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Salving of Floating Dry Dock Afdm-2 (1965)

1965 · Short film · 31 min

  • Documentary
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Synopsis

This film, SALVING OF THE FLOATING DRY DOCK AFDM-2 is a half hour long motion picture that was produced both by the Department of the Navy's Ship Systems Command, and the Supervisor of Salvage of the United States Navy in 1965. It was intended to be used as a reference and training film, detailing the operations that went into the retrieval of the dry dock AFDM-2 after Hurricane Betsy in September of that year. The film opens with a painted picture of the Dry-dock in the New Orleans bay with a scrolling marquee script that explains what it is the film is about, and how the film itself is a technical report for the planning and techniques used in the raising and recovered of a capsized AFDM-2 dry-dock. It also reports on the various problems that the engineers and planners had faced during the recovered. At the time this film was made, this was the largest single salvage operation that was performed since the end of World War II. At the end of the marquee note the signature — W.F Searle Jr, Captain of the United States Navy. History has shown that Searle was responsible for the development of modern equipment and techniques still used today in salvage operations. At the 2:30 mark, the film explains the setting of what had happened to the dry-dock to warrant a salvage operation of this magnitude. Hurricane Betsy touched down in New Orleans in September 1965 and at time was considered the worst hurricane seen in the Gulf of Mexico until 2004's Hurricane Katrina decimated the…

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Details

Running time
31 minutes
Collection
Ephemeral Films

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