Salvage vessel heads for East China Sea to raise 'spy' ship

kyodo ^ | 6/22/02

[Ranger]

YOKOSUKA, June 22, Kyodo - A salvage vessel left Yokosuka port, southwest of Tokyo, on Saturday for the East China Sea to raise an unidentified ship that sank there after a shoot-out with Japan Coast Guard (JCG) patrol boats in December.

The 657-ton Shintatsu Maru, owned by a private salvage firm, carries an unmanned submersible vessel. The JCG commissioned the operations to the private salvage company and the entire operation is expected to take at least a month to complete.

On Tuesday evening, the vessel will join the 498-ton Shinyo Maru, another salvage ship, loaded with a manned submersible, in the waters where the suspected North Korean spy ship sank and start salvage operations, JCG officials said.

Crew members in the manned submersible will guide the unmanned vessel to clear the area around the ship to make preparations to pull it up, the officials said.

This clearing work is expected to take six days. Divers will then fix cables around the wreckage to raise the ship which is at a depth of 90 meters.

The ship sank off Shanghai in China's exclusive economic zone, and China agreed Tuesday to allow Japan to raise it.

Japan has conducted a series of underwater probes of the ship, and the government said the investigations strengthen its belief that the ship was from North Korea.

Japan claims the vessel was either a spy ship or engaged in drug running. North Korea has denied having any connection with the vessel and denounced its sinking as an ''act of piracy.''

Fifteen people were estimated to have been on board the ship when it went down Dec. 22. Four bodies were recovered and all the other people are presumed dead. Three JCG members were wounded in the incident.

[jimtorr]

I would think that the Japanese NSDF had better protect this salvage ship, or somebody will attack it.

[FreePaul]

Those seem to be very small salvage ships. What size was the vessel they are trying to salvage?