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The Honolulu Advertiser

Posted on: Wednesday, May 7, 2003

Ehime Maru replacement starts voyage

Associated Press

TOKYO — Hundreds cheered at a port in Japan today as students whose training ship was sunk by a U.S. Navy submarine in a fatal accident two years ago took its replacement to sea for the first time.

The 499-ton Ehime Maru left the port of Uwajima, about 420 miles southwest of Tokyo, for a two-month cruise to Hawai'i with a crew of 36 teachers and students from the Uwajima Fisheries High School, said vice principal Hiroshi Miyaoka.

The ship is the replacement for a training vessel of the same name that was sunk in a collision with the nuclear-powered submarine USS Greeneville off the coast of Hawai'i in February 2001.

Nine people died in the accident, which provoked sharp criticism in Japan of the disciplinary procedures taken by U.S. authorities.

The former skipper, Scott Waddle, was reprimanded by a military court of inquiry but retired with full rank and pension.

During the Ehime Maru's two months at sea, 14 students will practice catching tuna, and make a port call to lay wreaths at a memorial to the Ehime Maru in Kaka'ako Waterfront Park.

"I want to tell them that we're back with a new ship," said 19-year-old Daisuke Saito, who survived the accident.

The vessel was built at a cost of $9.25 million as part of an $11.47 million compensation package.