Bird eye's view of the Yung Chih

Project Summary

In the summer of 1998, the 160 ft Chinese fishing vessel Yung Chih was arrested offshore California with a large number of refugees on board. After removal of the refugees and crew, the vessel was towed to Long Beach, CA, with the intention to clean it thoroughly, remove all contaminants, pollutants, and debris, and prepare it for possible future scuttling in deep water. While pumping contaminated ballast water out of one of the fish holds, the vessel became tender and its stability was questioned.

Argonautics Marine Engineering was hired through Technical Salvage Advisors, Inc. to go on-site to assess the stability and to assist with the deballasting. As no drawings or any other stability data were available onboard the ship, a stability model was generated, based on a dimensional survey of the ship and its compartments, combined with an estimation of the ship’s underwater hull shape. Once the computer model was available, a proper procedure was designed for deballasting and cleaning of the ship’s holds and tanks without jeopardizing its stability.

Scope of Work

The project scope included:

• Immediate mobilization of a Naval Architect to Long Beach, CA;

• On-site survey of the ship including dimensioning of hull and all compartments;

• Estimation of hull shape and produce a body plan;

• Estimation of the lightship weight and center of gravity location;

• Generation of a stability model of the ship basis the gathered information;

• Design a procedure for safe deballasting and cleaning of the various holds and tanks.