Quester I
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The Quester I was a 14 m long submarine built by shipyard worker Jerry Bianco from 1967 . Bianco built it to salvage the passenger ship Andrea Doria, which sank off the coast of Nantucket in 1956 .
The thought
After the sinking, there were still numerous valuables on board the Andrea Doria , such as paintings locked in watertight safes, cash in the first class safes, various sculptures and industrial diamonds as well as a statue of the eponymous Admiral Andrea Doria . The ship's bronze propellers alone were worth about $ 30,000, the scrap value of the entire ship was estimated at about $ 6 million.
The rescue plan
The plan provided for the boat to gradually bring air-filled balloons into the wreck so that it could finally be lifted, at least in theory, with further technical assistance. In order to raise the necessary financial means for the construction, Bianco founded the company "Deep Sea Techniques" and sold shares in it for one dollar a piece.
The design and draft of the boat came from Bianco, and he carried out most of the work himself. According to a test commissioned by the US Navy after the boat was completed, it should be able to reach depths of around 180 m. The Andrea Doria is about 73 m deep.
The boat was christened on October 19, 1970, and Bianco's daughter performed the traditional champagne baptism. Contrary to Bianco's instructions, the crane operator lowered the boat completely, which caused the boat to capsize due to a lack of ballast on one side. Originally, the crane operator should only have brought the boat partially into the water. The quester could be straightened up again and the missing ballast brought in, but after the unfortunate start many donors lost confidence in the project, so that Bianco finally gave it up.
The wrecked boat is still moored in Coney Island Bay and is occasionally visited, boarded and photographed by adventurers.
Web links
- The Yellow Submarine of Coney Island Creek ( Memento June 4, 2011 in the Internet Archive ), Forgotten New York. With numerous pictures of the wreck.
- The Abandoned Submarine in Coney Island Creek (February 9, 2013 memento on the Internet Archive ), Yahoo Voices
- Image of the wreck (10/13) on SPIEGEL Online, accessed on February 19, 2016
Footnotes
- ↑ C. Moynihan: In Coney Island Creek, Hulk of a Yellow Submarine Sticks Out. In: The New York Times. November 9, 2007 (English).
Coordinates: 40 ° 34 ′ 54 ″ N , 73 ° 59 ′ 40 ″ W.