Navy lifts Ehime Maru out of hole
By Mike Gordon
Advertiser Staff Writer
After equipment failures and problems that included dropping the Ehime Maru, the Navy yesterday tasted success in its ambitious and unprecedented effort to move the 830-ton vessel to shallow water.
In a three-hour job, a team of salvage engineers lifted the bow of the sunken Japanese training vessel out of a hole on the sea floor and moved the ship to a flat location, where it was then lowered onto a lifting plate. The plate, which is under the pilothouse, is one of two needed to pick up and move the ship to shallow water.
The other lifting plate was put in position last month during a procedure that accidentally shoved the bow of the Ehime Maru into the sea floor.
But the salvage experts yesterday were able to lift the vessel 10 feet off the ocean bottom, move it nearly 110 feet to the side and 16 feet forward, before lowering it onto the lifting plate.
Rigging the ship is critical to the success of the mission, which has now cost more than $60 million. The Navy has promised the families of nine missing people that it would attempt to recover their remains, presumed to be inside the hull of the Ehime Maru.
The ship, which sank after colliding in February with the submarine USS Greeneville, sits on the bottom in 2,000 feet of water. The depth is too great for divers to work in, so the Navy is undertaking the unprecedented move.
The Navy hopes to move Ehime Maru to a spot near the Honolulu International Airport's reef runway by the middle of this month.
In anticipation of recovering remains, the Navy is offering flights to Hawai'i and hotel rooms to family members who want to claim their loved ones or any personal affects recovered by divers.
The free trips will be offered once remains are identified by the Honolulu Medical Examiner's Office so that family members can take them home to Japan, said Jon Yoshishige, a fleet spokesman.
Relatives of those whose remains are not found are also being offered the trips if they want to claim items belonging to a lost loved one, he said.
Only five to seven sets of remains are thought to be inside the Ehime Maru, but the Navy has stressed there are no guarantees that divers will find them.
Two round trip flights between Uwajima, the town where the families live, and Honolulu will be provided to as many as five relatives for each victim per trip. Each plane ticket will cost the Navy about $1,300.
A total of eight nights of lodging, including a $100 phone card and $65 a day for expenses, will be provided over the course of both trips. The lodging can be split over the two trips, if desired.
The Navy also will pay for $2,500 in mortuary and cremation services.
Family members are not being encouraged to arrive before remains are found.
"We understand that the families are anxious to travel," Yoshishige said. "However, their presence here will not speed up the recovery process. If any of the missing family members arrive in Hawai'i before the Navy extends an invitation for them to travel, we will provide them with a daily update that will be similar to the one other families in Japan routinely receive."
Staff writer Curtis Lum contributed to this report. Reach Mike Gordon at 525-8012 or mgordon@honoluluadvertiser.com
