Winds Hamper Efforts to Remove Hulk of Cargo Ship

Fighting gusty winds, a helicopter ferried a cable to the broken bow of the grounded cargo ship New Carissa on Thursday in preparation for hauling it out to sea.

But the winds and pounding surf again kept salvage crews from hooking the 1,100-yard cable between the bow and a tug boat. Just before nightfall, they decided to quit for the day.

It was yet another frustrating delay in the three-week saga of the grounded ship, which has been set afire, pumped and broken up by the surf as crews have scrambled to spare Oregon’s beaches from a disastrous fuel spill.

Weather has for days stood in the way of the latest plan to tow the 420-foot bow more than 200 miles out into the Pacific to be sunk by a gunboat. The 220-foot stern is hopelessly mired in the beach.

The 639-foot Japanese-owned bulk carrier got stuck in the surf Feb. 4 after it dropped anchor to wait out a storm before entering Coos Bay for a load of wood chips. At least 70,000 gallons of oil have leaked into the sea and washed up on beaches.

A Navy explosives team set the ship afire a week later in a spectacular blast aimed at burning the rest of the gooey black fuel left on board. The ship broke apart after the fire, and despite repeated efforts to burn off the fuel, the bow still held one-third of the original oil.