I wrote at the end of January about the cargo ship “Golden Ray” that had capsized and was laying on its side in St. Simon’s Sound.  Since January, there have been developments, but the submerged ship is still in St. Simon’s Sound (how about that alliteration?).

The team working on getting the ship out of the sound has developed its own website.  You can get the most recent updates on the ship submerged in the sound here.  Now, when I say recent updates, you have to take that with a grain of salt.  After all, the ship capsized in September.  It took them until February to come up with a plan of action.  Then it took them another month to get the cranes and gear here from New Orleans.

They started building the Environmental Protection Barrier in February, but just started putting in the netting this week.  While one company was installing the piles for the Environmental Protection Barrier, another company installed lifting lugs on the ship.  There are 16 of these lugs and they just installed the fifth one.

Once the Environmental Protection Barrier and the lugs are in place, they will start cutting the ship apart.  The cut ends will be sealed and the sections of ship loaded on barges.  You can see an animation of the expected process here.  At one point they expected to have it all done by May, but the barrier still isn’t finished and the lugs aren’t on.  I’m not sure if the pandemic affected the operations.

Meanwhile, the submerged ship remains in the sound.  I fully expect it will still be here next January when Tom and I return to St. Simon’s Island.  The salvage operation has fascinated the islanders and tourists.  Why get rid of a good thing?