Chapter 250: Make Preparations for Salvage
"What's the feedback from the ROV?" Xiao Peng commanded from the deck with a walkie-talkie.
The voice of the staff in the ROV operation room came over the intercom: "Found it!"
"Are the coordinates okay?" Xiao Peng commanded, "If not, keep the ship stable!"
"No problem!" An excited voice came from the intercom.
Standing next to Xiao Peng was the captain of the ship. After hearing what Xiao Peng said, he explained, "Mr. Xiao, please rest assured. This ship has a DP3 dynamic positioning system."
After hearing this, Xiao Peng sighed: "Gas money! Gas money!"
At sea, with its winds and waves, anchors are needed to keep a ship anchored. But where can we find such long anchor chains in the thousands of meters of deep water? Deep-sea drilling platforms, crane vessels, and salvage and rescue vessels all require precise mooring at sea. This requires a dynamic positioning system.
According to the requirements of the International Maritime Organization, all dynamic positioning systems are divided into three levels, namely DP1, DP2 and DP3. The highest level is DP3, which has the most accurate mooring accuracy and the strongest ability to resist wind and waves.
This may sound simple, but it is actually a very complicated thing to design. It requires a computer to make a comprehensive judgment on the environmental data such as wind speed, wave height, ocean current speed, etc. of the ship's environment, and then calculate to control the thrust of each propeller so that the ship maintains its bow direction and hull coordinates without moving in the sea.
In fact, this technology was once a Western monopoly. In the early years, only domestically produced DP1-level dynamic positioning systems were available for domestically produced engineering vessels, with all others imported. However, in recent years, China has also mastered this technology. This has only been five or six years, coinciding with the rapid development of naval vessels, and this vessel has been equipped with a DP3 dynamic positioning system.
However, using this equipment requires the thrusters to work all the time, which means burning oil at a high speed. Xiao Peng was very distressed.
The captain coughed twice and asked, "What should we do next?"
Xiao Peng said, "Winch operators, get ready! Get on the deck removal device! Everyone, be careful! ROV operating room, I told you where to work in the cabin. Remove all the upper decks!"
After he finished speaking, he handed the intercom to the captain: "Wait until all the decks in the planned location are removed and tell me!"
The captain was stunned: "Mr. Xiao, where are you going?"
Xiao Peng spread his hands and said, "Of course I sleep. Can you guys finish this job in ten hours?"
After hearing this, the captain said angrily, "Mr. Xiao, you underestimate us too much. With just a small mid-deck, we guarantee to complete the mission in eight hours at most!"
Xiao Peng nodded. "That's enough time for me to get some sleep! Remember, we're racing against time. In 24 hours, an Italian ship will arrive in this area. We're just trying to create a time difference! Clean up the deck remover after use. No one can tell we used it! Remember, the 'Deep Sea Warrior' absolutely cannot go into the sea!"
"yes!"
Xiao Peng went back to the cabin to catch up on some sleep! This wasn't his "red-headed ship," so sleeping wasn't as comfortable! He finally fell asleep when the captain called him, "Mr. Xiao, the deck has been cut! We're cleaning it now. What do we do next?"
Xiao Peng glanced at his watch and sat up immediately: "Fuck, only five and a half hours? How did you do that?"
The captain grinned: "That's how it's done!"
Xiao Peng jumped up from the bed: "I'll go check the work."
He went to the ROV control room in the cabin and took a look at the underwater camera: "Move to the right... Very good, back up, back up, very good, very good! Damn, you guys are really good!"
The young man operating the ROV shook his head after hearing Xiao Peng's words. "This is already much slower! It should have been completed in four and a half hours, but the middle deck remover fell off once and the battery had to be replaced, so we wasted an extra hour!"
What else could Xiao Peng say? He could only give a thumbs-up. He had truly witnessed China's efficiency!
He was used to living in Europe and used to the work efficiency here. He was shocked when he compared it with the environment!
Let alone installing the deck remover on the seabed, it would take at least three hours for a European offshore engineering company!
The captain introduced cheerfully, "Mr. Xiao, don't underestimate Xiao Zhou's youth. There's no one in China with better ROV skills than him! Duan Bo is working for you, right? Actually, Duan Bo is Xiao Zhou's student! Mr. Xiao, the country has sent elites for this salvage operation, so just tell us what to do!"
"How is the winch preparation?" Xiao Peng asked.
"We can start the next task at any time." The captain said, "The person operating the winch is Duan Bo's junior fellow apprentice. His skills are impeccable."
Xiao Peng whistled.
Don’t underestimate the winch operators on deep-sea salvage vessels; they may all be top-notch ROV operators. In other words, if you want to operate an ROV well, you must first practice using the crane winch!
Xiao Peng said, "Prepare the cranes! Send down the high-torque shears to cut the steel beams securing the hull! Again, everyone, stay safe!"
Although the name of these high-torque shears sounds like a pair of "small scissors," they're actually quite large! They're a massive steel beast weighing several tons! Each cut can exert 200 tons of pressure! They can even cut through the steel beams of an aircraft carrier!
A deep-sea camera was also installed on the winch chain to facilitate the winch operator's work. Looking at the screen, Xiao Peng commanded: "Put the high-torque shear on that steel beam below!"
After the high-torque shear was placed, ROV operator Xiao Zhou operated the ROV to approach the high-torque shear. On the screen, he saw the ROV extending two mechanical arms to grab the hydraulic cable and insert it into the two holes at the top of the high-torque shear. This process is commonly known as "hot buckle". Once the hydraulic lock and the high-torque shear are connected, the high-torque shear can be controlled to work.
Carrying out this work at a depth of over 2,000 meters is no easy task. The cable is over 2,000 meters long, and every movement of the ship above it means a distance of several dozen meters. Although the ship remains relatively stable, the ROV on the seabed is still swaying.
I saw Xiao Zhou push the robotic arm aside and use the joystick on the console. He took a deep breath, caught the rhythm and pushed hard, and saw the hydraulic cable on the screen directly buckled!
"Awesome!" Xiao Peng exclaimed from the bottom of his heart.
"What do we do next?" asked on the boat.
"Cut all these steel beams! Clear a path for the ROV!"
This job was even longer, as it required the coordination of a winch and ROV, which controlled the high-torque shears to reach the designated position and cut the steel beam. The entire process lasted all night.
"What do we do next?" asked the captain.
"Clean up all the tools and get the boat out of this area. Move eight nautical miles in the direction of N23.1!"
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