Ehime Maru salvage continues
By Mike Gordon
Advertiser Staff Writer
Underwater salvage experts have established one thing for certain: they can lift the stern of the Ehime Maru.
Jeff Widener • The Honolulu Advertiser
Although engineers raised the stern to place important rigging equipment beneath the 830-ton ship, Navy officials at Pearl Harbor yesterday could not say if the task was going well.
Diver Hideki Saino has his gear fitted and checked. Japanese navy rescue divers took part in a demonstration dive for the media on board the Chihaya rescue ship at Pearl Harbor yesterday.
The lift began about 2 a.m. Monday and was continuing last night.
The experts once thought the vessel might be too damaged to lift. Picking up the Ehime Maru by its stern is part of a backup plan adopted two weeks ago and appears to be the only method the Navy has left to rig the ship.
The Ehime Maru lies on the ocean bottom in 2,000 feet of water. It sank Feb. 9 after being rammed by the submarine USS Greeneville during a surfacing drill 9 miles south of Diamond Head.
The Navy wants to move the ship, which was used to train Japanese high school students to fish, to 115 feet of water so divers can recover the remains of nine men and boys believed to be trapped in the hull.
A team of Navy and civilian engineers aboard the ship Rockwater 2 need to place cables under the Ehime Maru and use them to pull large lifting plates beneath its hull.
By using two heavy-duty linear winches, they can lift the stern of the Ehime Maru and then move cables with remotely operated vehicles.
The ongoing lift yesterday was the fourth time since last Wednesday evening that the ship was hoisted by its stern.
The first effort lasted nearly eight hours and appeared successful, but the Navy later discovered that one of the cables had snagged. On Friday, engineers lifted the Ehime Maru twice but were forced to stop when their lifting sling snapped.
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| The crew of the Chihaya is participating in the recovery of the sunken Ehime Maru.
Jeff Widener • The Honolulu Advertiser |
He said the current lift, which was being done with a reinforced sling, was being hampered by poor visibility. The work being done by the remotely operated vehicles kicks up sediment, which, at a depth of 2,000 feet, takes 30 to 45 minutes to settle.
Meanwhile, 30 divers from the JDS Chihaya submarine rescue ship are here to take part in the recovery effort. None of the 30 divers will set foot on the sunken vessel until U.S. Navy divers have finished searching its hull for the bodies of nine missing people.
The Japanese divers will view live footage from helmet-cams used by U.S. divers once the recovery phase begins. After that phase is complete, the Japanese divers will get to dive to the Ehime Maru for a final inspection.
