Wood & Fiberglass.

This is coolbert:

 

"Warp speed Mr. Sulu!!"

Thanks to the Stars & Stripes we have the latest info on the run-aground USS Guardian.

NOW to be sectioned and cut into pieces in situ and removed, the wreck now deemed as not worthy of being re floated and salvaged. As we speak naval oceanic cranes on the way to facilitate the process.

"Minesweeper to be cut up for removal from Philippine reef"

"The Guardian was the fifth of 14 Avenger-class mine countermeasure ships to be put into service . . . They are scheduled to be replaced in the coming years by Littoral Combat Ships, which can be fit with a minesweeping package"

The USS Guardian Avenger class minesweeper having run aground high and dry in the Sulu Sea and battered now by waves is deemed as a wreck and will be cut up for scrap that much is clear. The hull of that naval vessel wooden and fiberglass, that salvage task less complicated than ordinarily so"

That reef where the Guardian ran aground according to the charts eight miles [14 Kilometers] from where it was supposed to be. The navigators of the Guardian were ON COURSE, the reef was NOT!

From your history books recall that the greatest sailor and navigator of his age, Captain Cook, also while exploring the eastern coast of Australia ran aground on the Great Barrier Reef and nearly sank, only surviving and the ship remaining afloat with the most drastic measures being taken!

And what exactly was the USS Guardian doing to begin with in such dangerous waters? Perhaps doing a sounding of the Sulu Sea bottom, preparing the battlefield in advance, a reconnaissance to determine with precise accuracy water depth, bottom contour, thermoclines, salinity, etc. In case of push comes to shove in the South China Sea and the U.S. has to honor treaty commitments, the info is available to those war fighters, tactics and strategy based upon the "terrain" having been made in advance?

coolbert.