the museum ship Commander General Irigoyen with scum to starboard down the Paraná River where it is currently located. In the municipality of Saint PeterBuenos Aires province, the Argentine Navy performs tasks for its righting, that is, to put it back in its position.
The inclination of the ship, 25º, began about a week ago, as a result of the drop in the branch of the Paraná river, the longest since there are records. This phenomenon, La Niña, brought extended heat into fall this year and a deep drought.
Since Tuesday morning, personnel from the Zárate naval base of the Navy have been working on the ship with the aim of righting it and returning it to its original position. According to those in charge of the tasks, water got on deck and tactical divers working submerged confirmed that there was leaks due to breakdowns and they worked to resolve the situation.
For his part, Lieutenant Commander Diego Vallejosin charge of the Navy personnel, declared to the local media The opinion that, after reconnaissance, the first task was to “bilge” with the pumps, but that “an inlet of water in the hull” had to be covered.
“We are trying to right the ship, to put it in its original position, because now it is resting on the starboard side,” Vallejos explained, adding: “We are covering a water inlet in the hull to facilitate the work of the pumps that we are using to remove the water and that the ship seeks only to return to the original position”.
The municipality of San Pedro made a publication on social networks in which it thanked the immediate response of the Ministry of Defense of Jorge Taiana and the Argentine Navy. Tactical divers, Civil Defense, Prefecture, Port and municipal personnel also work there.
“The arrival of qualified personnel for this type of task is making it possible to carry out, on the one hand, a general reconditioning to level and secure it and, on the other, the planning of a medium-term task to carry out repairs and periodic revisions that reduce the effect of the downspout of the river or other risk conditions”, they detailed.
The relevance of the museum ship Comandante General Irigoyen
The ARA General Irigoyen was built by United States for World War II and, once completed, it was withdrawn from service. In 1961 Argentina acquired it along with another similar one and a floating dock. With the albiceleste flag she sailed more than 400,000 miles in 65 years, until September 25, 2009 when she retired.
The Museum Ship docked in San Pedro after in February of 2010 the municipality and the Argentine Navy signed the agreement for it to be part of the local heritage, dependent on the Directorate of Culture.
In November 2020, the same ship suffered a list similar to the current onealthough not as pronounced. On that occasion, new mooring lines were arranged which, until now, helped protect the vessel from major risks and, in this period, only one had broken.
The experts are confident that once all the water is removed from the interior, the ship could right itself a few degrees, so as to prevent water from entering the deck, while waiting for the river to rise in flow so that it can recover its usual position.
ML / ED