DRAGGING OPERATIONS 



An attempt was made to reco\'er the two cur- 

 rent meters and the acoustic release which were 

 lost in 1971 and thought to be lying in 108 

 fatlioms of water in the vicinity of 45°02'N and 

 48°56'W. Dragging operations were conducted 

 with a rig whicli consisted of 20 feet of yo incli 

 chain followed by 6 feet of % inch chain. Two 

 15 pound heat treated marine grapnels and one 

 10 pound galvanized marine grapnel were 

 shackled to the chain as shown in Figure 14. 

 The 15 pound grapnels are a standard Coast 

 Guard supply item, and their performance was 

 satisfactory during the dragging operations. The 

 10 pound galvanized grapnels were purchased 

 from the Atlantic INIarine Exchange, Boston, 

 jMass. They were too light for the type dragging 

 being done and were not considered satisfactory. 

 The rig was shackled to a 5 ton Miller D-5 

 swivel which was then shackled to the end of 



the STD cable. The STD cable was terminated 

 with a Preformed Line Products Company eye 

 grij) clamped to the cable with three cable 

 clamps for additional holding power. A 3 foot 

 length of % inch chain trailing the bottom graj^- 

 nel usually prevented the grapnels from fouling 

 the cliain when dragging downslope. 



A marker buoy was set and served as a refer- 

 ence point for navigation during the operation. 

 Dragging runs began by lowering the grajDnels 

 until they were just off the bottom. EVER- 

 GREEN then got underway as more wire was 

 let out (approximately 420 meters total). The 

 \essel maintained a speed of 1-2 knots on a 

 heading that set the ship away from the cable 

 and kept it clear of the screws. A total of 109 

 dragging runs was made both j^arallel and 

 perj^endicular to the bottom contours; however, 

 none of the missing equipment was recovered. 



15 



