1969 · Recovered Rocket Thrust Chamber · Work 1266 of 1,871
The open work deck of a recovery vessel on the Atlantic on a grey March morning, fine drizzle, wet steel deck plates, on a wooden pallet a battered ring of engine casing one metre forty high and two metres twenty across, grey-brown corroded sheet metal open at the front, inside it hundreds of thin upright cooling tubes torn and hanging inward in twisted fringes, flanges, rivet holes and broken brackets on the outer skin, a round bolted flange at the back, seawater running from the fringes, every metal surface plain and unmarked, the yellow tubular frame of an underwater robot behind, two hands in orange work gloves at a lifting strap.