Posted at 9:50 a.m., Wednesday, August 1, 2001

Ship arrives to lift Ehime Maru from ocean floor

• Special Report: Collision at Sea

By Mike Gordon
Advertiser Staff Writer

The Rockwater 2 will attempt to rig a cradle under the sunken Japanese fishing vessel and haul it underwater to a spot where it can be reached by divers. Bruce Asato • The Honolulu Advertiser

The heavy lift ship Rockwater 2, the key player in the Navy's $40 million attempt to raise the sunken Ehime Maru from waters off O'ahu, arrived without fanfare at Honolulu Harbor today.

Navy officials are counting on the bright orange and red civilian ship to bring the Ehime Maru to shallow waters, so divers can retrieve the bodies of nine people thought to be trapped inside the hull.

Rockwater 2, owned by the Texas-based engineering firm Halliburton Co., will attempt to rig a cradle under the Ehime Maru to lift it off the ocean floor. It will then slowly carry the ship, suspended hundreds of feet below, to a spot about a mile south of the reef runway.

The Japanese vessel sank in 2,000 feet of water Feb. 9 after it was rammed by a nuclear submarine during a surfacing maneuver.

Harbor officials said the 387-foot Rockwater 2 weighs 5,991 tons.

The lift will take place near month's end, but not until meteorologists give it three days of good weather.