S. Korea: Cheonan's Bow Salvaged(many photos)

Yonhap News ^ | 04/24/10

[TigerLikesRooster]

S. Korea: Cheonan's Bow Salvaged

[TigerLikesRooster]

P!

[mnehring]

bfltr

[Spunky]

Yikes! Way to many pictures. People on dial up will never get it loaded.

Very interesting though.

[KarlInOhio]

Hopefully this will allow the South Koreans to figure out the impact point and size of the explosive to prove that it was an external explosion, how big it was and how close to the ship it was when it detonated. It would be nice to figure out if it was a torpedo, relatively recent mine or an old on left over from the war.

[Captain Rhino]

Thnaks for taking time to post these important and interesting photographs.

[montomike]

Wow...what great pictures!

No wonder we called them targets.

[montomike]

I forgot to add...

That crane on the different barges is proably more impressive than the ship...the half a ship.

[WellyP]

In the explosion caused the metal to be bent inboard it was a mine or a torpedo!

[Jewels1091]

Does anyone know what is highlighted in the red circle?

[gaijin]

Great series. It appears that the ship was blown into 2 halves..?! Wow!

[patton]

External explosion on the port side, just behind the tower.

WTF happened to the Bofors?

[bert]

It looks like the filled it with a fiaming urethane compound that seeped out.

However, one of the turrets looks like it was blown outward with explosive force.

[Flag_This]

"WTF happened to the Bofors?"

I was wondering the same thing...secondary ammunition explosion, maybe?

[chemical_boy]

The circled red thing is a Torpedo launcher

[TigerLikesRooster]

Two torpedoes from the ship were missing and they were found to be at the location marked with the red circle.

[patton]

Or, it could have busted when the hull hit the bottom. I don’t know.

But if it landed upside down, the tower would be crushed - so that seems not likely.

[joelt]

Yeah I see that... curious... Was it a gun turret or a radar director thingy? Great photos TLR.

[Loud Mime]

Yes....talk about heavy equipment. Did you see the size of those chains? I’m impressed.

[patton]

Actually, on a second look, the turret is definitely blown outward.

[WellyP]

In the explosion were under the engine room it is likely the force of the explosion would have lifted the stack and surrounding structure.

[patton]

“MegaMovers”, indeed.

[Flag_This]

Do you know if they store any live ammo in the turrets, or is that brought up from the magazine when needed?

[patton]

Both - a couple of rounds in the turret.

[razorback-bert]

Thanks, will look closer later.

At first glance, I thought they had brought up the whole ship.

[SWAMPSNIPER]

Small pics aren’t much problem.

[GonzoGOP]

"WTF happened to the Bofors?"

I was wondering the same thing...secondary ammunition explosion, maybe?

Or got damaged in the lift. Look at the size of those lifting chains. Drag one of those across the sheet metal or fiberglass housing of that turret and you are going to do some serious damage.

[Grampa Dave]

It appears that there was an explosion on the starboard side with a lot of intense heat which burned the paint off beside blowing the ship apart a little aft of its mid point.

[Flag_This]

"Or got damaged in the lift. "

I'm just speculating, but it reminded me - on a much smaller scale - of the turret explosion on the U.S.S. Iowa.

[Robert A. Cook, PE]

Ship was sunk by an explosion low and aft of midships, near or under the engine room. It sunk, rolled over and went down with the hull high up when it struck the bottom. (See the crushed superstructure flattened by the ship’s weight: a flattened squished surface, but no explosive damage.)

The fiberglass Bofors gun casing was likewise cracked open by a rock sticking up from the bottom (or the bottom itself) like an eggshell would be cracked between a flat book and a countertop.

May their gods have mercy on the sailor’s souls.

[patton]

Fiberglass? Really? Talk about a paper tiger...

[VOA]

bump

[Vinnie]

The size of the crane is incredible!

[GonzoGOP]

I'm just speculating, but it reminded me - on a much smaller scale - of the turret explosion on the U.S.S. Iowa.

There wasn't much external damage on the Iowa, aside from the weather boots being blown inside out. The gun houses on the old battlewaggons are tough.

As for this on the paint doesn't seem damage enough. If you had an ammo fire you would expect a lot of scorching and smoke damage. The turret appears to have been ripped apart by a giant version of Freddy Kruger.

The reason is suggested the lift chains is if you notice two of them are lined up just behind the turret. Prior to the lift those would be slack and laying across the ship. Then when they started lifting they would go taught and crunch anything in their path.

[GeronL]

So they were NOT hit by their own torpedo I guess?

Did they actually think that was a possibility?

[rlmorel]

LOL...if someone is on dial up these days, even using the Internet is nearly impossible.

[Flag_This]

"The fiberglass Bofors gun casing was likewise cracked open by a rock sticking up from the bottom "

Maybe. But to me, it looks like the damage is more to the side of the turret, than the top of it. It seems like the damage would require a very convenient rock.

[rlmorel]

I firmly believe the rat bastard Korean communists sank that vessel. No question. I believe those scumbags in their military and government have a long deserved beat down coming in their future.

In payback for the crew of the USS Pueblo (my father was an acquaintance of the skipper, CDR Bucher) and the murdered crew of the EC-121 that was shot down in 1969, I believe they have it coming.

I still think we should send in a B-1 with about ten MK84 JDAMS to put the poor USS Pueblo to rest.

[Danae]

That is massive catastrophic destruction. That ship went down very fast.

And the blow came from below, there is no indication of fire on the upper surfaces of the ship indicating destruction from above, and destroyers don’t just cut themselves in half behind the conning tower.

Torpedo.

[Danae]

I was thinking large debris falling through the water hitting after the Bow found the bottom.

[DTogo]

Great post, that’s one heck of a crane ship!

[UCANSEE2]

bookmark

[Jet Jaguar]

Thank you for the ping.

[Dr. Bogus Pachysandra]

I believe they brought the stern up a few days ago.

“The front fell off!”

[TXnMA]

My compliments to the South Koreans: that was a very skillful and professional recovery job.

As I wrote earlier, (based on review of the Pohang class, and on stern section damage alone) the blast was placed (fore-aft) beneath the stack, possibly toward its forward end. And it was almost centered under the keel.

It's particularly useful that they recovered and photographed the stack section. I'll try piecing together a composite photo to see what that shows. If anything illuminating is revealed, I'll share it here......

My guess is that even the largest carrier would have difficulty surviving an explosion of that magnitude and placement.

~~~~~~~~

I hope the missing sailors' remains were all recovered.

[TXnMA]

Revision: Aft end of the stack....

[GeronL]

This was no boiler explosion then. right?

The explosion happened under the ship if you are correct.

[BIGLOOK]

Captain Cook's assessment sounds good. The explosion was near midships and engineering.....everything above is most likely secondary damage caused by an exploding power plant.

Too bad there isn't a clear photo of the hull below the waterline or any of the internal areas showing the cascade effect of the explosion.

I'll leave damage assessment to resident engineers and targeting to our resident Bubbleheads.

Meanwhile I'm going to check on the type of power plant on that ship.

[TXnMA]

External explosion -- well-placed for maximum damage to a ship of this class...

Torpedo or directly placed contact charge... Getting that precise placement with a static mine is highly unlikely (more like pure, rotten luck...).

This was a controlled and deliberate attack.

[BIGLOOK]

The propulsion unit was a gas/diesel engine.....which explains the raging fires.