The Ship Sinkers | Free Documentary

[Music] they're floating junkyards mothballed decommissioned naval vessels toxic time bombs filled with PCBs asbestos lead paint oil and grease hundreds rust in dock yards around the world what can be done since 1991 this team of Canadians has had an integrated approach they clean the ships and sink them meticulously timed explosive charges cut through the steel plate like a hot knife through butter the ship sinks in minutes out of all this mayhem and explosive energy comes life marine life as these former warriors turn into artificial reefs within days algae begins to grow creating food for other animals who in their turn attract other predators increasing diversity until an entire reef ecosystem comes into being artificial reefs magnets for life and magnets for divers [Music] Wellington New Zealand this is the frigate Wellington the F 69 and a week from now she'll be on the seabed as an avid diver Marco Zeeman thought that sinking a ship to make an artificial reef would be a good idea and that idea became a passion that would occupy six years of his life the F 69 started life as the British Royal Navy ship but candy and saw service in the Cod war with Iceland and in the Falklands War in 1982 she joined the New Zealand Navy and was renamed the Wellington before the Wellington can be sunk she must be spotlessly clean 113 meters long 3100 tonnes the ship is massive and as Marco is nearing so is the amount of work yet to be done before the scheduled sync day of November 12 [Music] but today all the previous year's of meetings planning an obstacle is fade away as the f 69 gets towed into Wellington Harbour for the final prep work before sinking today the weather is picture-perfect but the city has a nickname windy Wellington because of the strong winds that sweep up the Cook Strait these winds could make sinking the F 69 a challenge now docked in Wellington Harbour the final preparation work is underway removing hatches pipes anything that could pollute the ocean be unsafe for divers or be sold for scrap even the ship's name but the work is going slowly and the sinking day with all the fanfare and anticipation is fast approaching boy Gabriel I guess we've been here in 28 29 days now the first day I walked onboard the ship I couldn't believe it I walked on I thought that a lot of the initial design would have been done inside the ship in the preparation done and I walked on there wasn't a single bulkhead or a wall or anything taken out and it was almost panic station Roy Gabriel has sunk more ships than some navies a retired Royal Canadian Mounted Police explosives expert he's one of the partners of Canadian artificial reef consultants and he's here to provide his experienced guidance it had been a month now of 12 hours a day seven days a week trying to get this thing to the point where it is now the brute-force work of scrap removal continues [Applause] [Music] crazy we've got to get this tank out here you see that'll open it up and clean it out and that takes too long [Music] artificial reefs attract life and they attract divers and divers bring tourism dollars this is the former USS Spiegel Grove just off Key Largo in the Florida Keys it's now a major dive attraction but it had a trouble beginning and it's a good example of the potential risks when you sink thousands of tons of steel after cleaning the 155 meter 5,400 tons Beetle Grove was towed into position and anchored for the final preparations but on May 17th 2002 a day before she was supposed to sing something and no one knows exactly what went wrong the ship began to sink she was not only sinking but she started to rollover ending up upside down a hazard to navigation and certainly not an artificial reef finally after much blood sweat tears and money salvage teams got her on the bottom but on her starboard side today with a little nudge from hurricane Dennis in 2005 she's upright and becoming a thriving reef popular with divers [Music] while Roy Gabriel is working on the Wellington in New Zealand his partners west roots and J strength are checking out what could be the next project a Canadian destroyer escort their team has been involved in sinking some 19 ships with the Wellington being number 20 they've learned what it takes to do a controlled sinking of the ship Jay Strait explains sinking the ship is a lot more than just adding explosives and running like hell what you actually have to do is be very careful to calculate how stable you keep that ship during this sinking operation the key points you've got to watch for are the center of gravity and the center of buoyancy of the ship when the ship is uncluttered the center of buoyancy is low in the ship and the center of gravity is high in the ship as the ship begins to flood the center of buoyancy moves up while the center of gravity moves down but if the ship is flooding unevenly or if there's air trapped inside then the center of buoyancy will shift and the ship may begin to list on one side there are about 30 crucial seconds where the centres of buoyancy and gravity pass each other when the ship is most vulnerable if the center of buoyancy in the center of gravity pass each other more than about 30 centimeters apart the ship will likely roll onto its side a ship like the F 69 has hundreds of compartments that could trap a pocket of air creating unwanted buoyancy and instability if the sinking is going to go as planned it's important not to overlook a single one so project manager norm green all androi check and double check the adventure of diving a wreck is getting inside the ship and that means cutting access holes enough of them so divers can get in and get out these holes also help flood the ship in the sinking process and all over the ship there to let the air inside the ship escape as the water rushes in once you've reviewed the plans getting the ship properly vented comes down to looking in every spot a pocket of air could collect and then marking it with a spray can of paint then the cutting torches can go to work making events the muscle behind the ship sinking is high-tech explosives this is a sample of the copper flex linear that will be used to explosively scuttle the frigate Wellington its RDX explosives on the inside with a khakhra shooting around the outside it's designed and built specifically for cutting steel the shape of the explosive charge controls the shock wave that's produced creating an intense narrow cone of energy that can slice through an inch of steel plate [Music] what we have here is the face site or business side of the explosive charge this is the portion that will face the inside of the ship and this is where the it will actually physically cut a meter square hole or a 39 inch square hole over the side of the ship the explosion first pushes the steel out then the water forces its way in Marko's 'man has less than a week left before sink day and there's still a lot to get done one of our biggest challenges on ships the size is all the hydraulic oil that we've got to deal with there's lots of it and every drop needs to be removed before sinking cleaning up spilled oil isn't a high tech job spread sawdust on the oily patch and scoop it up then dump it into a disposal bin and then go back and do it again on board every ship is miles and miles of wire so what we have to do on board these ships is remove every bit of wire what will happen these brackets will start to deteriorate faster than the rest of the ship and these will start a fall apart and subsequently the wire will drop down and will become a hindrance to divers so this is fine to leave in this won't be a problem but the main main bunch is a wire running through the raceways have to come up it's not only diver safety that's an issue the insulation on these wires could possibly contain toxic PCBs and that's something that just can't go into the ocean wiring throughout the ship is all removed it's got a lot of copper in it for example that piece there would be worth for every three or four dollars and you've got tons literally tons one of the ways they fund these artificial reef project such as the Wellington here is through pure scrap value they'll scrap the ship and use that money to prep the rest of the ship a ship like this will be in excess of two hundred and fifty thousand dollars of scrap bones and what you see is the boys out here processing that scrap now as it's coming off the show it's a safe bet that no one was thinking about scrap value when the HMCS Saskatchewan a Canadian destroyer escort was launched in 1963 a disclaimer British Columbia these ships sleek and fast were regarded as the Cadillacs of the fleet now only about 110 kilometers north of where she was launched the Saskatchewan is offering another sort of Cadillac experience as a stunning wreck dive just a short distance from the night British Columbia [Music] forge a straight it's a bit of a homecoming he and his partners helped a sinker in 1997 with the artificial reef society of British Columbia marine animals like these an enemies have flourished colonizing the 110 meter long 2600 township Ian Hall a local dive operator has seen the impact the wrecks of made this is a catch or sank in 1997 and almost immediately the number of tourists coming to the island to dive Nanaimo increased the city of Nanaimo Economic Development Commission estimates through a rudimentary survey the dive tourism means three and a half to four million dollars into the local economy each year just what is it about shipwrecks and divers is it the marine life or is it the technical challenge whatever the reason they exert a stronghold we drove down from Toronto took just a couple of days and it's so you know over 3,000 kilometers so you know where we're at hungry when you drive that far just just to dive some some pristine wrecks like the Spiegel Grove the Spiegel Grove is that ship that rolled upside down before being sunk EG largo florida it offers divers something extra it's like actually revisiting a piece of history sometimes you know they're like almost like means the end pieces down there it's really a thrill [Music] the Florida Keys are a major destination for divers and artificial reefs are a big attraction and it's where Ladd Atkins heads up a group studying their environmental impact Guerry mace runs one of the many dive businesses in Key Largo Florida Spiegel Grove has really been a great on official reef for us it brings down a lot of excitement and adventure of new divers divers wanting to see something new down in the Florida Keys divers may love the wrecks but critics question how they affect the environment fish populations and natural reefs the Spiegel Grove is part of a long-term study on the impact of artificial reefs Ladd Atkins is a special projects manager of reef the reef environmental education foundation the Spiegel Grove is in a very unique position it's in a sand bottom area away from the reef but somewhat close let's say within a quarter-mile of nearby natural reef areas and I think the intent was to put it far enough away that even if it moved a little bit it wouldn't damage the natural reef but also close enough so that there could be interaction between the marine life on the natural reef system and on the wreck itself and I think we're seeing a lot of wyndi Wellington is living up to its nickname with only three days to go before a sink day on Saturday the weather forecast is for gale force winds for three days and Counting and I hope these winds this morning are an indication that the front is coming through now and not coming through on Saturday morning but we wouldn't be sailing today it would be any home believing harder today that's just as well there's lots of work to do the lubricating oils are long gone from the engine room but there's still the accumulation of 37 years of grunge and grime to clean up so bring on the super-sized pressure washer and blast all the loose material down into the bilges or a vacuum pump truck can suck it up [Applause] super-sized pressure washers super-sized vacuum cleaners all the last bits left in the cracks and crannies need to be removed [Applause] [Music] [Applause] 150 meters of rope floats an electrical wire the firing line is hoisted on board unsynched day it will connect the explosives on the ship with the team on the firing boat who push the button the crew is working flat out but that sink de deadline is fast approaching at the moment we're probably trying to fit a week's work into into two days but we'll get there but we work a bit longer than like between you and me we need another week to really get this thing ready to go 100% I would feel a lot better than trying to sink on Saturday but you know there's just so much to do and you want this to be a really good reef so I don't know we'll make it work somehow we'll make it all work three days left until sink day Roy Gabriel has been working flat out for a month and a second set of experienced knives would be welcome those eyes belong to Jay Strait one of Roy's partners just arrived from Canada and he has some concerns see this this stuff just it's just way too lightly built to take the kind of pounding that's going to get as the ship goes down and what I'm afraid of is it's either going to come right out of this mouth be hanging here in the divers space or will be deteriorating relatively rapidly I'm gonna ask them to get a crew on here punch these things out which is actually not hard to do probably the kickboxer can do it and at least give us a shot at getting the place properly ventilated they've taken tons of material off the ship and now it's riding higher in the water that makes it too unstable to tow to the sink site to lower it they add weight ballast by flooding some of the compartments on the ship with water but the flooding isn't going to plan we're putting water in some tanks and within a day we're losing 10-12 ton of water so it's flowing someplace figuring out where the water is going and fixing it is crucial the danger is this when the ship starts to sink and if one tank is empty that will add a lot of lift to that side if the empty tank was on the starboard side and the ship develops a port list as it's sinking the empty tank will emphasize that list and could cause the ship to roll over onto its side it's a question of stability and safety tons of water in a compartment where it could move unexpectedly is a hazard a hazard that has capsized other ships what we have to do is take the plan pull every tank top market is full or market is empty and then work from there we have to try and solve this problem we've got the data Seoul doesn't go on to the injury and I've gone to the boiler room so obviously going into an empty tank someplace yeah so we'll pull this lid here and have a look at it [Music] they found where the water was going and have a plan to keep the trim or the way the ship is balanced the way they wanted problems we were having in an hour ago I think we've found some solutions to them and right now we're just pumping some tanks back here we're gonna drop the stern to the ship a little bit one problem solved but the tank covers back and close off the vents with a wooden bone once again windy Wellington is living up to its nickname with just two days left before sink day the weather's not cooperating we have a diesel zippered Wellington zayats flooring it's bringing out basically but will this ship be clean enough to sink there are hundreds of metres of pipes carrying hydraulic oil pipes they thought were drained but some weren't and with the trim of the ship altered some residual oil begins to leak out bad news with the critical environmental inspection coming up no oil means a clean ship long as we get these drain down we're gonna be ok the race to get the ship ready for the sink day on Saturday is heating up only two days left and the environmental and safety inspection is underway there's a lot at stake if the inspectors don't give their ok the ship doesn't sink on schedule inspector Patrick average we are looking for anything that scooters that could break away when the ship goes down anything that could be offer hazard to divers and of course any contaminants the major one being any oil residue sit on it on the ship's not all the cleanup work is done and the inspectors will have to come back tomorrow to check but to keep on schedule Roy Gabriel needs to install the explosives we have a good news bad news what do you think is it looking fairly good it's looking reasonably good do I have the okay to start installing exposes tomorrow morning yeah thank you very much thanks room I don't think thank you very much it's taken weeks to plan and assemble the explosives that will put this ship on the bottom now it's time to install it will take 14 one meter square hole is blown through the side of the ship to sinker and each one of these 14 explosive charges has been built to fit exactly against the current hull they're carried down to the bottom of the ship and fitted into place okay that'll stay there [Applause] [Music] for the Flex linear explosive to work effectively it needs to be an exact distance away from the steel when the engine-room boiler-room go on to start with these charges would jump right off the ship because there's so much shockwave and twisting going through the ship as it fires all this timber basically just gets you know blown in the chip would the charge is security in place and the detonating cord to the primers is made ready to connect to the system [Music] we're just standing above charges 5 & 6 here we've already put explosives so we close the area off nobody's allowed in unfortunately we got less than 30 hours to go so we have to we have to keep going here the 14 explosive charges are placed against the hull just below the waterline at key points on the ship the charges are fired in pairs port side starboard side they don't go off all at once put in a carefully planned sequence over several seconds typically the engine and boiler room charges go off first followed by the others this firing sequence controls which part of the ship floods first and controls how the ship will sink not much time left the last of the scrap is being moved off the dock there's another explosive team on board the F 69 there will be a big pyrotechnics display as part of the sinking and the pyro crew is busy assembling and installing all the mortars and shells and things that go bang that will add a dramatic touch to the event the high explosives that actually sink the ship don't put on much of a show they're below the waterline so it's these fireworks the spectators will be seeing okay we ready to go with the charges in place the next critical job is connecting the detonating core to the explosives on the hull of the ship boat there okay hold on one second detonating cord is a thin flexible tube with an explosive core John exploding at almost 7,000 kilometres per second made access of high speed foods and connects the electrically triggered detonator with the high explosive cutting charges that are now installed it's the last crucial link between pushing the button and the charges going off installing the detonators is the next step first string the electric wire that will be connected to the firing boat check the connection and then clip on the detonators this style of detonator is programmable so you can change the timing of when a particular explosive charge will be set off six years of planning fundraising and over 90,000 entries in a contest to see who will push the button to sink the ship it's all supposed to end with a bang on Saturday but this is windy Wellington and the wind's blowing about 40 knots it's Saturday the 12th of November we've had a build in a 24-hour hold due to wind conditions it's just not acceptable for trying to safely deployed the ship basically our winds are heading 30 to 40 knots we've got a requirement of our insurance not to move in over 20 knots but holds pretty close to the water as you know there's the angst of hanging on another day you're going but anyway you know we'll get there but Sam of note I knew it was going to be become stressful at some stage and I guess we're there [Music] here just for posterity's sake looking good 6 a.m. November 13th 24 hours behind schedule the wind has dropped just enough and it's ago we've got a beautiful day a little bit of breeze we're gonna be a crowded coast that's for sure the giver e boat in the Marino's over here will be gone and all the marinas over there will be empty and it's going to be a very big day I'm looking forward to the moment [Music] the last departure yeah significant moment all right yeah we're on our way see all the water jet six years the lanes today a final salute from the cannons on the shore [Music] [Music] the wind was looking a little dubious first thing this morning and we can keep this ship into the wind that's fine for our purposes we're at the upper end of our safety envelope with this wind but we can proceed intentionally sinking a warship isn't an everyday event and there's been a buildup of anticipation for this one it's still early and already spectators are gathering for the display it will take almost two hours to reach the sinking site there's time for breakfast the sinking site for the F 69 is in Island Bay just around the headland from Wellington Harbour we just coming around to drop the anchor on the naka and we'll sort of thank you for the attempt fails while we prep the ship it sounds simple put the ship in position bow into the wind and drop the seven ton anchor while the tugs hold the ship in place but once again this anchor isn't cooperating we've been really cautious we've done a lot of weight did a 7-ton anchor pulling on probably another seven or eight ton of chain and it's you know it's very capable of biting fingers off really quickly there were problems getting the anchor onto the show and now there are problems getting it off the ship the 24-hour weather delay and now this delay is causing problems the big tugs holding the ship in position have to leave they have other jobs to go to how the ship is sitting in the water how it's trimmed determines the order of the explosions that will sink the ship we changed the firing sequence from yesterday to today we've already changed it once I think I'm happy with that but until I quote about 100 metres lost the side of the ship I won't know for sure I could very well change it again binary the problem is saw behavior let's go we had a snake was the shekel initially had to get that out that's taken us an extra two hours but health we're better than losing fingers and toes so I um please replace my butterflies of now gold at last the ship is anchored by owing to the wind and the tugs cast off the ship will still have to be pulled around to her final position for sinking but without the big tugs we're gonna start at the bow and we'll start working our way all the way towards the stern checking and double-checking everything put the detonators on the system it'll be 28 detonators to install all the way to the stern the ship becomes increasingly hazardous there are holes everywhere and to complicate things the waves are getting bigger making the ship roll the pyrotechnics crew comes aboard for their last-minute preparations [Music] checking pen double-checking if the ship is to sink on position and upright everything has to go according to plan this will be the last time we come down to look at the charges we're going to just double check to make sure somehow over the last day none of the detonating cord has been shaped or nicked and if we have then we'll just put an extra piece on it the F 69 is a tanker and the spectators are gathering but the ship has a slight list to port that needs to be fixed otherwise the ship could roll onto its side as it sinks we're in the final phases of trying to take that port list out which is causing a lot of worry ready to go well not quite there's still that Rory some list to port water is being pumped into one of the tanks to compensate to rebalance the ship the job of connecting the detonators to the 14 explosive charges is almost complete [Applause] okay I'm gonna go out and have a quick look see how they are doing it's a very technical job Dandan hang on they're adding tons of water to this tape to remove the list do that for 100% this class the ship is very fragile on the bow area so what we're gonna do is try to go for as flat a sink as we can and if anything it's going to be a stern sink slightly how the ship will sink depends on the timing of the explosive charges and these timings can be programmed into the system and changed right up to the last minute check and recheck Jenny's ready to do is run out the firing cable connect up and press the button with the wind coming up it would be better to sink the ship stirring first really wants to change the firing sequence of the charges yet again ever so slightly on the bum now mr. so it rear averse those and put seven thousand here and then the next one and then give us the longer one there I know it's not much of a change let's have a look goes again so look at this in this swell I do not want the website to start scooping water before the starboard side yeah in a perfect world it's going to both sides are going to start scooping the same time and then it's over it when how it happens I think this is the last change crowds are gathering for the 3 p.m. sinking the f 69 was anchored bow into the wind and now she has to be pulled around to her final position but with the big tugs no longer available they have to rely on smaller boats how boats never gonna handle it go fast these small boats are pulling on a 3,000 ton warship against a wind that's now pushing 30 knots and increasing even with no wind this job would have been a challenge for the small boats the ship is moving slowly but the wind keeps increasing you look at a tension meter on this when we detonate we're at eight nine right now we're five and six and climbing we get 50 meters out of this we'll be lucky and his wind cam this is this is not good this was not supposed to happen against the odds the small boats have pulled the ship around and now they have to hold against that increasing wind but they're very close to the ship and those 14 high explosive charges [Music] they can't fight holders with that kind of like power and be this close that no Robin no I would have liked them certainly a little further away than that maybe they can lengthen the lines out once once they get uh stole it over to the swap are these guys gonna maybe link in their totals out at all they're kind of close right now yeah but they'll all have to come in basically in the final hours we need to left one on either corner to hold yeah once it's in position I'd like them a little further out if at all possible if they are a little close to the ship the small boats are having a hard time just holding the ship in position the wind is now changed our firing cable is just gonna be in a great big bowl we'll be lucky to get 50 meters or Stern it's time to get everything and everyone off the ship with the increasing wind the waves are getting bigger getting closer to the opening on the side of the ship if the sinking is to be controlled they need to put it on the bottom soon we're gonna be late on this one it's critical that no one is left on board okay are we doing right oh why do I do this because it's fun Marco all the best I hope that I hope it's an absolutely flawless perfect sync but this dis wind is is bad yeah that's right Colonel Arvin let's go okay let's guys let's beat beat out of here [Music] let's get out of here okay just swing by the firing bolt I just want to tell goons to shoot I hope it's a perfect one Marco I really do you've got a lot of blood sweat and tears into it I got about a meter of free bars the waves getting closer to all those openings on the haul roads to tell the firing crew to push the bucket now take off your I'm calling you on answering machine Countdown's here but they've gotta flip the one minute flare-up yeah not the one minute congratulations over 90,000 people entered the contest to see who would push the button Joe Smith was the winner [Music] there's the engine-room boiler room gone [Music] [Music] okay cooperate now cooperate cooperate cooperate with me the big question is did they fix that port list they can let it go they can let go of the firing line the attention is building come back come back with the ship listing to port the next few seconds will be crucial pulling water it'll come back its come with that it'll come back come back come back come back at the last second the F 69 levels off [Applause] came back I'm not sure what this thing time was but she put a bit of a scare into us she took a fairly good pork list the extra work we did today taking that list out paid off she had an extra bit of what we call reserve buoyancy back in the stern so she hung on longer back there than she otherwise would have and that was long enough to get those secondary hauls fully engaged and down she went as I wanted I got the birth or the stern sink just slightly Stern sink the bow was the last thing down like this has to be and that's you can't ask for much more no I think it was a letter-perfect sink and I think we'll find her very very you know straight within water and one or two degrees if there's anything that might be a little bit support maybe one two three the great support which is more than acceptable okay let's go home and get ready to take on another baby oh I need a beer as old pretty good [Music] the F 69 the Wellington now on the bottom she could have been just scrap turned into razor blades tin cans but a ship is so much more than tons of steel a ship like the Wellington has history embedded in her skin so now she can live on giving back to the Seas she once sailed [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] you

Channel: Free Documentary

Views: 1,064,356

Rating: 4.7330117 out of 5

Keywords: building demolition, building demolition explosion, building demolition how it works, how to building demolition, demolition building, demolition building compilation, demolition company, demolition explosion, demolition fails, ship demolition, unsinkable ship, ship explosion, Controlled Demolition, teardown, sinking ship, tear down, building teardown, building destruction, ship destruction, documentary (tv genre), building explosion demolition gone wrong, blowdown

Id: AgC7a2Jonwc

Length: 46min 37sec (2797 seconds)

Published: Wed Feb 05 2020