[Coral-List] Drill Inquiry

[Eugene Shinn]

All these discussions about reef drilling equipment bring back many 
memories. We went through all those issues in 1974 when setting up our 
small USGS laboratory on Fisher Island. We had decided right from the 
start that our major project would be finding a way to core Keys reefs 
and individual head corals for coral banding research. First we found a 
surplus World War II air drill. It was not the kind used in tire repair 
shops. It was a rather large air driven piston device. I recall we 
bought it for around 17 dollars. The drill worked for short cores but 
excessive air requirement and exhaust from the piston cylinders was very 
uncomfortable. There were also many working parts that would not last 
long in salt water. The next try was to acquire an electric diver 
propulsion device and replace the propeller with a small core barrel. I 
connected with the maker of a well-known unit and found the internal 
gears were made of plastic. That clearly was not going to last. 
Meanwhile we heard that Ian Macintyre and Walter Adey had developed a 
powerful hydraulic coring device. We were getting desperate so Harold 
Hudson and I flew to Panama to the Smithsonian Galata point research 
laboratory where Ian and Peter Glynn were drilling a transect of cores 
across the adjacent reef. We were very impressed. They we using a rather 
large hydraulic pump on a small barge that delivered high pressure oil 
to a large impact wrench. It was equipment developed for the navy. The 
impact mechanism had been removed.Attached to the business end of the 
wrench was a water swivel which allowed seawater from a separate water 
pump (via garden hose) to be pumped down the barrel while the barrel was 
turning.The core barrel was a standard diamond tipped 5 ft. long core 
barrel. The barrels were threaded and attached to what were called “A” 
rods. Each rod was 5 ft. long. All the core barrels and “A” rods were 
standard equipment available from many drilling supply companies. We 
were very impressed but decided a smaller hydraulic pump needed to be 
developed. It was a profitable experience, which also allowed us to meet 
Peter Glynn for the first time.

Back home in Miami we found a fellow with a small machine shop that 
dwelt with hydraulic pumps. He constructed a smaller pump driven by a 
Kholer gasoline engine.The big expense was the impact wrench, which I 
recall was $3,000 dollars. The drill had two handles, an on-off trigger 
control, and a knob to reverse rotation direction.

Harold constructed the 12-foot high tripod from heavy-duty 3 inch 
diameter aluminum pipes. When the big day finally came we transported 
all the equipment in our 25 ft. workboat RV /Halimeda /to Long reef 
south of Miami. Each time we cored 5 ft. we had to pull out the entire 
string of drill pipe, which was not fun by the time we had drilled down 
30 ft. In later years we converted to a core barrel (wire line core 
barrel) that allowed the core to be retrieved without removing the 
entire string. In retrospect we wish we had started that way in the 
beginning.

We quickly determined the needed improvements. In the process we became 
what I like to call “underwater plumbers”. When we drilled above water 
we looked like greasy plumbers by the end of the day. Under water we 
remained reasonably free of grease and grime. We became experts with 
large pipe wrenches. We used a lot of grease. When we had learned the 
ropes it was time for our first big expedition.We headed for Belize to 
core the Belize reef tract and several patch reefs.This was the first of 
two Belize expeditions. With Macintyre’s help we were able to base our 
work from the Smithsonian Inst. Carrie Bow Island facility.The device 
was also modified to take hand held cores of large coral heads that 
Hudson used to determine past environmental conditions. The rest is 
history. Ironically the original tripod is still in use at the St. 
Petersburg USGS laboratory as is the RV /Halimeda/ which has been 
modified many times including being converted from inboard outboard 
power to large outboards which did not exist when the boat was purchased 
in 1974.

So how has the device been used since those early days?

1.Two expeditions to Belize.

2.Coring of ancient reefs in New Mexico

3.Coring around nuclear bomb craters at Enewetak atoll in the Pacific

4.Coring of coral reefs in Puerto Rico following hurricane Hugo.

5.Coring in the Bahamas

6.Coring reefs in Bermuda

7.Coring at Dry Tortugas

8.Coring in the Everglades

9.And of course, hundreds of cores in the Florida Keys both on land and 
underwater.

I recall at one point we received a cash bonus award because of the many 
thousands of dollars (possibly millions) we saved taxpayers by not using 
contractors. Of course there were no contractors using scuba diving for 
coring----No one could do what we were doing. Just expensive bulky 
drilling barges that required calm water. And then there was the time 
consuming bureaucratic bidding process that we avoided. Without that 
coring device many dozens of papers would not have been published. For 
more about the drill see /Bootstrap Geologist/ (Google it) and /Geology 
of the Florida Keys/ published by University Press of Florida.

Those were the days. Gene

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No Rocks, No Water, No Ecosystem (EAS)
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E. A. Shinn, Courtesy Professor
University of South Florida
College of Marine Science Room 221A
140 Seventh Avenue South
St. Petersburg, FL 33701
<eugeneshinn at mail.usf.edu>
Tel 727 553-1158
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