Designing a Berth for Elissa
by Captain Wal ter Rybka
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ne of the few bright spots amid th e catas trophic devastatio n of Hurricane Ike in September 2008 was that the G al vesto n Historical Foundation's barque Elissa safely wead1ered the storm, remaining afloat at her berth. The first repo rts and phoros I saw revealed some damage to sails and rigging, perhaps iniriared by airbo rne debris, a section of caprail stove in, as well as some damage ro the steerin g gear cover and aft scuttl e. O verall rhe dam age was mino r, at least compared to what mighr have been. Hurricane Ike is by far rhe most severe rest the Elissa's moo rin g sys tem has been subjected to, bur one which had been anticipated during rhe ship's initial restoration . In 1980-8 1, the restorati o n work was being done ar an unused commercial wharf, while the G HF negotiated wirh rhe Galvesro n W harves Board for a lease on the berth at Pier 2 1 adj acent to m e Srrand. One of rhe key decisions being debated was whether the ship should remai n at the berth during a hurri cane or seek a safer berth elsewhere. At the time, the restoratio n plan called for an engin eless sailing ship (auxiliary power was not re-installed until 1986), so any movement would require hiring a tug. We considered a hurricane plan of taking her to a berth in or near Houston , nea rly fifty mil es inland from rhe o pen G ulf. The wind velocity wo uld certainly be greatly diminished by moving inland, bur the negati ves ove rwhelmed this one advantage. The storm surge under certain conditions could be well over the piers in Houston, the right combination of wind directio n and tide could force the wa ter in Galves ton Bay up the H ousto n Ship Channel like a pisto n rising in a cylinder. More impo rtandy, all available berths were likely to be crowded with ships, barges, and drilling rigs also seekings helrer. Being rafted in a gaggle of vessels all much larger and heavier rhan herself would likely crush Elissa's 1877 hull. The clincher argument agai nst moving, however, was rhe unlikelihood of engaging a rug in advance of an impending hurricane. At such times every owner of barges, d rill rigs, etc. , most wirh deeper pockets rhan GH F's, would be seeking to get d1eir equipment our of harm's way. Add it all up, and trying to move was riskier rhan staying put. Elissa would sray in Galvesto n and her crew would put whatever time was availabl e befo re a sto rm into better securing the vessel. The G H F also acknowledged that after a hurricane, however badly dam aged she might be, Elissa would be most readily repaired at her home berth. The port engineer was asked to design moorings stro ng enough ro serve as a hurrican e berth . The resulr was a sysrem of four wooden cluster piling dolphins proj ecting abour fifteen feer over rhe ride line. In addition, a number of birts and bollards on rhe piers would secure the ship on one side, bur o n the offshore side the ship wo uld rely on the dolphins. In hindsight, we should have recognized that the system was too light, but ar rhe time all effort was focused on restoring rhe ship and rhe berth design went unquestioned. Forrunarely, the ship was spared any major storms during hurricane season 1982 as the restoration roared along to meera scheduled publ icopening inJuly and sea trials in September. Elissa's first day under full sail again was an em otionally charged mo ment. The day got off to a rough start with a mino r accident that turned our to have been a tremendous gift. Elissa had already been warped around to face bow out, but ar rhe rime of
SEA HISTORY 132, AUT UMN 2010
Elissa right after H urricane Ike passed. Her Jore lower topsail hung in tatters, but the ship was otherwise intact. departure over a kn o r of Aood current was running across rhe slip. C aptain Carl Bowman (form erly of USCGC Eagle and numerous other vessels) was in command. I was srarioned on the foc's' lhead to assist th e mate. The las r lines were ordered cast off and the tug pulled her o ut of the slip on a short hawse r. Insuffi cient allowance was m ade fo r rh e current, and as Elissa gathered way, both she and the tug were swept up-channel and within seconds the tug had al lided her into the NW moorin g dolphin. Those of us on rhe foc's'lhead braced fo r the impact and stood silent and slack jawed as, wirh only a gen de bump, rhe enti re dolphin went over like a bundle of co rnstal ks! What luck! What a gift! W hat could have been a catas trophic error had done no discernible damage to Elissa other than to scrape some paint off the port bow. Better yet, in one stroke of serendipi ty we learned in September of 1982 that our new berm was absolutely worthless as hurricane protection. One erro r had revealed ano ther serio us o ne. So now it was back to rhe beginning to solve the problem of designing a hurricane berth. We had an in-house naval archirecr, Don Birkholz Sr. , who had done a brilliant job with the derailed design and drafting for the vessel's resto ra tion. He rurned his attentio n to the new problem and began researching options. The initial impediment was, naturally, fin ancial-we only had $20,000 or so of insurance money from the failed dolphin cluster to work wirh. G H F had spenr considerably more money rhan intended on rhe ship's restora tion, which was srill far from finished, and needed to shift irs fundraising efforrs to o rher proj ects. O ver the nexr couple of months numerous sketches and calculations were done fo r various combinations of anchors and pilings, none of
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