A friend at work sent me this kind of old article (Feb.'08) from Wired magazine: "
High Tech Cowboys of the Deep Seas", the story of salvage companies who save ships in incredibly difficult troubles. The article (a bit long) covers the rescue of the Cougar Ace, a ship loaded with Mazdas headed for the US, when this happened:
The story is centered on
Titan Salvage out of Pompano, Florida - just north of Ft. Lauderdale, and a place I know well. Used to go through it every day on the way to and from work.
They reminded me not so much of cowboys, but of
Red Adair,
Boots and Coots, and the other companies that put out the Kuwaiti oil fires. Extremely competent, hard working, and ready to take on life threatening work that few people could possibly do.
Maybe not cowboys. Maybe just Texans.
Ooh rah!
ReplyDeleteOne of my former shipmates works over there and just left yesterday for the wreck of the Costa Concordia. Every now and again, I get jealous, but then again, he usually lives and sleeps in the wreck for his 28-day rotation.
ReplyDeleteI read that article when it came out. They lost one guy who slide across the deck and smacked his head *really* hard.
ReplyDeleteIf there's one thing I'll never forgive myself for, it's for letting my (now ex-) wife talk me into leaving the commercial diving industry in the Gulf of Mexico. I followed my dream, then walked away from it, with many regrets for doing so.
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