June 16, 2010
German Scissor Ships
written by Steven Barrymore
The Germans have two Bottsand class oil recovery ships that entered service in 1984 and 1987. The ships are auxiliary ships of the German navy and are used to contain oil spills from German ships in the sea. These ships are manned by civilians and not naval personnel.
The split hull ships open up like scissors at 65 degrees and are able to collect oil-polluted sea water. Per hour one ship can clean up to 140 m³ of ocean surface polluted with a 2 mm oil slick.(1) Is this enough for the Gulf oil disaster? Maybe not a complete solution, but could they be of some help, and why aren’t these ships in service in the Gulf?
(1) (Wikipedia) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bottsand_class_oil_recovery_ship
photo courtesy: www.fregatte-koeln.de
Tags: coastal, earth, gulf coast, navy, ocean, oil drill, oil spill, planet, ship, vessel
