Raising USS S-51: 1,000-Ton Salvage Battle Off Block Island

Описание: #USSS51 #Shipwreck #MaritimeHistory #ShipSalvage #DeepSea
USS S-51 vanished in under 60 seconds after a fatal collision east of Block Island—and the U.S. Navy refused to leave her behind. This documentary follows the brutal, nine-month USS S-51 recovery operation: hard-hat divers working at 132 feet, staged decompression to avoid the bends, and winter seas that snapped moorings and iced air hoses. The pressure hull breach was catastrophic, and the wreck wasn’t resting on sand—it was embedded in gripping clay, held down by bottom “suction” that demanded a breakout force far beyond simple deadweight.

To raise USS S-51, salvors had to reduce flooding weight, reinforce openings, and then do the unthinkable: tunnel under the keel using a water lance in zero visibility, feeding massive pontoon chains beneath the hull. Eight submersible heavy-lift pontoons—each generating enormous buoyancy—were sunk into position and then blown with compressed air until the clay seal finally snapped. When USS S-51 erupted to the surface, it wasn’t graceful—it was violent engineering victory.

The final tow to the Brooklyn Navy Yard became a funeral procession, proving what deep-ocean ship salvage could achieve in the 1920s. Subscribe for more shipwreck engineering & maritime history documentaries.
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