Barge for Lifting Kursk Arrives at Site
The final stage of preparations for raising part of the sunken Kursk nuclear submarine began with the arrival of a jumbo barge intended to hoist it to the surface.
The Giant 4 barge is being positioned over the submarine, which is lying on the Barents Sea floor 350 feet below the surface, said Larissa van Seumeren, a spokeswoman for Mammoet-Smit International, the Dutch consortium working to raise the Kursk on an estimated $65-million contract with the Russian government.
It will take about 24 hours to anchor the barge in precise position. The divers will then start attaching steel cables linked to 26 hydraulic jacks on the barge to pre-cut holes in the Kursk’s hull.
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