USS Grapple (ARS-53) is a Safeguard-class salvage ship in the United States Navy

United States Navy

The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...

. She is homeported in Norfolk, Virginia

Norfolk, Virginia

Norfolk is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. With a population of 242,803 as of the 2010 Census, it is Virginia's second-largest city behind neighboring Virginia Beach....

.

In 2000, she won the Marjorie Sterrett Battleship Fund Award

Marjorie Sterrett Battleship Fund Award

The Marjorie Sterrett Battleship Fund Award is presented annually by the U.S. Navy's Chief of Naval Operations to one ship in the U.S. Atlantic Fleet and one in the U.S. Pacific Fleet...

 for the Atlantic Fleet.

Role

Rescue and salvage ships render assistance to disabled ships, provide towing, salvage, diving, firefighting and heavy lift capabilities.

The mission of the rescue and salvage ships is fourfold: to debeach stranded vessels, heavy lift capability from ocean depths, towing of other vessels, and manned diving operations. For rescue missions, these ships are equipped with fire monitors forward and amidships which can deliver either firefighting foam or sea water. The salvage holds of these ships are outfitted with portable equipment to provide assistance to other vessels in dewatering, patching, supply of electrical power and other essential service required to return a disabled ship to an operating condition.

The Navy has responsibility for salvaging U.S. government-owned ships and, when it is in the best interests of the United States, privately owned vessels as well. The rugged construction of these steel-hulled ships, combined with speed and endurance, make these rescue and salvage ships well-suited for rescue/salvage operations of Navy and commercial shipping throughout the world. The versatility of this class of ship enables the U.S. Navy to render assistance to those in peril on the high seas.

Capabilities

Grapple is designed to perform combat salvage, lifting, towing, off-ship firefighting, manned diving operations, and emergency repairs to stranded or disabled vessels.

Salvage of disabled and stranded vessels

Disabled or stranded ships might require various types of assistance before retraction or towing can be attempted. In her 21000 cubic feet (594.7 m³) salvage hold, Grapple carries transportable cutting and welding equipment, hydraulic and electric power sources, and de-watering gear. Grapple also has salvage and machine shops, and hull repair materials to effect temporary hull repairs on stranded or otherwise damaged ships.

Retraction of stranded vessels

Stranded vessels can be retracted from a beach or reef by the use of Grapple's towing machine and propulsion. Additional retraction force can be applied to a stranded vessel through the use of up to six legs of beach gear, consisting of 6000 pounds (2,721.6 kg) STATO anchors, wire rope, chain, and salvage buoys. In a typical configuration, two legs of beach gear are rigged on board Grapple, and up to four legs of beach are rigged to the stranded vessel.

In addition to the standard legs of beach gear, Grapple carries 4 spring buoys. The spring buoys are carried beneath the port and starboard bridge wings. Each spring buoy weighs approximately 3100 pounds (1,406.1 kg), is 10 feet (3 m) long and 6 feet (1.8 m) in diameter, provides a net buoyancy of 7½ tons, and can withstand 125 tons of pull-through force. The spring buoys are used with beach gear legs rigged from a stranded vessel when deep water is found seaward of the stranded vessel.

Towing

Grapple's propulsion machinery provides a bollard pull

Bollard pull

Bollard pull is a value that allows the comparison of the pulling force of watercraft, particularly tugboats. A mooring bollard may be used as a point of attachment for measuring the force, or pull of the craft.-Background:...

 (towing force at zero speed and full power) of 68 tons.

The centerpiece of Grapple's towing capability is an Almon A. Johnson Series 322 double-drum automatic towing machine. Each drum carries 3000 feet (914.4 m) of 2 1/4 in drawn galvanized, 6×37 right-hand lay, wire-rope towing hawsers, with closed zinc-poured sockets on the bitter end. The towing machine uses a system to automatically pay in and pay out the towing howser to maintain a constraint strain.

The automatic towing machine also includes a Series 400 traction winch that can be used with synthetic line towing hawsers up to 14 inches in circumference. The traction winch has automatic payout but only manual recovery.

The Grapple's caprail is curved to fairlead and prevent chaffing of the towing hawser. It includes two vertical stern rollers to tend the towing hawser directly aft and two Norman pin rollers to prevent the towing hawser from sweeping forward of the beam at the point of tow. The stern rollers and Norman pins are raised hydraulically and can withstand a lateral force of 50000 pounds (22,679.6 kg) at mid barrel.

Two tow bows provide a safe working area on the fantail during towing operations.

Manned diving operations

Grapple has a several diving systems to support different types of operations. Divers descend to diving depth on a diving stage that is lowered by one of two powered davits.

The diving locker is equipped with a double-lock hyperbaric chamber for recompression after deep dives or for the treatment of divers suffering from decompression sickness.

The MK21 MOD1 diving system supports manned diving to depths of 190 feet (57.9 m) on surfaced-supplied air. A fly-away mixed gas system can be used to enable the support of diving to a maximum depth of 300 feet (91.4 m).

The MK20 MOD0 diving system allows-surface supplied diving to a depth of 60 feet (18.3 m) with lighter equipment.

Grapple carries SCUBA

Scuba diving

Scuba diving is a form of underwater diving in which a diver uses a scuba set to breathe underwater....

 equipment for dives that require greater mobility than is possible in tethered diving.

Recovery of submerged objects

In addition to her two main ground tackle anchor

Anchor

An anchor is a device, normally made of metal, that is used to connect a vessel to the bed of a body of water to prevent the vessel from drifting due to wind or current. The word derives from Latin ancora, which itself comes from the Greek ἄγκυρα .Anchors can either be temporary or permanent...

s (6000 pounds (2,721.6 kg) Navy standard stockless or 8000 pounds (3,628.7 kg) balanced-fluke anchors) Grapple can use equipment associated with her beach gear to lay a multi-point open water moor to station herself for diving and ROV operations.

A typical four-point-moor consists of an X pattern with four Stato Anchors at the outside corners and Grapple at the center, made fast to a spring buoy for the close end of each mooring leg with synthetic mooring lines. Using her capstans, Grapple can shorten or lengthen the mooring line for each leg and change her position within the moor.

Grapple has a 7.5-ton-capacity boom on her forward kingpost and a 40-ton-capacity boom on her aft kingpost.

Heavy Lift

Grapple has heavy lift system that consists of large bow and stern rollers, deck machinery, and tackle. The rollers serve as low-friction fairlead for the wire rope or chain used for the lift. The tackle and deck machinery provide up to 75 tons of hauling for each lift. The two bow rollers can be used together with linear hydraulic pullers to achieve a dynamic lift of 150 tons. The stern rollers can be used with the automatic towing machine to provide a dynamic lift of 150 tons. All four rollers can be used together for a dynamic lift of 300 tons or a static tidal lift of 350 tons.

Grapple also has two auxiliary bow rollers, which can support a 75-ton lift when used together.

Off-ship fire-fighting

Grapple has three manually-operated fire monitors, one on the forward signal bridge, one on on the aft signal bridge, and one on the forecastle, that can deliver up to 1,000 gallons per minute of seawater or aqueous film forming foam (AFFF) When originally built, Grapple had a fourth remotely controlled fire monitor mounted on her forward kingpost, but this was later removed. Grapple has a 3,600 gallon foam tank.

Emergency ship salvage material

In addition to the equipment carried by Grapple, the US Navy Supervisor of Salvage maintains a stock of additional emergency fly-away salvage equipment that can be deployed aboard the salvage ships to support a wide variety of rescue and salvage operations.

Towing of minesweepers

, and were towed to the Gulf of Oman

Gulf of Oman

The Gulf of Oman or Sea of Oman is a strait that connects the Arabian Sea with the Strait of Hormuz, which then runs to the Persian Gulf. It is generally included as a branch of the Persian Gulf, not as an arm of the Arabian Sea. On the north coast is Pakistan and Iran...

 by USS Grapple (ARS-53) departing Little Creek, Virginia on 6 September 1987. Traveling via the Suez Canal

Suez Canal

The Suez Canal , also known by the nickname "The Highway to India", is an artificial sea-level waterway in Egypt, connecting the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea. Opened in November 1869 after 10 years of construction work, it allows water transportation between Europe and Asia without navigation...

 and arriving in the Gulf of Oman on 2 November 1987. At the time, the 9000 nautical miles (16,668 km) trip was the longest distance three ships were towed by one.

USNS Grapple

On 13 July 2006 Grapple was decommissioned from US Navy service and converted to civilian operation by Military Sealift Command

Military Sealift Command

The Military Sealift Command is a United States Navy organization that controls most of the replenishment and military transport ships of the Navy. It first came into existence on 9 July 1949 when the Military Sea Transportation Service became solely responsible for the Department of Defense's...

. She was redesignated as USNS Grapple (T-ARS 53).

External links

• Official site
• NHC - USS Grapple ship's histories
• DANFS - Grapple II (it also has Grasp ARS-51 material mixed into it making it misleading)
• NVR - ARS-53
• USNS Grapple (T-ARS-53) command histories – Naval History & Heritage Command