Page 26: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (February 1968)

$30-Million Navy Destroyer Salvaged By Murphy Pacific Using Urethane Foam System Chemists and salvage engineers have de-veloped a new way of recovering sunken ships from Davy Jones's locker that utilizes urethane foam. Urethane foam chemicals are fed under pres-sure into the hulls on the seabottom or on reefs. The chemicals react and quickly expand into rigid floats of great buoyancy?30 pounds per pound of urethane. These foamed-in-place floats help to lift the vessels to the surface and to float them back to port. The technique was developed and patented by the Polytron Department of Olin Mathie-son Chemical Corporation in conjunction with Murphy Pacific Salvage Company of Emery-ville, Calif., one of the nation's largest and best-known salvagers. The salvager utilizes Poly-gon's Autofroth I, the world's only aerosol packaged polyurethane foam system. "Ever since we became aware of foam in the early 1950s, we've been intrigued with the pos-sibility of capitalizing upon its buoyancy for salvage," J. Philip Murphy, president of Mur-phy Pacific, declared. "However, it wasn't until the development of the Autofroth I system that we were able tp find a practical way of using the foam." The Polytron system requires the pressuriz-ing of two basic urethane components in sepa-rate cylinders. The materials are fed through temperature compensating flow chambers and then expelled through a static mixing chamber. No longer under pressure, the materials react and expand. Curing into rigid material takes only a few minutes. One of the most difficult tasks undertaken by-Murphy Pacific was to float the USS Frank Knox. For its success, the company was com-mended by the U.S. Navy. The vessel was impaled on the treacherous Pratas Reef in the South China Sea two years ago with at least 20 of its forward compart-ments flooded and the hull so ripped that patching was impossible. It seemed that the 2,420-ton destroyer was lost. The forward section of the 391-foot ves-sel lay high on the reef at low tide and the ship began to sag under the crushing weight of the water in her hull. It appeared as if the ship must break up and sink. Murphy Pacific's first step was to arrange for tons of material and ten Autofroth I sys-tems to be flown to the Philippines on a high-priority basis. Everything was loaded on a Navy ship and rushed to the stricken destroyer. Having the deck of the USS Knox above water helped in the ship's rescue. Working rapidly, Murphy Pacific technicians and Navy crewmen established what undoubtedly was the first urethane foam plant ever located on the deck of a Navy ship. It took but an hour for the Murphy Pacific specialists to train the Navy divers in foaming techniques. The Navy was ready to make a last attempt at salvage. Navy divers, working along the hull under water, discharged foam into drilled holes. An Autofroth I system was hauled into the flooded compartments where foam was released and where it displaced the encroaching waters. In two weeks nearly 80 tons of urethane foam were used and 17 of the ship's flooded compart-ments became buoyant and watertight. It took two more days of careful effort to 'bounce' the ship free from the reef. She was then towed to Formosa for emergency hull repairs. Today the USS Knox is back in service and the taxpayers were saved the $30-million it would have cost to replace her. Salvage by foam is so new that few are familiar with it as yet. Murphy Pacific officials have so little doubt about its success that they predict freely that it will take only a few years before the use of foam becomes a basic weapon in man's arsenal to cheat the sea of victims. Joe Spivey Joins New Div. Of Standard Oil Company Joe L. Spivey, advertising manager of Hum-ble Oil & Refining Company, will join Stand-ard Oil Company (New Jersey) in New York City, effective March 1, as manager of the parent Jersey Standard's newly created Pri-vate Transport Market Division. Mr. Spivey was manager of the Central region in Humble's Marketing Department before his transfer to the Houston headquar-ters staff last June as advertising manager for the oil company, largest U.S. refiner and mar-keter of petroleum products. His new assignment in New York is in the parent company's Marketing Coordination De-partment. Humble is Jersey Standard's largest operating affiliate. Mr. Spivey has been in marketing since he joined Humble in Houston nearly 20 years ago. After serving as California area marketing manager, he transferred to Midland, Texas, as area marketing manager and later served in Houston as acting marketing manager of Humble's Southwestern region and as assist-ant region manager. Appointed pricing manager in the headquar-ters Marketing Department in January 1966, he was named Central region manager in Chi-cago in September of the same year. Mr. Spivey is a native of Waco, Texas, and a 1948 graduate of Baylor University, Waco, with a degree in business administration. He was in the Navy during World War II, serv-ing in the South Pacific. Maritime Reporter/Engineering News HOSE McCANN TELEPHONE CO., INC. 524 W. 23rd Street, New York, N.Y. 10011 Tel.: (212) 989-7920, (Cable) Cybernetic NY ORIGINATORS AND PIONEERS OF SOUND POWERED TELEPHONES FOR MARINE USE Representatives in principal domestic and foreign seaports 28 AUTOMAT® by HOSE McCANN TELEPHONE CO., INC. Photo Courtesy of Red Star Towing & Transportation Co. Remote control of propulsion, power and auxiliaries for instant response ? faster, safer, more efficient towing. Hose McCann Telephone Company, a leader in the field of tug automation, has wide experience in the complete design, engineering and manufacture of remote control systems .. . single and twin screw ... clutch and electric drives . .. reversing and non-reversing engines. Our systems are complete with start-stop and monitoring of main engines.. . start up of standby unit and transfer upon power failure ... fire detection ... steering gear supervisory circuits and complete plant monitoring. Hose McCann can provide you with a superior standard or custom engineered system designed to meet your particular needs. Investigate the advantages of tug automation . . . call us for a survey and estimate.