One of Sausalito’s most famous houseboats isn’t in the floating homes community. It’s the photogenic Taj Mahal in the Sausalito Yacht Harbor downtown.
A fixture on the Sausalito waterfront since the mid-1970’s, the iconic structure made the news when it sank in March 2023, after being battered by a bomb cyclone. There were doubts it could be salvaged, but those doubts were proven wrong.
That incident piqued the curiosity of Gate 6 ½ resident Claudia Kelly. Here’s her report:
For the Taz Mahal in India, the world’s finest materials in 1643 were used: marble, red sandstone and 28 different types of gemstones. Construction required 22,000 people, 1,000 elephants and oxen and over 20 years to create this 7th Wonder of the World. Built as a monument to Shah Jahan’s wife who died giving birth to her 14th child (ouch! What a Wonder Wife she must have been!) Mumtaz Mahal certainly deserved her glorious final resting palace. But just like residents elsewhere, environmental threats are creeping into her paradise haven. According to Wikipedia, concerns for the tomb’s structural integrity have been raised about the declining ground water, estimated at 5 feet/year, in the Yamuna River basin. Cracks have appeared. And the wooden foundation may be rotting due to lack of water. Acid rain pollution from a nearby oil refinery has turned the beautiful white tomb to yellow-brown. Some predictions indicate that the property could collapse within the next several years. Oy vey, maybe it’s true that nothing lasts forever.
Locally, our Taj Mahal was resurrected after the March 2023 water bombardment in several weeks thanks to Sausalito’s Parker Diving Services, and no elephants or compressors were harmed during this salvage operation. The local Taj Mahal was under 4′ to 5′ of water and sinking further. This very heavy 360-ton concrete barge was pumped out and raised by 14 pumps and divers, a large crew on land, and a huge crane. The story is that the exterior wooden window coverings had been removed (no answers why) and our hurricane force (seemed like it) wind overpowered the unprotected glass and blew the storm into the boat. Divers measured the windows, many under water, so the Parker shop could fabricate exterior plywood coverings for its 30 windows. They wrapped the rest of the hull to ensure that any little hull holes wouldn’t suck in more water through the cover wrap. In prep for the raising, they attached 25′ lines of military grade fiber to the corners and the crane operator tugged. This miracle waterborne crane machine out of San Rafael had 39,000 lbs. of lift. Major joy as this Taj rose up and water poured out so the project could continue. Next came divers using fire hoses to remove the mud. The Parker miracle workers were even able to rescue some of the furnishings. A writer in Latitude 38 magazine contrasted this salvage effort of bringing a soggy floating home back up to its dock in a matter of weeks to a friend who is attempting a house rebuild after a fire and is still struggling with building codes before he can even start. Water live-a-boards catch a break!
All of the interior doors were water-tight, such as on submarines, and had to be pried open with heavy crowbars by divers. Planning for this resurrection, it took weeks to identify and match tides/times, desiring a minus 0.5’ tide during daylight hours. This salvage managed by the Seattle- based insurance company’s own marine surveyor surely cost a small fortune. Equipment such as pumps and generators required pneumatic compressors, which were vital. Luckily, a Parker employee named SAMSON was part of their team—maybe not the original Biblical guy but still a mighty strong man. This Taj Mahal is now floating calmly in a Sausalito marina. Source: Terry Polite, Salvage Master, Parker Diving Service; and YouTube video.