Almost lost my cutterhead in the Mississippi last Thursday.

I was working a job near Baton Rouge, pulling sand from a tight channel, and my swing cable snapped without warning. The whole ladder started drifting sideways toward a submerged tree trunk I couldn't see from the cab. I killed the pump and dropped the spud fast, but the vibration from that trunk hitting the cutterhead was like a freight train. Had to call a dive crew to untangle us, cost me $1,200 and a full day. Anyone else ever had a cable go mid-cut and have to think on their feet?

3 comments

3 Comments

nina_jenkins2mo ago

Goodness, $1,200 for a dive crew is rough. That shaking from hitting a hidden trunk would have scared me half to death.

sullivan.finley2mo ago

Oh man, $1,200 just to find a trunk of junk underwater? That stings. And hitting something hidden like that mid-dive would have my heart pounding right through my wetsuit. I'd be swimming back up so fast, no way I'm sticking around to see what else is down there.

robinp721mo ago

You really think that trunk was just "junk" though? I mean, $1,200 is steep but what if there was something important in there, like old maps or records someone hid on purpose? Hitting it blind mid-dive sounds terrifying, but now I'm dying to know what was actually inside. Did they open it right there underwater or haul it up to check? Seems like a missed opportunity if they just wrote it off as trash.