Families visit new site of Ehime Maru
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Video of divers searching the interior of the Ehime Maru in QuickTime and Real formats. (QuickTime or Real plug-in required) |
| • | Special report: Collision at Sea |
By Tanya Bricking
Advertiser Staff Writer
Under a giant American flag billowing from a crane on a nearby barge, nine Japanese families stood at the bow of a catamaran yesterday and stared into the ocean that has been the grave of their loved ones.
Deborah Booker • The Honolulu Advertiser
The Ehime Maru, which sank after a Feb. 9 collision with a Navy submarine and took their sons, husbands and brothers along with it, rested a little more than 100 feet below them. Yesterday was their closest chance yet to say goodbye.
Family members of the nine victims of a collision between the Japanese fisheries training vessel Ehime Maru and the submarine USS Greeneville waved goodbye after visiting the site where divers are searching the Japanese vessel to retrieve bodies and items of value to the families.
About 30 family members from Japan took the Hilton Rainbow I catamaran to the Navy command center 3 miles off the coast of Diamond Head yesterday to hear a Navy explanation of a recovery effort that has cost more than $60 million.
Families threw lei and single strands of flowers into the water and waved before their boat headed back to shore.
The Navy has been successful so far in its promise to the families to find as many victims' bodies as possible. Six of the nine bodies of the Ehime Maru's lost students, teachers and crewman have been recovered.
The flag-waving Crowley Marine Co. barge has become the temporary home of 66 American and Japanese divers who are continuing a monthlong search of the 830-ton Ehime Maru. The ship sank in 2,000 feet of water but was towed this month to a safe depth for divers to search.
Although two victims are presumed to have been swept out to sea when their ship went down, Navy divers hope to find at least one more body. Divers also are beginning to retrieve sentimental items found within the ship, such as a wedding ring that has been returned to victim Hiroshi Makizawa's widow.
Tonight, families of the victims who have been identified will hold a private memorial service to say goodbye once more before remains are cremated tomorrow.
Reach Tanya Bricking at 525-8026 or tbricking@honoluluadvertiser.com
