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Cargo ship ‘sinks’ to load Army watercraft

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EUROPE, (USTCNS) --- Anchored in the narrow channel separating the southern English coast and the Isle of Wight, the bright red and white cargo ship looked no different than scores of other ships waiting to dock at the busy Southampton port.

By the next day, though, the ship looked anything but normal, because it had sunk below the waterline!

But, there were no signs of a rescue operation or panicked crewmembers. So, was the ship really sinking?

Not exactly, because the ship had submerged intentionally.

MV American Cormorant is a heavy-lift, float-on/float-off ship contracted by the U.S. Navy’s Military Sealift Command to move U.S. Army watercraft from Field Support Battalion – Hythe, a repair and refit facility in the U.K., to forward-deployed locations.

The ship’s internal ballast tanks fill with water in the same way any submarine dips below the water. Because cargo can simply float on the ship, American Cormorant is able to lift exceptionally heavy loads, as well as bulky cargo that cannot normally be lifted by crane. The ship can submerge up to 26 ft. below her normal draft.

American Cormorant loaded more than 4,190 tons of cargo, floating on a U.S. Army ‘port-opening package,’ on Nov. 30—including three small shore tug boats, four small landing craft, one crane barge, one fuel barge, and two other larger landing craft—all of which will be prepositioned where they are needed most.

These watercraft enable the Army to open a port where normal facilities are damaged, destroyed, or primitive. Some vessels were used to move cargo during preparation for Operation Iraqi Freedom and are still in service today.

“More than 200 companies were notified of the special requirements to move these watercraft to the Middle East,” according to David Hatcher, a contracting officer with Military Sealift Command headquarters in Washington, D.C. MSC is the maritime specialist for the Department of Defense, often chartering commercial contract vessels, in theater, as a cost-saving measure and to expedite cargo to its destination.

It was the first operation of its kind at FSB-Hythe since 2001, according to Chris Gill, a British national at Hythe who serves as the planning director. Hythe, which served as a Royal Air Force seaplane base in World War II, is just a few miles from Southampton. With a small military detachment and about 170 British employees, FSB-Hythe is the only American military facility in Europe capable of maintaining this type of watercraft.

The operation actually began at Dakar, Senegal in early November, when American Cormorant installed ‘cradles’ on her main cargo deck. The ship then sailed to northern Europe, welding “guide posts” on deck at Rotterdam, the Netherlands.

“The cradles and posts were custom designed to hold the Army watercraft in a secure position,” said Paul Weitenberg of Military Sealift Command Office, Rotterdam, the Netherlands, who was on site for the operation.

The ship then made the short transit to a deep-water anchorage off the coast of Southampton. The only question was favorable weather conditions to float on the heavy watercraft aboard the giant 738-ft., 71,000-ton Cormorant.

Because cargo operations can only take place during daylight hours, the process of submerging Cormorant began the night before, taking about six hours to sink some 15-ft.

By morning, just the forward section of the ship and superstructure—containing the bridge and living spaces—could be seen. In between … only the deep blue sea!

At first light on Nov. 30, with calm seas and light winds, commercial tugs pulled the watercraft, one by one, from the pier at Hythe to make the ten-mile transit towards American Cormorant.

Taking about an hour to reach their destination, commercial tugs carefully maneuvered the watercraft to their designated positions above the cradles. About 160 workers from FSB-Hythe were distributed aboard 11 watercraft to assist the tugs in maneuvering the watercraft and ensure they were safely secured to the guideposts.

The first to arrive was the 200-ft. crane barge. Pulling the massive 115-ton structure alongside Cormorant, two commercial tugs then gently pushed the giant structure into position above Cormorant’s submerged main deck. From there, lines were secured to the guideposts and the crane was in position.

Next aboard came two large 177-ft. Army Landing Craft, or LCU 2000’s, which took two tugs, one on the stern and the other forward, to inch these watercraft into position just behind the crane barge towards Cormorant’s stern.

Next aboard were two 74-ft. landing craft, or LCM-8’s, followed by three smaller 71-ft. Army tugs. A 120-ft. fuel barge was next to move into position.

Just before 1 p.m., the last piece of cargo was in place as the final two LCM 8’s were carefully moved above their cradles. “The commercial tugs did a very impressive job in moving the cargo into position over the ship,” Gill said. “They got it right.”

Ensuring all cargo was safely secured to the guideposts, and satisfied they are in their respective positions, American Cormorant, with a British captain and officers, and a Philippine crew, began the process to de-ballast the ship. This process also takes about six hours.

“It then takes at least two days to secure the watercraft to the deck,” Weitenberg said. “Cargo is lashed down with steel chains.”

Operated by Osprey Ship Management Company, Besthesda, Md., American Cormorant was built as an oil tanker in Sweden in 1975. The ship was modified as a semi-submersible, heavy-lift ship in 1982, designed to carry heavy offshore oil rigs. It later carried its first watercraft for the British navy during the Falkland’s war in the early 1980’s.

Another ship of this type, MV Blue Marlin, was chartered by MSC to return the damaged USS Cole to the U.S. for repairs in late 2000.

MSC operates more than 110 noncombatant, civilian-crewed ships that replenish Navy ships at sea, chart ocean bottoms, conduct undersea surveillance, strategically preposition combat cargo at sea around the world and move 95 percent of military equipment and supplies used by deployed U.S. forces.

The Army has about a hundred ships in its fleet, sustaining global operations.

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