“High Tech Cowboys of the Deep Seas: The Race to Save the Cougar Ace”, 2008-02-25 ():
[On July 23, 2006 the Cougar Ace, a 654-foot car carrier owned by Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, reported to the Coast Guard that they were taking on water and listing 80 degrees. The Singapore homeported vessel, carrying 4,813 vehicles, was en route to Vancouver B.C. In a dramatic rescue, the Coast Guard was able to successfully remove all 23 crewmembers from the ship. Joshua Davis of Wired tells the story of how a crew from Titan Salvage were able to save the ship, although they lost one of their own in the process.]
…At the worst possible moment, a large swell hits the Cougar Ace and rolls the ship even farther to port. Objects begin to slide across the deck. They pick up momentum and crash against the port-side walls as the ship dips farther. Wedged naked in the shower stall, Kyin is confronted by an undeniable fact: The Cougar Ace is capsizing.
He lunges for a towel and staggers into the hallway as the ship’s windmill-sized propeller spins out of the water. Throughout the ship, the other 22 crew members begin to lose their footing as the decks rear up. There are shouts and screams. Kyin escapes through a door into the damp night air. He’s barefoot and dripping wet, and the deck is now a slick metal ramp. In an instant, he’s skidding down the slope toward the Pacific. He slams into the railings and his left leg snaps, bone puncturing skin. He’s now draped naked and bleeding on the railing, which has dipped to within feet of the frigid ocean. The deck towers 105 feet above him like a giant wave about to break. Kyin starts to pray.
…Ship captains spend their careers trying to avoid a collision or grounding like this. But for Rich Habib, nearly every month brings a welcome disaster. While people are shouting “Abandon ship!” Habib is scrambling aboard. He’s been at sea since he was 18, and now, at 51, his tanned face, square jaw, and don’t-even-try-bullshitting-me stare convey a world-weary air of command. He holds an unlimited master’s license, which means he’s one of the select few who are qualified to pilot ships of any size, anywhere in the world. He spent his early years captaining hulking vessels that lifted other ships on board and hauled them across oceans. He helped the Navy transport a nuclear refueling facility from California to Hawaii. Now he’s the senior salvage master—the guy who runs the show at sea—for Titan Salvage, a highly specialized outfit of men who race around the world saving ships.
They’re a motley mix: American, British, Swedish, Panamanian. Each has a specialty—deep-sea diving, computer modeling, underwater welding, big-engine repair. And then there’s Habib, the guy who regularly helicopters onto the deck of a sinking ship, greets whatever crew is left, and takes command of the stricken vessel.
…The job is daunting: Board the Cougar Ace with the team and build an on-the-fly digital replica of the ship. The car carrier has 33 tanks containing fuel, freshwater, and ballast. The amount of fluid in each tank affects the way the ship moves at sea, as does the weight and placement of the cargo. It’s a complex system when the ship is upright and undamaged. When the cargo holds take on seawater or the ship rolls off-center—both of which have occurred—the vessel becomes an intricate, floating puzzle.
Johnson will have to unravel the complexity. He’ll rely on ship diagrams and his own onboard measurements to re-create the vessel using an obscure maritime modeling software known as GHS—General HydroStatics. The model will allow him to simulate and test what will happen as water is transferred from tank to tank in an effort to use the weight of the liquid to roll the ship upright. If the model isn’t accurate, the operation could end up sinking the ship.