by Guest » October 20, 2017, 9:26 pm
hugh3 wrote:Seems to me the last time they did a scan of the Fritz, the spar deck on the forward end was collapsed and gone.
That was due to the violent destruction during the sinking, the mid section literally collapsed into itself, leaving the apparently intact areas of cargo deck and hull in a very precarious condition. The stern section hull is known to be structurally sound, despite being upside down and the deckhouses crushed under it.
The larger problem may be getting to the fuel tank, if the fuel tank is really a separate container located inside the middle of the hull and not part of it. It seems that's how the coal bunker was originally built, but it's not clear to me how the fuel oil tank was constructed after it was added during the conversion to oil.
[quote="hugh3"]Seems to me the last time they did a scan of the Fritz, the spar deck on the forward end was collapsed and gone.[/quote]
That was due to the violent destruction during the sinking, the mid section literally collapsed into itself, leaving the apparently intact areas of cargo deck and hull in a very precarious condition. The stern section hull is known to be structurally sound, despite being upside down and the deckhouses crushed under it.
The larger problem may be getting to the fuel tank, if the fuel tank is really a separate container located inside the middle of the hull and not part of it. It seems that's how the coal bunker was originally built, but it's not clear to me how the fuel oil tank was constructed after it was added during the conversion to oil.