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Chesapeake 1000

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Chesapeake 1000
Chesapeake 1000 in Baltimore in March 2024
History
NameSun 800
OwnerSun Shipbuilding
BuilderKelso Marine
Completed1972
IdentificationIMO number: 8639314
History
NameChesapeake 1000
OwnerDonjon Marine
Acquired1993
Nickname(s)Chessy
General characteristics
Length191 ft 2 in (58.3 m)
Beam101 ft 2 in (30.8 m)
Draft20 ft 1 in (6.1 m)

Chesapeake 1000 (formerly Sun 800) is a heavy lift sheerleg crane ship, owned by Donjon Marine Co., capable of lifting 1,000 short tons (890 long tons; 910 t).[1][2] It is one of the largest boomable stiff-leg-derrick barges on the eastern seaboard of the United States.[a][1][2]

The barge measures 191 feet (58 m) long,[1] with a beam of 101 feet (31 m); its draft is 20 feet (6.1 m).[5]

Since late March 2024, it has been involved in salvage efforts at Baltimore, following the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse.[1]

History

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The crane barge was built by Kelso Marine in Galveston, Texas[6][7] for Sun Shipbuilding in 1972 at a cost of nearly $5 million.[2][8] At the time, it was the largest crane ship in the world.[8] The crane was initially able to lift 800 short tons (710 long tons; 730 t), and so was named Sun 800.[9]

In 1982, Sun's parent, the Sun Oil Company, sold Sun Shipbuilding to Ed Paden, who renamed the business to Pennsylvania Shipbuilding (Penn Ship);[10] yard assets were renamed similarly, and the crane was renamed Penn 800.[11] While en-route to Puerto Rico in the mid-1980s, the derrick barge was caught in a hurricane and the original boom was lost; it was replaced with a boom measuring 256 ft (78 m) long (heel to jib) and the main fall block was upgraded to a 35-ton unit,[7] which increased the lifting capacity to 1,000 short tons (910 t) and the vessel was renamed Penn 1000.[9][11] Tim Colton, who was the Vice President of Marketing for Penn Ship, stated the engineers originally had designed the crane to be upgraded to 1000 tons; however, after the upgrade, it sat idle most of the time, so the crane was moved to the busier Port of Norfolk, Virginia and renamed Chesapeake 1000.[12]: 111–112 

In 1989, the United States Navy acquired a preferred mortgage on the floating crane as a performance guarantee for a contract to build five oil tankers, which had been awarded in 1984. After Penn Ship was unable to complete the contract, the crane barge was sold to Maritime Capital Corp, which subsequently sold it to Donjon, but the transfer was complicated by the pre-existing Navy encumbrance. The Navy released Penn Ship from its obligations in 1992,[13][14] and it was renamed to its current name, Chesapeake 1000, after the acquisition was completed by Donjon Marine in 1993.[15]

Operations

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Sun 800 was built for heavy lifts, specifically the gimbal platforms and bearings,[16]: 14  during the construction of Glomar Explorer,[2][8] which was the centerpiece of Project Azorian, a CIA project that aimed to recover Soviet submarines during the Cold War.[17] In 1975, Sun 800 was used to recover the 79 ft (24 m) tugboat Saratoga from the Delaware River,[18] which had sunk after being rammed by the ship it was towing.[19] By 1978, the heaviest lift recorded by Sun 800 was a 785-short-ton (712 t) deckhouse.[20] In 1979, it was used to help raise the stricken barge Elizabeth Turner.[8] Sun 800 was used for heavy lifts during the demolition of the central vertical lift spans of the CRRNJ Newark Bay Bridge in 1981, removing 4,500 short tons (4,100 t) of steel in one week.[21]

Under Donjon, which was based in Hillside, Pennsylvania, it removed a derelict steel trestle railroad bridge to Petty Island in 1991.[9] The Chesapeake 1000 participated in the 1996 salvage of the Irving Whale. After relocating its home port to Port Newark, it also has assisted in the 2016 construction of a 960 ft-long (290 m) laboratory building for Rockefeller University, and lifted and landed seven units to create a 485 ft-long (148 m), single-story platform for New York Hospital in 1995.[5] In 2016, Chesapeake 1000 was used to recover the 84 ft (26 m) tug Specialist, which sank in the Hudson River on March 12, killing three.[22]

Following the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, Chesapeake 1000 and Weeks 533 were dispatched to the Port of Baltimore;[23] they will be used first to clear several sections of the wrecked bridge and establish a temporary shipping channel, then to remove the bridge sections pinning MV Dali, and finally to remove the remaining bridge trusses outside the temporary channel. On March 30, 2024, the first section of the bridge was lifted.[24]

See also

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  • Weeks 533 (ex-Marine Boss), largest revolving floating crane on the East Coast
  • Technical data of Chesapeake 1000 at Website from Donjon Marine Co.

Notes

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  1. ^ Left Coast Lifter, currently tied up at Staten Island, can lift nearly double the capacity; it was constructed for the eastern span replacement of the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge and subsequently was moved to the east coast to work on the replacement Tappan Zee Bridge.[3][4]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d Yousif, Nadine (March 29, 2024). "Baltimore bridge: Massive US crane to haul wreckage after deadly collapse". BBC News. Retrieved April 1, 2024.
  2. ^ a b c d "The Biggest Crane Barge on the Baltimore Bridge Project has a CIA Past". The Maritime Executive. March 31, 2024. Retrieved April 1, 2024.
  3. ^ Kramer, Peter D. (March 29, 2024). "'Largest floating crane' at Baltimore bridge site isn't the one Hudson Valley might recall". Rockland/Westchester Journal News. Retrieved April 10, 2024.
  4. ^ "Huge floating crane swings into action to clear Baltimore bridge debris". The Globe and Mail. April 18, 2024. Retrieved May 1, 2024. The Chesapeake 1000 is a huge floating crane working to clear sections of debris from the Baltimore bridge that collapsed after being struck by a ship. But there's an even larger crane laid up in New York that could swing into action to help rebuild the Francis Scott Key Bridge.
  5. ^ a b Post, Nadine M. (March 21, 2017). "Floating Crane on Job in NYC's East River Has a Storied Past of Cold War Intrigue". Engineering News-Record. Retrieved April 3, 2024.
  6. ^ "West Gulf Marine". Shipbuilding History. January 28, 2021. Retrieved April 10, 2024.
  7. ^ a b "Donjon equipment up to the task" (PDF). DONJON In-Depth. Vol. 2, no. 1. Donjon Marine. Fall 2007. p. 4. Retrieved April 11, 2024.
  8. ^ a b c d Rossi, Frank (November 11, 1979). "The costly rescue of a wrecked ship". The Philadelphia Inquirer. Retrieved April 3, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  9. ^ a b c Altman, Howard (December 5, 1991). "Mighty crane tackles tough demolition job". The Philadelphia Inquirer. Retrieved April 3, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  10. ^ Schmidt III, John C. (Fall 2010). "Sun Ship: Vessels of Progress". Pennsylvania Center for the Book. Retrieved April 10, 2024.
  11. ^ a b Mongilio, Heather (March 29, 2024). "Crane Linked to CIA Soviet Sub Mission Now on Station at Key Bridge Collapse". USNI News. United States Naval Institute. Retrieved April 10, 2024.
  12. ^ Colton, Tim (2008). "12: PENNSYLVANIA: DEVELOPING THE BUSINESS". Staying Afloat: A Life in Shipbuilding (PDF). Delray Beach, Florida: Maritime Business Strategies, LLC. pp. 107–116.
  13. ^ United States v. Pennsylvania Shipbuilding Co., 255 F.Supp.2d 351 (E.D. Pa. 2002).
  14. ^ United States vs. Pennsylvania Shipbuilding Co., 473 F.3d 506 (3d. Cir. 2007).
  15. ^ Finley, Ben (April 3, 2024). "Chessy: The crane at the centre of the Maryland bridge clean-up and its CIA history". The Independent. Retrieved April 3, 2024.
  16. ^ "Engineering for AZORIAN" (PDF). Studies in Intelligence. 22 (3). Central Intelligence Agency. Fall 1978. Retrieved April 10, 2024.
  17. ^ Rosenzweig-Ziff, Dan; Somasundaram, Praveena (April 1, 2024). "A crane with Cold War CIA origins will help the Baltimore bridge cleanup". The Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved April 3, 2024.
  18. ^ Market, Robert (December 19, 1975). "Winds halt efforts to raise tugboat". Courier-Post. Camden, New Jersey. p. 57. Retrieved April 10, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  19. ^ "River Open After Crash". The New York Times. AP. December 10, 1975. Retrieved April 10, 2024.
  20. ^ Report on Survey of U.S. Shipbuilding and Repair Facilities (Report). Maritime Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce. 1978. p. 16. Retrieved April 10, 2024.
  21. ^ Project No. BRM-7543(2): Cochrane Bridge Replacement, City of Mobile, Mobile County | Administration Action: Final Environmental Impact Statement (Report). Federal Highway Administration, U.S. Department of Transportation. March 17, 1982. p. 185. Another alternative is one which was used in the summer of 1981 to remove two 299-foot long vertical lift spans on a railroad bridge that connected Bayonne and Elizabeth, New Jersey (Civil Engineering Magazine, September, 1981). [...] The Sun 800, the largest barge-mounted crane on the East Coast completed the job in only seven days. [...] A total of 4,500 tons of steel was removed.
  22. ^ Spillane, Matt (March 21, 2016). "Tugboat crash: Recovery underway". Lohud.com. Retrieved April 10, 2024.
  23. ^ "Unified Command continues Key Bridge Response 2024" (Press release). United States Army Corps of Engineers. March 29, 2024. Retrieved April 11, 2024.
  24. ^ "Plans to open Baltimore temporary channel". WorkBoat. April 1, 2024. Retrieved April 11, 2024.
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