ASSOCIATED PRESS / ASAHI SHIMBUN, GEN HASHIMOTO
Daisuke Shinoto, 19, a survivor of the 2001 submarine collision off Diamond Head, spoke to reporters today in Uwajima, Japan, before boarding the new Ehime Maru. A crew of 36 teachers and students from the Uwajima Fisheries High School left for Hawaii as part of a two-month cruise.
Ehime Maru replacement
leaves port for first timeThe training vessel will take
a two-month cruise to Hawaii
TOKYO >> Hundreds cheered at a port in southwestern Japan today as students of a fisheries school whose training ship was sunk by a U.S. Navy submarine off Hawaii 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 Hawaii carrying a crew of 36 teachers and students from the Uwajima Fisheries High School, said Vice-Principal Hiroshi Miyaoka.
It was launched by the school in December as a replacement for a training vessel of the same name that was sunk in a collision with the nuclear-powered submarine USS Greeneville off Oahu 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, Cmdr. Scott Waddle, was reprimanded by a military court of inquiry, but retired with full rank and pension.
The new Ehime Maru was scheduled to spend two months at sea during which 14 students will practice catching tuna and make a port call to lay wreaths at a memorial on Kakaako Waterfront Park in Honolulu, Miyaoka said.
"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 paid to the local government. The families of the 35 victims agreed to a settlement totaling $16.5 million.
