Ehime Maru recovery costs hit $60 million
By Mike Gordon
Advertiser Staff Writer
Rigging and weather problems have added about $20 million to the cost of raising the wreck of the Ehime Maru, the Navy said yesterday.
To date, the project has cost about $60 million.
Navy video of a vacuum system removing sand and mud from around the hull of the Ehime Maru so cables can be rigged under the bow. In Real and QuickTime formats (Real or QuickTime plug-in required).
A Navy spokesman for the U.S. Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor stressed that the initial projection of $40 million was always considered an estimate.
The Japanese ship, used to train high school students how to fish, sank after being rammed by a Navy submarine, the USS Greeneville, earlier this year. It now lies on the ocean bottom in 2,000 feet of water.
Nine men and boys from the ship were killed in the collision and their bodies are thought to be trapped inside the hull. The Navy has promised to do everything possible to recover their bodies but must first move the Ehime Maru to shallow water.
Salvage engineers have encountered several problems since mid-August, including the failure of their principal rigging plan and the partial failure of a backup plan. Some equipment has not worked as anticipated and some of it broke.
Bad weather also forced delays.
The Navy hopes to move the ship by mid-October, about a month later than originally planned.
A team of Navy and civilian engineers aboard Rockwater 2, a civilian-owned heavy lift ship, is preparing the bow of the Ehime Maru so the ship can be lifted out of a hole on the sea floor.
Areas on either side of the bow are being dredged clear with equipment flown in from the Mainland. This is the third plan adopted by the Navy to lift and rig the bow of the Ehime Maru.
One of the ship's anchors has been cut free and placed on its deck. Both anchors need to be removed for the move and ultimately both will be raised and given to Japanese officials so they can be used for a memorial.
