Nomadic, Titanic & other historic vessels

[Renegadenemo]

Probably the wrong place for me to rant about it but I don't understand how LOCOG thought it would be ok to sell torches for half what they cost and allow people to sell them on for phenomenal sums and pocket the difference.

I'd say the answer is straightforward enough. Bean-counting, procedure-ridden bureaucrats won't have seen that one coming...

[Dangermouse]

Considering all the crazy rules for disposing of this and that - how d'you get rid of 50,000 litres of unwanted green gunk? I bet it attracted every fruit fly and wasp for a hundred miles around too...

Given this is Bristol harbour I'd suggest dumping it in the vicinity of the Underfall sluices (one of I.K. Brunel's lesser-known bits of engineering) and letting the famous tidal range of the Avon gorge deal with it!

[DamienB]

Depreciation innit. Losing half their value instantly? Must be made by Alfa Romeo.

[rob565uk]

Probably the wrong place for me to rant about it but I don't understand how LOCOG thought it would be ok to sell torches for half what they cost and allow people to sell them on for phenomenal sums and pocket the difference.

I'd say the answer is straightforward enough. Bean-counting, procedure-ridden bureaucrats won't have seen that one coming...

As part of my work, I have regular contact with LOCOG and suffice to say the situation above is far from unusual. At the end of the day (Games?), LOCOG is just another QUANGO, busy using up a huge budget within defined timescales. Value for money doesn't seem to come into it ........

[Mike Bull]

Footage released of dives made to HMS Coventry following her sinking-

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-18200995

[klingon]

Just back from a day out down in Irvine-City of Adelaide is beginning to resemble a trussed turkey in readiness for her last great voyage home to Oz-wunner when they'll start moving her?

[Dangermouse]

Footage released of dives made to HMS Coventry following her sinking-

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-18200995

I've always thought diving a wreck soon after the sinking must be a very disturbing experience, especially so if you know that not everyone got out before it sank. I watched a couple of things about the Estonia a while ago, I really couldn't handle what those divers had to cope with.

[Renegadenemo]

I dived a trawler once where a bloke was trapped and drowned but the wheelhouse had been swept away by another trawler by the time we got there and the body turned up in a net months later. It was still spooky on the down-line, though, wondering if his bloated face and dead eyes would be staring out of the window when we shone a torch through it.

Here's a book well worth reading...

http://www.amazon.com/Descent-Darkness- ... 0891417451

[DamienB]

Having spent this weekend gone with survivors of the Coventry (my dad among them) at their 30th anniversary reunion it was a bit of a shock to see the underwater footage. I knew it existed, but hadn't expected the MoD to ever release any of it. Spooky to see the Sea Dart still on the launcher - as the ship rolled over that missile punctured my dad's liferaft, sinking him for the second time that day.

As well as recovering classified material and certain other tasks, the divers recovered the Cross of Nails (made up of nails from the roof of Coventry Cathedral, destroyed in the WWII blitz). The Cross went on to be held by HMS Coventry F98 and on that ship's decommissioning went back to Coventry Cathedral. With the launch of HMS Diamond and the ship's adoption by the City of Coventry, the Cross is now back onboard a Royal Navy warship and Diamond's CO kindly allowed the HMS Coventry Association to borrow the Cross for Friday's memorial service.

[Mike Bull]

Spooky to see the Sea Dart still on the launcher - as the ship rolled over that missile punctured my dad's liferaft, sinking him for the second time that day.

Crumbs!