UHEXSO Sabine River Project Mission

Mission Objective and Information Page

The April 8th-9th trip will meet in Orange, Texas and leave from the Blue Bird Fish Camp boat ramp site at 9:30 am on Saturday. We will work till about 5:00 or 5:30 p.m. on Saturday. Sunday we will start at 7:30 am and work till noon or 1:00 p.m.

Austin Team will leave for Orange, TX no later than 7:00 p.m. on Friday night.

Rally Point: Saturday morning the initial briefing will be at 8:00 am in the hotel parking lot. At 9:00 am we will leave the parking lot and go to the boat ramp. At 9:30 am we will head out to the wreck site by boat.

Hotel Rates: $25 per person, per night, double occupancy. Best Western off of IH-10 in Orange, Tx

No Event Fee. Austin and Houston members should try to car pool.

UHEXSO will provide drinks and snacks.

Trip Notifications, Changes and Cancellations will be done primarily by e-mail. Final cancellation notice will be no later than 3:00 p.m. on Friday. Cancellations are primarily for weather or unexpected emergencies. You can check weather conditions from the Golden Triangle Weather Page, which can be accessed through the UHEXSO Links Page.

UHEXSO@airmail.net

The April Objectives Are:

1. Continue to locate and take global positioning system (GPS) readings of Emergency Fleet Corporation wrecks.

2. Answer the preliminary list of questions required for further investigation on selected wrecks. The questions are:

a) Are athwartship bulkheads measured to the outside or to the inside of the longitudinal bulkheads?

b) What kind of bracing is present at the outer corners of each athwartships?

c) What is the distance between the outer longitudinal bulkheads and the outer hull?

d) What are the bow and stern shapes in plan view?

e) What is the configuration of the deadwood in the bow and stern?

f) Do the athwartships bulkheads butt against the centerline bulkhead or go all the way across the hull as continues timbers?

g) Where does the centerline bulkhead have joints? It cannot be made of single, continuous planks.

h) All athwartships bulkheads are probably the same length in the main body of the wreck, i.e. 36', except bow and stern sections. The 37' length is most likely incorrect.

i) What are the cross-sectional dimensions of the planks making up the athwartships, bulkheads, outer bulkheads and centerline bulkheads?

j) How far toward the bow does the central bulkhead extend?

k) what is the configuration of the compartments in the bow and stern?

l) What are the ceiling plank, hull plank and frame dimensions?

m) What is the sheer view?

3. Further exploration of the buried wreck on the Louisiana side of the river.

We will be using surface-supplied diving systems and an induction dredge to possibly uncover and remove overburden from both inside and outside the wrecks. The potential problem is a possible layer of crude oil sludge which has settled inside the wrecks and may also be found in bottom layers outside the hull. This could cause environmental concerns with regard to creating a possible slick. The dredge will be operated by surface-supplied divers as they will have two-way communication.

Teams:

For the March and April trips we will try to divide into several teams (provided we have enough crew).

Team 1: Will work under the supervision of Steve Hoyt, Chief Marine Archeologist for Texas. Team 1 will be concentrating on taking measurements of selected wrecks and using the dredge to remove overburden from inside the wreck so as to permit identification and survey of internal structures. Team structure: Survey crew, data recorders and dredge operators. This will be the largest team.

Team 2: Will continue locating wrecks and taking GPS marks and basic measurements. Team structure: Survey crew, data recorder.

Team 3: Will probe bottom area and try to determine layout of buried wreck. Team structure: Dive crew.

Personal Gear Requirements:

Survey Crew: Wet suit, heavy boots or dive booties, gloves, writing slate, dive knife and compass. Dive mask and fins optional.

Data recorders: Note pad, camera and drawing supplies.

Dive Crew:Wet or dry suit, dive boots, gloves, hood, dive knife, compass and dive lights. Personal dive mask and fins.

Site Map