236 COLLAPSE OF TEXAS TOWER NO. 4 



for now. I talked to Mr. Ran about this and it was decided that this grouting 

 could be put off until the spring. I so informed Henry. I asked him how the 

 tower was behaving and he said very well and had been since the clamp was 

 installed at —75. 



SUNDAY, JANUARY 15 



4 : 40 p.m. : Received call from Henry Schutz on the tower. He had been trying 

 to get in touch with Dick Tower but was unable to. He gave me a "Raymond" 

 number to give to Dick Tower and asked me to have Dick call him at 5 : 45 p.m. 

 through that number if he couldn't get the tower via the usual Highlands number. 

 I said I would do this. I asked him how the weather was out there since it 

 was raining, sleeting, snowing, and blowing inshore. He said that it was the 

 same way out there. I asked him how the tower was acting. He said that it 

 had been stormy since Saturday night with northeast vsdnds of about 60 knots 

 and seas from the northeast now about 25 to 30 feet high. He said that the 

 tower had been very steady up until 10 : 30 a.m. approximately when there was 

 a loud noise. He said that apparently something gave down below. I asked him 

 what he thought it was and Henry said that he didn't really know and they 

 couldn't go down to find out at this time. He said that since 10 : 30 a.m., the 

 tower had begun to move and oscillate and seemed to have a rotary motion. I 

 asked him how much he thought it was moving. He said about 50 percent of 

 what it had around the middle of December I960 and before the clamp at —75 

 had been installed. He said that the clamp was 100 percent complete including 

 the additional reinforcing cover plate and all pin plate bolts double nutted. Hen- 

 ry also stated that they had completed welding and reinforcing of all cracks in 

 the X-bracing above water including installing the vertical shear plates at the ver- 

 tex on Saturday (.January 14). He said that up until a little while ago they had 

 not been able to get on deck or the maintenance scaffold due to winds up to 60 

 knots. A while ago he and Captain Phelau had gotten down on the maintenance 

 scaffold as the wind let up a bit and had found a 20-inch vertical crack at the 

 intersection whei'e the interior vertical %-inch thick gusset plates met at A leg, 

 from the AB and AC sides. I asked if there was anything else they had observed 

 and he said no, because they couldn't move the maintenance scaffold due to the 

 wind. I asked him what the weather reports indicated. He said that they were 

 trying to get all reports available. They expected a lull in the morning at 

 which time they would try to get off by "choppers," which had been alerted. 

 What they were concerned about was a report that two lows were expected to 

 combine off of Cape Hatteras and move up the next day. Pie said that the 

 AKL-17 had been taking quite a beating trying to stay close to the tower in 

 the heavy seas. I said that T'd call Dick Tower right away and give him the 

 message and telephone number. Henry did not sound overly concerned at this 

 time. 



4: 54 p.m.: Called Dick Tower and gave him the message and number to call 

 for Henry. 



5:30 p.m. (approximately): Received telephone call from Mr. DiCocco in 

 Syracuse. He had .iust gotten in from a ride with his wife in nice weather up 

 there. I pointed out that it was miserable in New York. He wonted to know 

 what I knew about conditions on the tower. I filled him in on my conversation 

 with Henry. 



Statement of Work, Repair Hurricane Damage — Texas Tower No. 4, Dated 



September 21, 1960 



Item 1. — The contractor shall replace the revolving maintenance platform 

 (referred to hereinafter as the "flying bridge") at Texas tower No. 4 to match 

 the one which existed prior to September 12, 1960, in all respects except for the 

 folding foot ladder which was attached to the bottom portion of the flying 

 bridge. The contractor shall fabricate a new flying bridge which matches the 

 old flying bridge in all physical respects (except for the foot ladder). The con- 

 tractor shall transport the flying bridge to the off shore location known as New 

 York Shoals and shall erect the flying bridge on the underside of the platform of 

 Texas tower No. 4. The completed installation will be such that the opera- 

 tion and performance of the new flying bridge will equal or better operation 

 and performance of the old flying bridge prior to its destruction on September 

 12, 1960. The new flying bridge will be complete in every respect including 

 painting. Any parts and/or accessories (such as pinion gears, motor drive 



