The Lift Diary

All images © Bluebird Project

02/March/2001

Day 1 of the operation to recover the wreck of Donald Campbell's Bluebird.

For several weeks now, the people of Coniston have been watching a pair of huge barges being slowly refurbished and refitted in the car park next to the Bluebird Café. Today those barges took to the water for the first time since their arrival. They were assembled into a floating platform complete with cranes, hydraulics and a mass of underwater salvage equipment.

Before this vessel set out for the middle of the lake, members of the original Bluebird team travelled to the wreck site and parked one of their ROV's (Remotely Operated Vehicles) next to the shattered remains of Bluebird. Divers followed the little swimming robot out to the wreck and secured a line from the wreck to the surface. Soon afterwards the barge arrived on site. After a quick survey, the barge crew deployed four huge concrete anchors in a square pattern around the wreck to hold the barge. The crew on board Predator, survey vessel to the Bluebird team, watched carefully using scanning sonar to ensure that the concrete anchors didn't disturb any part of the crash site. It took all afternoon to properly position the barge but when the job was complete, the whole array of salvage equipment was poised 140 feet above the wreck, the stage was set.

03/march/2001

Day 2 of the operation to recover the wreck of Donald Campbell's Bluebird

It started out as one of those cold still sunny mornings, the team were up and about by 8.30am. Kit was prepared on the small jetty at the Coniston boating centre as bacon, eggs, sausage and coffee were prepared in the Bluebird Café on the beach. By the time that the team had set out towards the moored salvage barge in the centre of the lake, a light but very cold wind had started blowing out of the South. Dive one was carried out by Zaid Al-Obadi, and Graham Woodfine, their objective was to secure a pair of lifting strops around each end of the rear spar sticking out of the sides of the wreck. Both divers descended the down line that had been secured the day before and swam into the lights of the ROV that had been parked on top of the wreck to observe their movements.
Zaid fitted both strops perfectly as Graham provided illumination with his ridiculously powerful torch. After tidying up the various bits of tape and line that they had scattered as they worked, they made their way to the back of the wreck to look for, or rather feel for a pair of steel tethering eyes attached to the back of the wreck. These eyes were provided on the boat as part of its original design and their purpose was to allow the boat to be tethered while its engine was run to full power. Graham dug through half a metre of silt to find the eye on the left-hand side whilst Zaid found the other. After verifying that both were present and undamaged, the divers went back to the down line and made a routine ascent to the surface.
Zaid and Bill Smith conducted dive 2. Zaid's task was to connect a second pair of strops to the eyes that had been located on the previous dive, and Bill was to make a thorough survey of the spar, which by now had a pair of lifting strops attached. It was about to be pulled on with sufficient force to move the wreck. Any obvious weakness of the spar would force the team to think again about using it as a lifting point. Once again the dive went without a hitch and both divers returned safely after 30 minutes. Throughout both dives the little ROV swam about watching every move recording some excellent footage in the process.

Salvage barge with more equipment, personnel, enthusiasm, motivation,respect and dignity than a speed record enthusiast and they were there as well

Sunday 04th March 2001

Day 3,

Today dawned crystal clear, flat calm and with bright warm sunshine. Breakfast was the usual hearty plate of bacon and eggs from the Bluebird Café and the barge was inhabited by 09.30. It was a beautiful diving day and it didn't take long to get the first pair in the water. Once again, Zaid and Bill had to kit up and drop over the side. Today's mission, to fit the triangular lifting frames front and rear so that the wreck will hang evenly on the end of its strops when it is lifted. First to be fitted was the front frame. It was lowered to the lakebed on the end of the main down line that will support Bluebird's weight as she is raised back to the surface after 34 years. As usual, there was a little ROV sat waiting for the divers when they arrived and through its eyes the surface support were able to watch signals from the divers and position the frame exactly. It took only moments to rig the frame to the strops, most of the preparation having been done on the surface.

After another wait on the line for dissolved gas to exit the divers bloodstream, they both surfaced safely. Throughout all the underwater activity, commercial diver Gavin Reynolds sat near the surface wearing surface supply equipment. He was able to check that both divers had no problems as they made their ascent and let the surface know over his communication system.

It was time for the first big test of both team and Bluebird herself.

The downline was rigged to the crane on the barge, our swimming robot was positioned on the lake bed under the spar so that it could watch, lake bed, the side of the wreck and the spar itself. If all three didn't move at the same time, the team could have serious problems. As tension was applied by the crane, things started to move on the video monitors. Our barge canted over as the lake bed fought to hold Bluebird down but with a rush the barge settled upright and mud boiled in front of the ROV's camera as she broke her front end free of the mud. For the first time in 34 years, Bluebird was on the move.

With the wreck hanging at 45 degrees the same pair of divers descended once more to rig the rear lifting frame. Accompanying Bill and Zaid on the second trip was Carl Spencer. He carried a tape measure to gather important dimensional information. This will allow the team to rig extra safety strops of precisely the correct length and type to ensure that the boat doesn't suffer any unnecessary damage when it is towed to the North end of the lake. As before, Gavin watched over the ascending divers and remained in contact with the surface.

With all the strops, lifting frames and down lines fitted the front end of the wreck free of the mud and the team in high spirits. Bluebird was carefully laid back on the lakebed for the night. Operations will begin again in the morning.

Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) Being deployed But sometimes it has to be recovered due to tumbleweed!!!

5th March 2001

Day 4

The Operation to lift the Bluebird wreck.

Yet another spectacular day in the weather department, a flat calm lake and brilliant sunshine. One or two fluffy clouds wandering by and that was it. Today's mission, to get the rear end of the wreck clear of the mud.

It seems that Bluebird went into the mud backwards or at least at a steep tail down angle. Her rear end being buried about a metre in the mud. Her jet-pipe full almost to the top, the tail end was always going to be the difficult part. However, we believed that having pulled the front clear, the back would follow easily.

Fate decided to do its worst today. The team had left various down lines into the wreck and before leaving the site, each line had been carefully tightened and a buoy attached. Of course, by the morning, all of the said down lines had managed to entangle themselves. As if this wasn't enough, the strops on the wreck had wrapped themselves around the tail of the wreck in such a way that any attempt to pull on the lines would have pulled the tail off. It took half the day to clear up the mess and used up much of the precious daily bottom time allotted to the divers.

After lunch, the team set about the task that should have occupied them all morning, namely pulling Bluebird's rear end out of the mud. Our barge crew rigged the crane to the stern down line and with the ROV sitting watching from a safe distance the tension was wound onto the rope. Nothing, nothing at all, the mud was having none of it. We pulled until there was about 2 tons of lift on the boat and there we stopped, not daring to pull any harder for fear of damaging the wreck. The team sat nonplussed for a few minutes, the barge canted over. We waited for a while in the hope that it would give in but it wouldn't.

It was time to think again, we backed off on the crane whilst our surface supplied divers kitted in, a 2 ton lifting bag was rigged to the stern down line and the crane was rigged to the bow. Our lifting bag was inflated to about half its capacity and as it was positioned just below the surface it had nowhere to rise to if the stern came free. Still it held on, our ROV watching patiently. We then wound up on the crane, at least the front end would move and move it did. It was lifted to about 45 degrees and at last we had the wonderful sight of the stern end of the wreck breaking out of the mud and rising about half a metre clear. This would allow us to fit the last of the safety strops under the wreck but we'd used up all the daylight and there was nothing for it but to set the wreck back down on the mud and wait for a new day.

Let the crane take the strain Bags of lift but will it shift

Day 5

The Operation to lift the Bluebird wreck.

Tuesday, another decent day, not as sunny as yesterday but things could have been a lot worse. After the previous days' delays we started out expecting a repeat performance of the tangled mass of ropes and strops. Fate, however seemed to have left us alone for the moment and our strops were as we'd left them.

We'd managed to get the boat free of the lakebed for a brief moment and so we knew that it would come out again. It was time to fit the remaining strops that would ensure that if Bluebird's structure failed in any way during the lift, she would not fall.

Our commercial divers, Zaid al Obaidi, Chris Kerr, Gav Reynolds and Ian Taylor spent the entire day under water either individually or in pairs. Only resting to allow the dissolved gas to get out of their bodies. The technical team were also in the water most of the time videoing and surveying the site. Graham Woodfine, Carl Spencer, Sal Cartwright and Bill Smith all took to the water today in an all out effort to make up the time lost yesterday.

Divers leave the water for a break and to warm up

March 7th

Day 6

The Operation to lift the Bluebird wreck.

At last, some progress! Although the day started out badly with strong gusty winds out of the south, we were still able to do some useful work.

Our attempts to fit the forward safety strops were hampered by the twisted cockpit floor. It just wouldn't let the strop sit correctly so the first job was to get a diver under the hull to push some of the twisted plating back into its correct position. It's very springy stuff so commercial diver Ian Taylor spent some time working on the offending area whilst the front of the boat was suspended off the bottom. Having got the material back to where it should be, he secured it with a second strop to hold it in place.

Second job of the day was to get the boat completely off the bottom and clean it out. We knew that each end would lift in turn but lifting the whole thing a short distance would let the divers get in with water jetting equipment to blow about a ton of mud out of the hull.

Our salvage expert Brian Gilgeous ordered the fitting of a pair of 2 ton lift bags just below the surface and as we all watched expectantly, he inflated the bags and they rose a short distance bringing Bluebird with them. Our ROV watched with satisfaction as the hull crept out of the mud and hung suspended just above the lakebed.

Next divers down were Chris Kerr and Gav Reynolds who spent most of the afternoon water jetting masses of accumulated mud from within the hull, we could hear their voices on the intercom but there was so much mud flying about that we were unable to see them at all. Another task that they performed was a thorough inspection of the hole left in the lakebed after Bluebird was lifted clear. There was nothing in there.

The team are now ready to begin the delicate task of inching the wreck towards the surface.

Diver prepares for water

Day 7

We've done it!!

Today, the Bluebird team successfully raised the wreck of Bluebird to the surface of Coniston water and hauled her out of the water. Last night was her final one spent in the dark waters of Coniston. Due to increasing fears about hoards of people descending on the Lake District in the midst of a foot and mouth crisis, the team were asked to speed up the operation and recover the wreck as discreetly as possible.

All our alarm clocks were set for 04.30, we didn't go to bed until midnight. It was a somewhat bleary-eyed crew that stumbled about in the pitch dark quietly loading equipment into the vans. However, the word was out and by the time the team assembled in the car park at the Bluebird café there were already several outside broadcast units waiting for us. There was little of the usual spirited banter, the cold dark morning and early start left us a little short of enthusiasm. The barge was bathed in cold white halogen light when predator pulled alongside; some of the commercial team were shivering, hands in pockets. It was pitch dark out there and a brisk southerly breeze was lifting small waves on the water surface. At least the wind was with us rather than against us.

Our first job was to check the wreck hanging just below the surface for the usual collection of slackened strops and tangled ropes, she'd survived the night in good shape. As the sky in the east began to take on a faint glow preparations were made to loosen the barge from its moorings. It was very important that the barge and more importantly the wreck itself didn't get entangled in any of the mooring ropes that were still attached to huge concrete anchors on the lakebed. As the two southern anchors were released from the barge, the two northern mooring ropes were also disconnected and pulled far apart by Predator and our small inflatable. Bluebird set off once more towards the north end of the lake. She passed the north timing post at 06.42 and our two resident Donald Campbell enthusiasts, Novie and Paul immediately set about calculating the speed for Donald's second run. At the north end of the lake, in the gathering dawn, we could see live broadcast units and pressmen setting up on the beach. Our resident ROV pilot, Graeme Connacher, suddenly found himself with nothing to do at a crucial stage in the operation and lacking the equipment to set up yet another cyber café, (he's got one in Glenridding and he assembled another small one in the back room of the Sun Inn for the duration of the project) he set about connecting his ROV screen so that he could watch the television news in the wheelhouse.

Predator ran off ahead of the barge and dropped a marker in the lake to mark 5-metre depth of water off the jetty. This would allow the barge crew to know when Bluebird was going to ground on the mud of the lakebed. Predator then took Bluebird in tow for a few minutes while the barge was positioned in shallow water and its long extendable legs dropped into the mud. Bluebird was brought alongside, allowed to ground and the lift bags were deflated to sit her on the bottom.

Over the side went Zaid on the surface supply, he stripped away the lifting frames and long strops and replaced them with shorter ones. All four lift bags were attached once more but this time they were much lower down and when inflated they would partially raise the wreck out of the water. At the first attempt to blow the bags, Bluebird didn't want to play, as the bags filled she remained obstinately held in the mud until she suddenly broke free, slewed round under the barge and tried to come up there. Brian frantically dumped air from the bags and sent her back to the bottom. She was under the barge by now and before we could lift her again the barge had to be moved. Richard and Graham from Lakeland Marine Engineering skilfully spun the barge around leaving Bluebird well clear. Zaid had by now been in the water for some time and he came out for a rest to be replaced in the lake by Ian Taylor. Ian had better luck than Zaid and at 10.45 we were treated to the incredible sight of the blue tail fin rising majestically from the water flanked by a pair of orange lift bags. Her shattered front end followed shortly afterwards. Chris and Gav leapt into the water at the back end and Carl tackled the front. Pieces of carpet were thrown to them to protect the bags from sharp edges, a quantity of jet fuel escaped and everyone got a taste of it.

Our recovery trailer took a bit of manoeuvring into position and Bluebird's front end eventually had to be helped up using the crane. While Sal Cartwright tussled single handed with the back end of the wreck, Ian Taylor attached a chain pull to the front of the wreck and winched Bluebird onto her cradle. Beanie and Carl struggled around with the front bags until she was in position. Finally, the bags were deflated, removed from the wreck and a Land Rover on the beach started winching. Bill stood on the port side deck holding the tail fin as Bluebird came out of the lake.

A dream comes true for the team

Now that Bluebird is out of the lake, she will have to be preserved and found a permanent home. Details of this will be posted on this diary page and the full account of the search, discovery and salvage of the boat will be available in a book to be published later this year.