Recovery of Ehime Maru Nears End
After overcoming a series of technical setbacks, the Navy hopes to complete recovery of a sunken Japanese fishing vessel this week.
If all goes as planned, the Ehime Maru will be towed underwater from the 2,000-foot-deep waters where it lies to a shallow recovery site off Honolulu International Airport, the Navy said Sunday.
There, divers will search for the bodies of nine men and teenage boys who died when the fishing high school training vessel from Uwajima, Japan, was rammed by the U.S. submarine Greeneville on Feb. 9.
Final rigging of the Ehime Maru for the move was completed Friday, when the oil-rigging ship Rockwater 2 raised the sunken vessel nearly 10 feet and lowered it onto one of two lifting plates.
A Navy official said engineers confirmed over the weekend that the plate was properly positioned.
“Obviously this was a critical step, so we remain confident that we’ll be able to move Ehime Maru to shallow water sometime this coming week,” Cmdr. David Wray said.
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