Navy nears end The Rockwater 2, the civilian ship contracted by the Navy to lift and move the Ehime Maru to shallower waters, is back at Honolulu Harbor today preparing for the final phase of the operation in the middle of next month.
of Ehime project
The salvage ship is being fitted
with equipment to raise
the sunken fishing vesselBy Gregg K. Kakesako
gkakesako@starbulletin.comMeanwhile, the Navy says that Cmdr. Scott Waddle, the skipper of the nuclear attack submarine USS Greeneville, will leave the service tomorrow after more than 20 years of service -- his pension intact. Waddle was in command of the Greeneville when it struck and sank the Ehime Maru Feb. 9, nine miles south of Diamond Head.
Waddle, who was relieved of his command a day after the collision, took responsibility for his actions and apologized to the Japanese families attending a rare Navy court of inquiry earlier this year.
The Greeneville, which ran aground while trying to enter a harbor in Saipan Aug. 27, is still in Guam after undergoing $120,000 worth of repairs, Lt. Cmdr. Kelly Merrell said. The skipper of the Greeneville responsible for the Saipan incident, Cmdr. David Bogdan, was relieved on Sept. 11.
More than $60 million has been spent in trying to recover the remains of nine teenage boys, their teachers from Uwajima Fisheries High School and crewmen of the Ehime Maru. The Navy acknowledged that this is a risky operation since it has never raised a vessel as heavy as the 830-ton Ehime Maru from such a depth.
The Rockwater 2 is expected to remain in Honolulu Harbor until tomorrow to load the lifting and spreader assembly, which will be suspended over the 190-foot Ehime Maru to distribute its weight when the vessel is finally lifted and transported to a site one mile south of Honolulu Airport's reef runway.
The assembly is comprised of a top and bottom frame. The top frame, or lifting bar, will be installed beneath Rockwater 2 while in port. After about three days of work in port, Rockwater 2 will then head to a sheltered area at sea where the bottom frame, or spreader assembly, will be fastened to the top frame.
Then the Rockwater 2 will return to where the Ehime Maru now rests on the ocean bottom in 2,000 feet of water. At that point the Rockwater 2 will lift the Ehime Maru and move it a few feet to a more level area out of a mud hole.
For the past several weeks, the Rockwater 2 has been clearing the bow, or the front of the vessel, of mud. The Navy estimates that it should take about six days to reposition the Ehime Maru and place one of two metal lifting plates under its hull near the pilot house. Another lifting plate already has been positioned at the stern, or rear, of the vessel near the engine room.
Once the engine room and the pilot house lifting plates are in place, the Rockwater 2 will return to port for about three days to re-rig the forward end of the top lifting frame from a single-cable to a double-cable lift configuration, then return to the deep-water recovery site for the final lifting operation.
At that point the Ehime Maru will be lifted 90 feet off the ocean floor and gradually moved 12.5 miles to the reef runway recovery site. There, at a depth of 115 feet, Navy and Japanese divers will search the ship's cabins for the nine missing people.