Last time I looked it was upright but riding a “little” low in the water. Are they going to pump the water out or use high pressure air to force it out? Looks like an interesting undertaking to partake in.
I believe it is sitting on the cradle.
“Interesting” as in 600 million Euros.
Yes, they are going to pump the water out resulting in it sitting higher in the water before towing it.
This is quite the salvage operation that will take until spring before the vessel will be towed away to the scrapyard. They are using a process called “parbuckling” to right the ship. This was the same method used to right the USS Oklahoma in Pearl Harbor and tried on the USS Utah but failed because it started sliding away as they tried rolling it.
On the Concordia they built an underwater platform under the ship on the reef for it to rest onto when its rolled upright and to keep it from sliding away during the roll process. They had to roll it 65 degrees. If you look at the pictures you”ll notice these big square like boxes on the side that was out of the water. Once the ship was roled 28 degrees those boxes were filled with water and the weight helped roll the ship the rest of the way upright. Now that it’s upright they will be welding the same boxes othe side that was underwater. when that is done they will then be pumped out to refloat the ship for towing.