HELP! What Do You Guys Think This Is?

[rgecy]

Ok, I scanned this image earlier today and just have no idea what this is. At first thought it was a dock float. But its 22' wide and 59' long.

Maybe a barge? But what about the openings? The one that looks like a hatch is about 8' x 7'.

I am stumped! Any ideas?

RGecy

 

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[Salvor6]

Looks like a cargo container.

 

[Tommi]

A really big shot in the dark, what about the wheelhouse of ship, there was a situation in the 60's or 70's over here where sand barge capsized and the wheelhouse fell off the barge, the hull was still afloat so it was towed to shore.
A couple of years ago the wheelhouse was found by a local diving company who found it upside down and the frist thing they thought it was was a train carrage.

 

[ScubaDude]

It's an old dredge, the upper part of the scan being the bow where the cutterhead and ladder pass through. The aft or bottom opening is a well or depression that the pump and engine reside in. Looks like its been stripped. You can see about four areas where the deck is collapsed which is probably why someone "parked" it there, a.k.a. beyond economical repair.

 

[southern maine diver]

Hey Robert...

Nice image from the 997C? I take it?
Being an older military man, Marine, it looks like the outline of an LST or landing craft. I've been in a couple of those and they were in different sizes, but they had a 60' long one and the front door was a landing ramp in which you could drive jeeps, trucks off of.

If the ramp door fell off or came open, it would have a tendancy to flood the craft and sink it. The square in the aft portion of the craft was the small wheel house would be located.

Just my thoughts,
Wayne

 

[Snowdragon]

Looks like a very large zipper pull. lol

 

[ScubaDude]

The beam is too wide for an LST of that length, and the length doesn't fit, plus where is the cargo pit? Its a dredge.

LCM 6 is 56 x 14
LCM 8 is 74 x 21

 

[rgecy]

Brad,

I can see it being a dredge. Have you got any pictures of one?

I had considered the landing craft, but it is only 4-5' tall and the slit in the bow really threw me.

Thanks guys! Heading back today with High Def transducer.

Robert

 

[ScubaDude]

There are hundreds of variations depending on who built it, or if it is custom (homemade) built. The generality being the slot for the ladder/pipe. The wheelhouse would have been just aft of that, and the pump/engine in the stern. I was trying to see from your scans if there are spud wells on the stern, do you have any close up images?

http://www.dredge.com/specs/mc2000.htm

or

 

[riobravo]

good lookin image robert.
and i can vouch that it's not a 6 or 8 boat

 

[wwwtimmcp]

I think it is an lst. it looks like his beam measurement is off because it is a 3d image. he is counting the depth of the hull on the port side into his beam reading measurement. remove that part of the measurement and I think 59'x14' is going to be very close.

 

[Cablava]

Rob

I am also thinking it's an old dredge.

I think the beam is more like 20 ft as It appears you have measured from the bottom of the wreck at the sea bed level to the opposite top side.

Whn you go back lets have a few other angles of the object.

Keep up uthe good work

Mike

 

[rgecy]

Well guys, I think Brad hit the nail on head. It has to be an old dredge barge! It was definitely steel hulled and there was cabling all over the deck, some chain, and a large bollard. Everything you would expect to find on a dredge barge.

It had probably been down there since the 1960's or 70's. The deck was rusted through pretty good and there was a lot of growth and encrustation. I didn't get to dive it personally, but I was told it was a pretty "cool" dive. Water temp was around 55 deg. and visibility was about 3-4'. For a river dive around here, that's pretty good.

I will try to post some picts tomorrow.

Thanks,

Robert

 

[Narked1]

OK, definitely not a military landing craft. If you go back in the archives quite a few months, I posted concerning an LCM MK-1 landing craft that I had located off the north coast of Egypt. At that time I did extensive research on both American and British landing craft of all types and this one does not come close to resembling anything that I can find in my reference books concerning landing craft/amphibious assault craft (Jane's for WW2 to present, Ladd's "Assault from the Sea", Buship's listings, just to name a few). Have also served and worked on a few of the more modern "Mike" boats as well during my Navy days in the 80's and 90's.

Brad is correct, as far as my research leads me to believe, that this is indeed a dredge. If it were a landing craft from WW2 through to present day, it would have a wheel house of some type on the after section without the well area as engine access was centered forward of the wheelhouse either through the main deck or through the aft bulkhead of the recessed equipment well (which is not present in this case). A small few of the early landing craft (pre- and early-WW2) had a well area aft where the wheelhouse was installed on later craft, but still had a recessed equipment well forward that ran the length of the craft. Other early landing craft had no equipment well and resembled barges with raised bulwarks, but still had a wheelhouse aft.

The dimensions are close to a couple of the mid-to-post WW2 Landing Craft and leaves the possibility that it is a converted landing craft. Doubtful however, due to the cost of modifying a landing craft to the configuration that I see in the scans. Just a thought though.

Oh, and a correction here: LST is not a small landing craft. LST stands for Landing Ship, Tank and was the 'Mother" Ship that carried all of the smaller landing craft and launched them at sea.

Mike

 

[pcolaboy]

My vote is for a derrick or lay barge. I'm almost positive I've seen one with an open stern area...looking for a pic now.

Pcola