The hole is now estimated to be 60 feet wide and 40 feet high. Previously, the size of the waterline hole on the port side of the destroyer was put at 40-by-40 feet.
The Cole, loaded onto the deck of the Norwegian-owned transport ship Blue Marlin, will leave the Gulf of Aden on Saturday, according to Pentagon sources. The ships are scheduled to arrive in Norfolk around December 10, depending on weather and other variables,
The Pentagon refused to give any details of what route the piggy-backed ships will take. But sources told CNN plans call for the Blue Marlin, escorted by another U.S. warship, the USS Donald Cook, to carry the USS Cole around the tip of Africa, a distance of 10,700 nautical miles.
Navy officials said the ships would not be going through the Suez Canal primarily because the owners of the Blue Marlin expected better weather on the
southern route.
Photographs show crumpling
An engineering assessment team is on the destroyer and will try to precisely ascertain the damage as the Cole is transported back to the United States.
Photographs obtained by CNN show the extent to which
the $1-billion destroyer was damaged by a boat bomb loaded with several hundred pounds of what law enforcement sources confirm was C-4 high explosive.
The photographs reveal that a large section of the hull below the hole is significantly crumpled.
Navy officials said the ship appears not to have suffered any irreparable damage and that repairs will cost between $150 million and $170 million.
Three investigations underway
The October 12 terrorist attack in the port of Aden killed 17 U.S. sailors.
Three investigations are underway covering different aspects of the attack.
The FBI and Yemeni authorities are conducting a criminal probe, the U.S. Navy is performing a "JAG Manual investigation" that looks into the conduct of the Cole crew before and after the bombing, and the Pentagon is studying how best to protect U.S. troops in the Middle East.
"Our intent is to review Defense Department policies and procedures in order to ensure that in-transit forces have a protection system that is effective," retired Army Gen. William Crouch told reporters during a Pentagon briefing on Thursday.
Crouch and retired Navy Adm. Harold W. Gehman were appointed by Defense Secretary William Cohen to be co-chairman of the Cole Commission, which will review how military procedures failed to protect the ship.
"Maybe we have a crack here, maybe we have a seam," noted Gehman. "And it isn't just ships. We have independent airplanes transiting all over the place, pulling into commercial airports. We have other kinds of ships, charter ships, lease and hire ships, Military Sealift Command ships."
Both men returned Tuesday from a fact-finding trip to Bahrain and Yemen, where they also visited the Cole. The officials expressed admiration for the ship's crew for saving the destroyer and helping their injured crewmates.
No decision yet on repair site
Pentagon sources said the Cole will be taken initially to Norfolk, Virginia,
where its weapons will be offloaded and stored.
No decision had been made about where the ship will be repaired.
The remaining 217 crew members of USS Cole, including the ship's Captain
Cmdr. Kirk Lippold, will fly home to Norfolk, arriving Friday afternoon.
Most crew members will then go on leave and later return to the USS Cole
detachment in Norfolk.
CNN Military Affairs Correspondent Jamie McIntyre contributed to this report.
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