|
|
By STEVEN WARD "That's when we can move in and begin the process," Licina said. Le Pelican has been partially submerged in the river on the northwest side of the Sunshine Bridge since the replica started taking on water for an unknown reason on Nov 5 of last year. Since that time, the hull developed a heavy list, or lean, to starboard. The vessel is resting on the bottom near the river bank, with its foremast and rigging leaning against a mooring dolphin. During the past couple of months, looking down from the roadway of the nearby Sunshine Bridge, Le Pelican looks as if it has sunk. Le Pelican was purchased by the city of Donaldsonville for $55,000 in 2002 in order to attract tourists and eventually anchor an entire riverfront tourism hub. "I think there's no doubt that the community support has dwindled because of the way the ship looks. It's a discouraging sight," said Brent Landry, president of the Sieur d'Iberville Historical Society of Donaldsonville. But Licina and Dennis Mitchell, a landscape architect with Glenn Shaheen and Associates and a consultant to the city, said Donaldsonville's riverfront development project showcasing Le Pelican is not sunk. Not yet. "This is project is long range and I'm not going to give up and the city is optimistic as well," Mitchell said. Licina said the ship is in surprisingly "fine shape." Licina spent 14 hours surveying the ship in March. He inspected the ship from top to bottom, also diving underwater to check for possible damage to the hull. "The important parts of the ship, the parts that can't be replaced, like the mast and the rigging, are in fine shape," Licina said. Le Pelican's wooden superstructure has sustained the most damage, Licina said. "There are probably going to be major parts of the main structure that will have to be replaced. But that you can rebuild," Licina said. When the water level of the Mississippi drops to 17 feet or less as measured at Donaldsonville, Licina's company, headquartered in the San Francisco area, will station hydraulic pullers on the levee and connect them with the ship in 64 places. "It will takes us weeks to set up and hours to pull it up," Licina said. After the ship is raised, water has to be pumped out of the hull and the starboard side of the ship will have to be patched, Licina said. Licina said he hopes the city will award his company a second contract to move the ship from the river onto the batture below Crescent Park on Donaldsonville's waterfront. "Right now, the project is underwater. But when the ship is on the batture ... that's when the project becomes reality," Mitchell said. "It's real easy to look at the ship from the Sunshine Bridge and say it's all over. But there's a lot more to it than that," Mitchell said. Mitchell said the plan is to have a tourist-related marketing strategy in place six months after Le Pelican has been positioned on the batture. Licina said the ship could be on the batture as early as August. Le Pelican is 176 feet long and weighs 800 tons, Licina said. The ship is a replica of the warship Pierre le Moyne, Sieur d'Iberville, used in 1697 to sink two English vessels and run off a third before sinking during a battle for a trading post on Hudson Bay in Canada. Canadian philanthropist Stewart McDonald built the replica for a reported $15 million. Eventually, Le Pelican wound up at a Harvey shipyard, where it was moored when the city bought the ship from the Fort Butler Foundation. "My feelings
are still that this ship can be a showpiece," Donaldsonville
Mayor Raymond Jacobs said. "Just because the ship is sunk does
not mean it's dead. It's just more of a challenge now." |
||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
|
Contact
Info 415
- 331 - 6333 |
|||||||||
