[UCANSEE2]

JUST SO everyone understands.

The Coast Guard did not do the firefighting.The firefighting was done by private contractors hired by BP. The Coast Guard was only there to do search and rescue.

The Rig was going to sink, no matter what. The ballasts, or floats, were damaged and leaking severely. The bilge pumps quit the moment the power went out. The fires and explosions had their toll. It was only a matter of time.

If the firefighters had used foam instead of water, it really wouldn't have made that much difference. This rig is made to stand hurricanes, pouring rain, and high-seas. Water pour on it is like water on a duck.

Here is a picture. These floats are under water the whole time the rig is in place (and not on the deck of a ship). More Water isn't going to do a thing to them. If those floats are compromised though, the rig sinks.

[penelopesire]

Most of that makes perfect sense. One question though. The four support legs..are they hollow or solid? I could see them filling up with water if they were hollow and some breach was made in the explosion. In some of the pictures, the rig looks to be listing to one side before it went down hours later.

Thanks for your post.

[AFPhys]

Thank you for your much more accurate post. I must modify my previous post to reflect that the excessive flooding of DH shortened the time of it sinking. However, that shortening may well have been very severe due to mismanagement of the fire response.