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4 pictures are all of the same brand-new modular McDermott dive sytem on
the Jet Barge 3. All the shoreside pics are taken in McD's yard in Antwerp
Belgium in 1976. The bell-launch picture is the first-ever bell run of the
shiny new bell (with me inside). The fisheye view of the JB3's control was
taken by me. It was a very nicely laid-out and "cosy" dive control. Note
the Mcdermott Gas Blender in the left foreground. Don't see those things around
much any more! This particular dive system moved around from McD barge to
McD barge quite a bit. I dived it again on different barges in Sarawak and
Bombay High in the mid-eighties. A nice simple, safe and reliable setup all
round. |
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The jet-sled.jpg was also taken in McD's yard in Antwerp in 1977. As you can see, it was the MOTHER of all jet-sleds! Not for sissies this one! It didn't work either. McD's were having trouble jetting a pipeline in the Danish sector. The "sugar sand" seabed was so fluid that the trench was backfilling before the pipe could be buried. So McD's came up with what you see here. Of course it was a total fiaco. It was sent out on a derrick barge and deployed over the side using the big-rig one end and a Manitok crane at the other. It took about a week and 100+ air dives to get it set on the pipe and rigging up the hoses etc, but we only jetted a few 100 metres before McD aborted the whole thing because of the damage to the pipe weight-coat. So we headed back to Antwerp, only to offload the jet and head straight back out to the same pipe. So much concrete had been smashed off the pipe that 3-4 miles of the pipleine had floated to the surface! Hee hee.! :) Spent an interesting month laying concrete saddle blocks on the floating pipe to sink it. Next season the pipe was decommisioned and recovered... |
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This picture was taken on the DSV Pacific Installer in New Zealand in 1977.
What's of (slight!) interest about this particular ROV is that this was the
very original Mark One 225. Or so the operator told us all. It was certainly
the first time I'd seen an ROV. And the divers came to hate the f**king thing!
2 hours of every lockout by every diver involved rescuing the SOB from being
tangled somewhere. It was a total pain. After a month or so there were some
"unlucky" incidents where the 225 would accidentally come into direct contact
with a diver's clump hammer ... or its umbilical would (by plain bad luck)
get blown into the jaws of a pair of boltcutters that the diver would just
happen to be holding....... (guilty!) I really AM pretty sure that the RCV225
pictured was THE VERY FIRST ONE in operational use, and as I say, it was
universally hated by all the divers. Just about every bell lockout involved
a maximum upward excursion to free the damned thing... |
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No comment!!!
Perhaps it should be pinned up in dive shacks as a "Goverment Health Warning" |
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