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| Cutting access for divers |
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| Cleaning up engine room |
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During the dark
days of the Vietnam War, the soldiers knew her as the Green Ghost,
but 30 years on, the guided missile destroyer HMAS Hobart is now
the jewel of Australian diving wrecks. McMahon Services were contracted
by Tourism SA to prepare the vessel for scuttling. This was an enormous
task, as basically a fully operational war ship had to be stripped
to make it a virtual skeleton. All environmental hazards required
total removal. We had to work on ways to make the vessel do what
it was never designed to do sink. The vessel was littered with specially
cut holes to let water in and air out, when it was scuttled. The
crews main task was to widen bulkheads and clearing pathways through
the vessel so as divers had enough room to maneuver through safe
thoroughfares. Some statistics on what materials were removed:
- 20,000 km of communication and electrical cable
- 280 tonnes of steel bulkheads and equipment
- 156 tonnes of lead ballast ingots
- 32 tonnes of liquid fuel/ oil
- 42 tonnes of rubbish in the form of timber, plastic etc.
Approximately 90,000 sqm had to be cleaned
by hand to remove contaminants prior to scuttling. The project took
approximately 8 months to complete with a steady crew of 16 personnel. |
