Navy begins moving
Ehime Maru

Rockwater 2 raises the sunken
vessel and starts the slow voyage

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By Gregg K. Kakesako
gkakesako@starbulletin.com

A turn in the trade winds and the ocean helped the Navy today as it began the slow voyage to move the Japanese fisheries training vessel Ehime Maru closer to shore.

Cmdr. Dave Wray, Navy spokesman, said the crew of the Rockwater 2, the civilian vessel contracted for the recovery operation, began the 16-mile voyage to the Honolulu Airport's reef runway shallow water recovery site at 7:40 this morning. The Rockwater 2 was able to raise the 830-ton vessel 10 to 15 feet off the ocean bottom at 1:30 this morning.

The Ehime Maru was then moved a few feet so an underwater survey could be done of the exterior of the 190-foot Ehime Maru.

"Things look pretty good," Wray said.

Once the survey, which had to be conducted by remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) since divers cannot work at 2,000 feet, was completed, the Ehime Maru was raised 90 feet.

The roughest part of the move is expected to be the first six miles because of the normal strong sea swells from the south, which are buffeted by equally strong tradewinds from the east.

The reason the trip will take so long is because the Rockwater 2, with the Ehime Maru suspended perpendicularly below it, will be traveling from 0.2 to 0.5 knots.

Once the Ehime Maru reaches the new site, at a depth of 115 feet, several Japanese civilian and 60 Navy divers will search the interior of the ship for nine people who were never found after it was hit by the nuclear attack submarine USS Greeneville on Feb. 9 nine miles south of Diamond Head. The recovery operation is expected to last a month.

However, no divers will enter the water for 24 hours to ensure Ehime Maru is stable. Divers will then remove debris from the outside of the ship and plug any leaking diesel fuel to protect Hawaii's environment. The Navy estimates that there is at least 10,000 gallons of diesel fuel on the ship. The divers will also clear a path for searchers to enter the ship.

Although initially budgeted at $40 million, the unprecedented salvage operation has already cost the Navy $60 million and is at least a month behind schedule. The operation has to be done before November and the annual Pacific winter storm surges.

Nine of the 35 people on board, including four high school students from Uwajima Fisheries High School in Ehime Prefecture, remain missing. But the Navy now believes the bodies of only five to seven of the missing remain inside the ship.