Unsinkable Ship | Building Demolition | BlowDown | S02 E02 | Free Documentary

off the coast of Florida a retired spy ship awaits burial at sea I'd be disappointed if it didn't put up a fight a sink team steps up to take her down this one that we have a problem - Straub and torch this rusty mate then bring her belly with high-power explosives can a demo team give this dead ship new life as a marine habitat or will the sink plan lead them to disaster [Music] Key West Florida America's aquatic playground sanctuary for tourists marine life and this the general hoi test Vandenberg she served the US military for almost four decades now this former missile tracking ship has reported her final Duty freed from the rusty grip of the scrapyard this ghost vessel has a new assignment reef makers selected her to become the second largest artificial reef in the world Joe Weatherbys been with the project since day one we can make her into a world-class underwater classroom research laboratory and recreational destination or she can go to the way of her sister ship and she can go over to Japan and we'll make Toyotas out of her but scuttling more than 15,000 tons of ship will be a huge challenge the Navy designed her to be unsinkable 160 metres long with a steel hull nine watertight bulkheads and a complex ballasting system keep the ship afloat - sinker crews plan to cut almost 500 holes above and below the waterline their purpose to replace air with water as quickly as possible so she goes down level reef makers has come up with an ambitious plan and they can't do it alone for some reason we don't execute this this project properly we'll never get another one this is the this is our community's one shot to get this right reef makers recruits Tim Ferriss project manager for associated marine salvage incorporated he knows ships inside out the assignment to cut the outlet holes above the waterline and level the ship [Music] while hostile cyclone gate decks hi she was stripped and pillaged before reaching Key West the team is dealing with a dead ship none of the systems are functional so lighting ventilating firefighting those have all been torn out a long time ago so we're having to bring in temporary lighting temporary ventilating temporary fighter firefighting into each unit this means a lot of work for the crew and the sync date is not negotiable hurricane season is just five weeks away violent storms and a ship full of holes would spell disaster especially when the ship's loaded with explosives unsynched a 74 kilos of explosives will be used to cut 42 entry holes in the hull below the waterline controlled demolition steps up to design an explosive system powerful enough to scuttle the Vandenburg yet intricate enough to keep her level this family business from Phoenix Maryland are experts in structural implosions but when it comes to sinking ships CBI is a fish out of water this is the first ship we've ever scuttled so this is taking everything we know about demolition everything we know about the explosives products and reworking the application figuring out how to make it do what we needed to do here it's it's an interesting learning curve it's time for their first test the explosives arrive at a nearby bunker gym you can put that right there what we're doing today is we're manufacturing our explosive cutting assemblies what we're calling our EC aids these are the frames that go on the vessel to create the holes below the waterline tom dowd CBI's project manager uses brackets to lock metal cutting explosives together at 90-degree angles the result an explosive frame custom designed to cut a perfect square in the ship's hall back at the dock crews are scouring what remains of PCBs asbestos and lead on the ship [Music] an additional 16 tons of toxic material are removed [Music] now it's time for a msi to torch the crew will cut 450 outlet holes in the walls and floors on five decks the ship's fire suppression systems don't work anymore so it takes more than one guy to torch as the burner cuts through more than three centimeters of Steel another worker stands armed with a hose these rooms are like sweltering blast furnaces they heat up fast and in the presence of paint and other combustibles an unchecked flame can spread like wildfire a single form can take two hours to burn across the ship that's thousands of man hours of hard labor here the hulls really putting up a fight the team's finished this con but the metal plate won't budge they investigate and discover a pipe welded to the outside of the hull it's beyond the flames reach they come up with a solution for the courts had to go through slice it [Music] it works the plate finally gives way but it's clear they'll have to battle for every hole and that's not the only challenge on this dead ship this is the engine room normally a msi would use these controls to ballast the vessel it's a crucial job the amount of water in each of these ballasting tanks determines how the ship is balanced and the Vandenberg's not stable she's heavy on the starboard side the team has to move water key in and out of the tanks until she's lovely so they'll have a better chance at sinking her upright but a previous crew chopped and torched these pipes the once sophisticated ballasting Network can't be fixed weren't manually trying to do across the 520 foot long ship what we could have done from this little booth so it takes a lot more effort and a lot more kind of just shooting in the dark shooting from the hip it's like pumping almost 2 million liters of water between 38 tiny swimming pools one hose at a time until this bull hits tim center market gives you a good gauge rather than just going by feel of where you're at so when this thing comes back over to here the ship will be level but it means pushing the Vandenburg to the brick [Music] there's less than four weeks until sink day cruise rush to prep this former spy ship to become one of the largest artificial reefs in the world today the Vandenberg's a dead ship but during the Cold War this old girl was among the technological elite in 1960 fear of nuclear annihilation pushed military tension to new heights the United States had built sophisticated missile tracking stations at nine different sites to monitor the 14,000 kilometre Atlantic missile range but it wasn't enough these landlocked sites couldn't protect the huge amount of airspace the Vandenberg and her sister ship were the military's mobile tracking solutions armed with 12 meter high radar dishes and state-of-the-art computer equipment these ships could detect the slightest trace of foreign missile activity and transmit an alert in seconds in the late 90s her distinctive superstructure landed her a role as a Russian spy ship in the tech thriller virus today she still carries her Cyrillic namesake inside the crew works to ballast the ship their goal correct a list that makes the vessels starboard side heavy one area they pump water out of was the engine room Tim goes to inspect the job and finds a huge problem significant amount of water in it again he can't believe it the waters back the 150,000 liter tag they've pumped water into has ruptured and the lower deck is flooded 95 litres a minute tim has to act fast to redirect the water he kills the pump that's feeding the damaged tank then attacks a ballasting pipe to drain the tank into a watertight compartment it works the water is contained but they still need to repair the tank this means tackling a rusty hole on a normal ship they would call it a welder on the Vandenburg the crew must come up with an unconventional solution it's dirty but 22 bags of concrete later the tank is sealed deep inside the ship CDI prepares the hull for explosives placement the explosive cutting assemblies or ECAs they've designed measure more than a metre across so ribs and other structural elements at each explosive site make positioning impossible it's Victor's Anita's job to remove these obstacles so the team can mount their ECAs CDI expert burner uses a scarfing tip to perform this task this customized attachment allows him to torch sideways so he doesn't breach the hull it's almost 2 centimeters of solid steel but on this job the ocean is just too close for comfort pinging on me it's too much heat wonder beneath the water level so that started to water outside bubbling - that means the heats getting outside so I have to pull off of that let it cool down a little bit and finish my cut and there's another problem here the hull is so corroded that Victor can't tell how much steel remains solid metal doesn't sound like this he can't risk a breach the explosive frame can't be mounted here [Music] back at the bunker CDI is almost finished building their explosive frames on sink day linear shaped charges will give this custom-designed system it's explosive backbone when detonated shaped charges form a powerful jet of energy that cuts through most metals the fiery force RDX's one of the most powerful explosives in the world seedy eyes used this high-explosive before but never to scuttle a ship and Victor has reported a problem with the Vandenberg's haul it's exceptionally soft it absorbs the energy and thus decreases the efficiency of the explosives who is very hard very brittle material we get more of a shattering effect it would make the explosives the explosive more efficient their biggest concern the four corners where the shaped charges meet here's what could happen when the explosive crane goes up the ship's hull could absorb the energy and fail to sever it will take a more powerful Arsenal to attack the Vandenberg CBI will have to up their explosive force brief makers has carefully selected an offshore location for the scuttling here the vessel has to land upright in a narrow target zone on the ocean floor it's only 222 meters wide if the ship lands too deep she'll be off-limits to most divers if she settles too shallow she'll be a nautical hazard as part of this plan AMS I was supposed to burn several holes along the exterior of the third deck less than two meters above the waterline [Music] but it's too risky we can't leave the harbor for the tow to the sinc site with the holes completely cut because the potential for it to take on water and sink is too great and we wouldn't be able to insurance underwriters wouldn't let us do it they just can't take the chance on a ship this mighty things can get out of control fast Key Largo 2002 as another team prepares to scuttle her the USS Spiegel Grove takes on water the former military vessel rolls costly efforts to right the ship fail and she hits the ocean floor on her side only nature can pick up where man left off storm surge from Hurricane Dennis forces the vessel into an upright position three years later today the Vandenberg crew work in the wake of past failure these last-minute decisions for this sink plan to work CD eyes explosive assemblies must cut through the ship's hull or all their efforts will count for nothing they need to do a test shot the team sets up at a remote location they've cut two metal plates from the vessels Hall the plan test them with live explosives now I went this side up so I can see that I'm through those two this experiment will be CBI's first chance to see how the Vandenberg soft metal reacts to their ECA configuration you know with with demolition and especially here when you're gonna sink the vessel you don't get a second chance the shaped charges alone could be no match for the unpredictable hull they'll add a half stick of dynamite to both metal plates but place more explosives at the corners of the ECA frame on the second plate when the test shot goes off Tom hopes this will be enough to completely sever the steel and not the centerpiece of the cut out cleanly it's time to test CBI's explosive theory the team runs firing line to a safe spot more than 300 meters away from the test site hey Bobby I'm ready when you are all right I'm warming up three two one fire Tom anxiously walks back to the site I think we got a misfire the sound of the explosions revealed nothing he checks the plates the explosives knocked out both Center portions in here but the extra explosives on the second plate appear to make this system more effective the radically displeased it flipped this plate over again this was the side that we shot this is the boosters this is the booster you can see the indent from those two from the cap wells mmm these two here you've just got the round of the powder right adding boosters will mean extra work and complicates CBI's explosive assembly but the Vandenberg's a one-shot deal and for a team that's never sunk a ship before this extra insurance is priceless we know that the linear shaped charge has sufficient energy to completely sever the steel and no matter what we put in the corners we know that we can both O's in so that we get a smaller piece than we have opening so we're pretty sure that this piece is going to get sucked back inside the vessel completely open leaving the really good equal flooding back at the ship a team of technical divers descends into the lower decks yes they prepare for a worst-case scenario they'll risk their lives if all of the explosives don't detonate on sink day because they'll have to recover them if we have to come in here and do this it's going to be a nightmare it's a terrifying thought penetrating this ship navigating more than 40 metres below the surface and try to locate the explosive frames in these very rooms now comes the training they practice dismantling a mock-up of the explosive charge system here the waters clear but inside the ship it will be pitch black and any damaged explosives could be deadly we're hoping we don't have to do it obviously but we do we do after two weeks of pumping the team has finally leveled the Bandon berth but personally Tim's concerned most of the engineering naval architecture work that's been done the boat's been done a thousand miles away it's been done in a laboratory in a perfect world in a vacuum and we don't have those conditions here we've got a lot of factors that are very easily overlooked this is what he worries about these two ballasting tanks it's a catch-22 the plan calls for these compartments to be filled with water before sink day but if the team fills them at the dock the bow of the ship will drop more than a meter a loss of stability it can't afford the team needs an explosive solution [Music] but can they adapt the sink plan [Music] after four weeks of work the Vandenburg scrubbed torched and level full of holes she's barely seaworthy but she's fit to become one of the world's largest artificial reefs explosives will initiate the ship's scuttling on sink day [Music] CDI hasn't even brought the charges on board and it's already clear that the sinc plan needs to be revised to ballasting tanks at the front of the ship that were supposed to be filled our dry compartments are full in their Vandenberg Air Force debility and the solution CDI will mount to explosive frames in these problematic tanks on sink day the charges will cut holes through the hall so water rushes into the tanks while air escapes this updated plan should keep the ship from rolling the explosives plan is finally set now crews can get to work this team knows how to move around demo sites but they have to get used to a ship fast and this is all pipe walking we and check everything don't assume anything is in good shape I got lost from the group I wouldn't know where to go first stay in here stay together the Vandenburg must reach the sinc site before hurricane season starts they've got less than 10 days a crane lowers the explosive cutting assemblies or ECAs to the belly of the ship now there all stop pretty nasty on it's like carrying an expensive piece of art through a dark jagged hostile forest from bow to stern they face two decks more than 4,000 square meters of obstacles [Music] as cd-i struggles with the explosive frames a msi gets ready to haul more anchors out of the Vandenberg's deck until today a single anchor was enough but for her final mission he will take five anchors and Morgan 685 metres of chain to lock her over the target zone every day the wind and the currents shift throughout the day and so if you know your anchor goes down in the morning the ship's sitting this way by the afternoon it's in a different position so you've got this big arc the combined weight of this five point system is staggering almost ninety three tonnes below deck CDI finishes placing most of their ECAs now it's time to mount them it's a precise explosive system designed to operate 19 millimeters from the hull if the explosive force doesn't strike the ship at the perfect distance the shaped charges will fail to sever the metal CDI has only three millimeters of leeway in either direction and the hull is hopelessly uneven it's the vessels have curves everywhere they have to be hydrodynamic they have to flow through the water right here look at the spider pattern in the paint there was a direct hit right here the crew bends each frame to compensate for this unevenness you know I don't think you'll make it when Tom and Ray finish adjusting the ECAs boosters can be attached to the frames corners and a dynamite kicker to the center it's less than a week until shot day and the team still worries about the two empty ballasting tanks in the back they've changed the explosives plan to flood the compartments on sync day but there's a price if we shoot them right away it's gonna end up flooding that area so fast they can't take the chance if all of the explosives detonated once water rushing into the bow would cause the vessel to torpedo if the Vandenburg propels more than thirty two meters forward it will miss the target zone so they must delay the flooding of these tanks to solve this problem the team comes up with another explosive solution a series of delays we have a nine point six we have upwards of that capability and then of course you know we can daisy-chain beyond that if we wanted to go to fourteen fifteen what time would you like we can give you almost 15 seconds with the products that are here today we would like to better than yes do you want to go what you want to go 20 no they agree on 15 seconds Tom will rig the delays after almost five weeks on the Vandenburg Tom feels confident most of the vessel is wired and ready to go think this is the dirtiest I've ever been his final dockside ja mount explosives in the bow tanks these narrow compartments are designed to hold water they're virtually impervious to light air and all things human including the eca frames but tom has a plan he'll lower all the parts and assemble the explosive system in the tanks [Music] but there's a problem the frame does not fit no this thing snaps off of it punch someone yeah more space in there ray tries to reposition the ball Oh like do I dare and pry it and give it a look oh I was just thinking little Jimmy jacket if he knocks it off a welder will have to come down and reattach it it works they mount the Vandenberg's last eca gorgeous then why are the 15 second delay now that the explosives are secured Tom looks forward to sink day I'm not a marine architect you know we've been contracted to put in the holes they thought their best practice would be to put in the 15 seconds they asked us if we could we said we have a method that we could do it so we're gonna do it I hope it works one work at the dock is finally done crews have worked relentlessly for more than a month straight now it's Toho time [Music] three hours later they reached the sinc site more than 11 kilometers offshore the blowdown is less than a day away AMS I must move quickly to anchor the Vandenberg above the target zone that's valve stern we were over the target point right now let's get that Pelican off it's a crucial job drop two of the heaviest anchors to counter the wind then deploy the remaining three anchors finally a tug will adjust the anchors to lock in the ship's position 42 metres above the target zone parallel to the slope the team offloads the first of five Penan buoys they support cables crews will use to reposition the anchors it's not a msi releases the first anchor from the ship's chain Locker [Music] they go to drop the next one this anchor weighs more than 7,000 kilos and it won't budge the endless jacking is getting them nowhere getting butterfingers we're looking pretty good actually you're covered you go the team finally gets the anchor down but they'll have to drop the others faster to keep the ship above the target zone the Elsbeth 2 comes to the rescue with her 6000 horsepower engine she pulls the other three anchors off the dip that is just awesome that's fantastic oh man like all day long every day we could do that the anchors are positioned and the Vandenberg is locked in now CD I can wire their final connections the initiation line must stretch from the Vandenberg to the firing boat if it snaps the explosives won't go off the team considered a wireless option but with Florida's numerous marine radio frequencies and potential for flash lightning storms the explosives could be set off prematurely this system removes all of those worries so there's nothing electric it's all hard-lined and we have total control over the button tom secures the last of the detonation line the Vandenberg's ready so is the team it's go time ready tired of the ship sink the Vandenberg please crews leave the Vandenberg for the last time this phase of the reef makers operation is complete [Music] it's sink day the crews that prepped the vandenberg to become one of the world's largest artificial reefs now anxiously wait to see how this epic will end [Music] on the firing boat more than 76 metres away Tom secures his detonator Tim throttles the vessel to make sure the ignition line doesn't snap here's what they'll watch for when Tom pushes the button CDI loaded explosive cutting assemblies or ECAs into the ship do all 44 go off or detect divers and thoughts on a deadly mission to retrieve them Tom installed a 15-second delay in the ballasting tanks can this keep the heavy front hand from torpedoing a MSI anchored the ship to hit the target zone will she seek too deep for divers or too shallow to be safe for passing ships Tim's team also caught falls so air could flow out of the vessel are these enough to prevent the ship from rolling [Music] it all comes down to this [Music] really [Laughter] the Vandenberg's gone down here's how it happened Tom's ignition line holds the charge travels along the deadlock ECAs on the bottom decks go off water rushes in ECAs and the bow tax detonate 15 seconds later but it's not enough to keep the vessel level as water flows into the palace next the bow becomes heavier [Music] water replaces air escaping out of a MSI's outlet holes and the ship does not roll the stern sinks in a matter of seconds [Music] the scuttling is so quick that the two radar dishes would violently snap off and linger on the surface in this unprecedented footage we get a chance to ride the Vandenburg all the way to the ocean floor [Music] moments later the radar dish enjoys but despite the team's 15-second delay she still went down by the bow and no one knows yet how she landed divers enter the water to get a closer look they need to confirm the Vandenberg sits upright in the target zone [Music] success she sits majestically on the ocean floor but did all of Sidi eyes explosives detonate they circle the exterior in this footage we see the shaped charges cut entry holes cleaning through the ship's Hall and the additional explosives knocked out the center plate before water pressure pushed it into the ship divers count the blast holes all of the ECAs detonate the Tek divers will not have to recover any explosives they confirm the site is safe the artificial reef will open to the public after a cruise reattach the radar dishes reef makers plaque has been executed perfectly the teams take a moment to bask in the Florida sunshine and their success [Applause] below them lies a mighty ship finally at rest on the ocean floor a peaceful testament to the power of persistence and ingenuity [Music] you

Channel: Free Documentary

Views: 1,039,538

Rating: 4.7170076 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, #blowdown

Id: kfCQC9Nkj4Y

Length: 47min 1sec (2821 seconds)

Published: Sun Aug 25 2019