Raising Ehime Maru estimated at $40 million

A Dutch company said it can lift the Ehime Maru from 2,000 feet below the surface

HONOLULU (CNN) -- Raising the Japanese training ship that sank after it was struck by a U.S. submarine would cost $40 million and take six months, according to preliminary estimates, the U.S. Navy said Tuesday.

Navy officials Monday reported that the Dutch deep-sea salvage company Smit-Tak had decided it was feasible to raise the Ehime Maru, but did not release a cost estimate.

Tuesday the estimate of $40 million was posted on the Web site of the commander in chief of the U.S. Pacific Fleet. It notes that further planning and analysis are needed and the estimate could change.

Navy officials are expected to announce this week that they will hire Smit-Tak to raise the 185-foot ship from more than 2,000 feet of water near Hawaii in an effort to recover nine bodies that may be trapped inside.

The U.S. Navy does not own the equipment required for such an operation and was compelled to hire a private company to examine the possibility of raising the ship, which sank after a February 9 collision with the submarine USS Greeneville.

The Web site said the most feasible plan for salvaging the ship "requires a two-phase lift that would bring the vessel into shallow water and therefore requires an environmental review with federal and state officials."

Navy officials Monday were briefing concerned parties on the details of the proposed recovery operation. Those parties include Japanese government officials, state officials in Hawaii and federal agencies, including the Environmental Protection Agency.

Japanese government officials and family members of the nine people -- still officially listed as "missing" -- have strongly pressed the United States to make every effort to recover their bodies. The Ehime Maru is resting on its keel, nearly upright in 2,033 feet of water, the Navy has said.

Twenty-six of the people aboard the Ehime Maru were rescued following the collision.

The Coast Guard last week said the rescue effort it conducted in an attempt to find the nine missing people after the Ehime Maru sank cost more than $1 million.

Defense sources and a spokesman for Smit-Tak told CNN the operation would require that remotely operated deep-sea vehicles be used to employ air hoses which would blast open channels beneath the hull of the sunken ship. Steel cables would then be fed beneath the keel, followed by giant straps.

The straps would cradle the hull, lifting the ship slowly from the ocean floor with powerful hoists aboard salvage craft on the surface, officials said.

Contacted by CNN at Smit-Tak headquarters in Rotterdam, company spokesman Cees Bom said that such an operation has "never been done before" and "not from this depth."

It is impossible for divers to operate at depths of 2,000 feet because of the immense pressure.

Sub skipper's family speaks out about collision
March 11, 2001
Court of inquiry watches simulation of sub's periscope sweep
March 9, 2001
Sub skipper's lawyer disputes Navy's report of collision
March 7, 2001

U.S. Coast Guard
Japanese Prime Minister
CINCPACFLT :: USS Greeneville (SSN 772) incident
City of Uwajima's memorial site
U.S. Navy
 • CINCPACFLT statement on the USS Greeneville incident
 • Commander Submarine Force, U.S. Pacific Fleet
 • USS Greeneville
National Transportation Safety Board

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