ENGINEERS at a
Westhoughton-based
drilling and cutting firm
have used their skills to
create a unique slice of
World War Two history.
Holemasters Demtech, a
specialist diamond drilling
and cutting firm that employs
33 drillers and an
administration staff of six at
its Bolton depot, was
contracted to slice up a
Second World War German
U-Boat by its owners,
Merseytravel.
The submarine, known as U-
534, was brought to Liverpool
in 1996 and formed part of the
Historic Warship Museum at
Mortar Mill Quay,
Birkenhead.
advertisement
It was destined for scrap until
Merseytravel, the Liverpool
transport and tourism body,
stepped in with a plan to
make the U-Boat part of a
new tourist attraction at
Woodside Ferry Terminal on
the River Mersey.
Holemasters has just finished
slicing the aging submarine
into sections, so visitors can
get a real idea of what life
was like inside the crafts so
dreaded by Allied ships
during World War Two.
Andrew Doyle, technical
manager of Holemasters
Sellafield, was responsible for
designing and delivering the
project.
He said: "We were contacted
with a request to see if it
would be possible to cut the
U-Boat into five sections. We
decided the best solution was
to use diamond wire, so we
designed a bespoke system to
undertake the task which we
have completed successfully."
He added: "We have cut steel
previously, but not on this
scale. The complexity is that
you are not just cutting one
face, you could be cutting six
or eight faces at one time,
including items of pipe work
valves, ballast tanks,
pressure hull and internal
services.
"On the stern section, we cut
through the drive shafts that
were 300mm of solid steel. We
used a series of pullies to
control the wire's angle of
attack, creating straight
clean cuts and maximising
the cutting potential."
The sections, which weigh
240 tons each, will each take
a day to move by floating
crane to the new home at
Woodside. The first section,
currently being removed, is a
23-metre length of the bow.
Huge glass panels will be
installed at Woodside, over
the end of each section, to
allow visitors to see inside U-
534 from specially built
viewing platforms.
The craft will be located close
to a full scale model of
Resurgum, the world's first
submarine.
If you liked this article and would like to share it with others on the web who might be searching for good content we've made it easy for you to do it.
At the bottom of all articles, you'll see links to six sites. These sites - commonly called 'social bookmark' or 'social news' sites - have large communities of web users who share and rate interesting, useful and fun things on the web.
Clicking the links will automatically add the address of the story you are reading to one of these sites, letting you share it with others. Each site will ask you to register to share stories. Registration is free and once a member, you can store, recommend and search for stories that interest you.
Print
Email this
Comment
