Tank Recovery ( from Sea )

[RattlesnakeBob]

Hey Ray I stopped by and had a look at that Sherman a couple of years ago and she's not in too bad a condition all things considered......I guess whatever they sprayed her with is working at holding the rust back.....but.... having said that she would be a phenomenal restoration job.......

[utt61]

There was, I am sure, an in-depth article about this in either "After the Battle" or "Wheels and Tracks" a good few years ago, which I remember reading myself.

 

Is there anyone here who perghaps has a complete run of these magazines and could see if they can find out which issue of which mag it was, since I would like to read it again?

 

Found it! Issue 45 of After the Battle

[Enigma]

Seen the Slapton Sands tank less than 2 weeks ago when in Devon.

Walked the beach hoping to find something....only found a dead dogfish (I called it a mini shark.)

[utt61]

......I guess whatever they sprayed her with is working at holding the rust back.......

 

It was pressure-washed then sprayed with a rust-convertor called "Fertan".

[johnhughes]

The area off Malin head was a killing ground for the U Boats attacking the atlantic convoys as they formed up / dispersed out of lough foyle. It was also the final resting place of at least a dozen U Boats sunk in combat mainly by coastal command aircraft and after the war approximately 60 U boats were 'in theory' deep sea scuttled further out to sea. To 'speed things up' some of the scuttling crews opened the U boat sea cocks in lough foyle so they sank faster (and the crew got home in time for tea) and therefore some of the subs didn't make it to the deep dump areas. At least one U boat is in the mud in Lough foyle due to a really over zealous scuttling crew. Also after the war heavy equipment (tanks) were dumped off LCT into the deep sea, if the crews worked to the same well documented principles as the dumping crews working out of loch Ryan in scotland they were chucking equipment overboard 5 minutes from the dock. this would explain why munitions keep washing up on N Ireland coast. the shermans in the video could be cargo or war surplus equipment.

 

 

:undecided:

 

j

[simpleearth]

The Empire Heritage was a fuel tanker with some cargo.

There are also some trucks scattered about the sea bed as well. If anyone wants any more information, try contacting the diving club in Dowings in Co.Donegal and try and speak to Kevin.

Back in 2002 I dived a lot of the Malin Head wrecks in the 55m-80m range, they were all victims of u-boats.

One wreck had bottles of wine and champagne in wooden boxes, some bottles still had the corks in them :-D but I wouldn`t advise drinking any of it.

 

The diving was fantastic but it nearly cost me my life, great viz but still very deep and not to be taken lightly.

[Feraralive]

I think that's right!

[Matt L]

To realistically keep these tanks in good condition it would need a long treatment time once raised they would need to be completely immersed in a pool of salt water at the same salinity as their current environment then slowly, very slowly reduce the salininty until the water is purely fresh water, then there are some special chemicals you can start to add to try and reduce the active rust. Eventually you may be able to stabilise it enough, blast it, and then paint it with rust prohibative paint, or you may wish to completely take the vehicle apart and restore it to a running order, but you'll need to coat every surface to stop it rusting.