project, whose goal is to locate and document the wreck sites of ships that carried slaves. Chinese Record-Breaking Dive Used A-Frame Lifting Technology When the Chinese Jiaolong manned submersible successfully completed its record-breaking dive to 7,015 meters in the Mariana Trench in June, Caley Ocean Systems Ltd.'s (East Kilbride, Scotland) A-frame was used to recover it. Mounted on the stern of the mother ship Xiangyanghong9, the Caley A- frame launched and recovered the 22- ton Jiaolong manned submersible. The hydraulically operated A-frame lifted and pivoted to position the Jiaolong above the water before lowering it; a process that was reversed during re- covery. In addition to winches to lower and raise the submersible, Caley sup- plied two bespoke oceanographic winches for handling scientific instru- ments for ocean-bed research, also de- ployed using the Caley A-frame. The Jiaolong successfully complet- ed its program of deep-sea dives in the Pacific Ocean at the end of June. Caley Ocean Systems is also upgrad- ing the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution's RV Atlantis' A-frame for the launch and recovery of the Alvin deep submergence vehicle. n www.sea-technology.com SEPTEMBER 2012 / st 71

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