Navy takes1st step The Navy today was to begin the first step toward the Herculean attempt to raise the 830-ton Ehime Maru, sunk Feb. 9 when it was struck by the nuclear submarine USS Greeneville.
in raising ship
The Ocean Hercules arrived
today and will clear the
sunken ship of obstacles on deckBy Gregg K. Kakesako
gkakesako@starbulletin.comOcean Hercules, the vessel contracted by the Navy to prepare Ehime Maru for this summer's recovery operation, arrived at Pier 1 this morning.
The 266-foot-long vessel left San Francisco July 5. It will head to a spot nine miles south of Diamond Head this weekend where the Ehime Maru rests in 2,000 feet of water.
By August it will be joined by the Rockwater 2, whose job will be to try to lift Ehime Maru about 100 feet off the ocean floor and move it to shallower waters a mile south of Honolulu Airport's reef runway.
There, at a depth of about 115 feet, Navy and Japanese divers will search the interior of the 190-foot vessel for any remains of the three missing crewmen, four 17-year-old students and two teachers of Uwajima Fisheries High School.
Rear Adm. William Klemm, who heads the Navy's $40 million recovery effort, said there exists a "high likelihood" that the Navy will be able to find the remains of most of the missing.
The divers will also try to recover missing crew members' personal effects and certain unique characteristics of the ship, such as its nameplate and anchors, for a possible memorial.
The Navy hopes to begin that part of the operation in September. It will involve 45 Navy divers and another six to eight Japanese divers from the ship repair facility at Yokosuka.
Since divers are unable to safely work at 2,000 feet, two remotely operated vehicles will be used by the Ocean Hercules crew to clear Ehime Maru's decks of any obstacles before the attempts are made to raise the ship. Klemm said this is the first time the Navy will use deep-sea techniques normally used to find oil.