Navy readies for The Navy believes there is an 80 percent chance that it will be able to raise the sunken Japanese fishing training vessel Ehime Maru, but it is not confident that all of the nine victims are entombed in the vessel.
Ehime Maru recovery
The next step involves drilling
underneath the ship to install
special lifting platesBy Gregg K. Kakesako
gkakesako@starbulletin.comThe crucial test is within the first few hours sometime in the middle of this month when heavy-duty winches on the multipurpose diving support vessel Rockwater 2 begin to lift the 750-ton Ehime Maru from a depth of 2,000 feet.
Rear Adm. William Klemm, Pacific Fleet deputy chief of staff for maintenance, said yesterday the big question is whether "the structural integrity" of the 190-foot Ehime Maru can withstand the pressure as it is being raised from the ocean bottom nine miles south of Diamond Head.
Klemm, who is in charge of the Navy's unprecedented $40 million recovery operations, said there also is the possibility that not all of the nine men and boys are on the ship. Twenty-six people were rescued Feb. 9 after the nuclear attack submarine USS Greeneville surfaced into the hull of the Ehime Maru, sinking it within minutes.
The bodies of nine people -- four 17-year-old boys, two of their teachers and three crewmen -- were never found.
Klemm said there is "a strong likelihood" that only five to seven of the missing may still be in the ship. That is because most of the missing were "deep down in the ship on the third deck," Klemm said, while the remaining were either on the first deck or the pilot house above the main deck and could have been carried into the ocean.The Navy has contracted with the Rotterdam-based Smit Tak Internationale to raise the Japanese ship. Smit Internationale also is involved in the attempts to raise the Russian submarine Kursk.
"The Navy has a lot of experience in salvage operations," Klemm said. "The Navy has raised ships from the Suez Canal after the Gulf War."
But the Ehime Maru operation is unique because of the combination of the depth and the size of the sunken vessel.
Capt. Bert Marsh, director of ocean engineering and supervisor of salvage and diving, said the Navy has raised objects from greater depths, but nothing as heavy as the Ehime Maru. "We've raised a helicopter from 17,000 feet, but it weighed 20 to 30 tons and not 700 tons like the Ehime Maru."
Tentative plans for the recovery of the Ehime Maru
>> Aug. 3: Ocean Hercules leaves. Mission to clear Ehime Maru of debris and two of its masts completed.
>> Aug. 6-7: Rockwater 2 leaves Honolulu Harbor for deep-water site.
>> Aug. 13: Japanese research vessel Kairei, with its remotely controlled vehicle Kaiko, arrives.
>> Aug. 20: Crowley Barge 450, which will be the shallow-water diving platform, departs Honolulu Harbor for reef runway site, accompanied by a Japanese Self Defense sub rescue vessel and Japanese salvage divers.
Two linear winches will be rigged with steel cables 4 inches in diameter capable of hauling an object weighing 3,200 tons, Marsh said.
Ten transponders have been placed around the Ehime Maru by remotely controlled vehicles from the Ocean Hercules to help the Navy find the ship and position the lifting cables.
The Ehime Maru now sits upright on the soft clay ocean bottom but lists about 5 degrees starboard, Klemm said.
Video shows that the Ehime Maru's bow is crumpled and no longer aligned with the hull.The first phase of the operation, which began July 15, was completed this week after the crew of the Ocean Hercules removed the Ehime Maru's forward and main masts and cleared the ship of other debris. The masts are now stored at Pearl Harbor, Klemm said, and there is a possibility that parts of them could be used for a memorial.
As early as Monday, the Rockwater 2 will leave Honolulu Harbor to position itself above the Ehime Maru and begin the unique task of rigging it. Marsh said a coiled tube drilling system, normally used to search for oil, will be used to drill beneath the Ehime Maru.
The process will be repeated until special lifting plates are placed in front and back of the ship. A specially built spreader assembly, which will distribute the weight of the Ehime Maru, will be positioned above the ship and attached to the ends of the lifting plates.
Once that is completed, the Rockwater 2 will lift the Ehime Maru about 90 feet and move it to within a mile of Honolulu Airport's reef runway.
Current plans call for the Navy to leave the Ehime Maru in 115 feet of water near the reef runway for 48 hours to stabilize before 65 Japanese and Navy divers begin the search and recovery operation.
Once that project is completed, the Ehime Maru will be taken by a barge in October to a deep-water site 12 miles off Barbers Point and sunk in 6,000 feet of water.
The operation could take from two to four weeks beginning in the middle of August, Klemm said.
Klemm said the Navy wants to ensure the conditions are right since there is a possibility that 10,000 gallons of diesel fuel and lube oil are trapped in the ship. It has developed an extensive mitigation plan if an oil spill does occur.