Posted on 10/10/2001 7:28:35 AM PDT by callisto
MOSCOW (Reuters) - The wreck of Russia's Kursk submarine, hoisted from the Arctic seabed in a painstaking operation, was hauled to a bittersweet homecoming Wednesday, more than a year after its sinking killed all 118 crew on board.
Crowds gathered on the bank at Roslyakovo, in the same region as the Kursk's home port of Vidyayevo, to watch the stricken nuclear submarine be towed into port by the Giant-4 lifting barge and be anchored a little way offshore.
It is will be dry docked in Roslyakovo, outside the northern port city of Murmansk, once two steel pontoons are built out to the vessel to help move it.
A navy spokesman in Moscow said the dry docking was planned for Saturday.
It has taken the Kursk and Giant-4, led by four navigating trawlers, two days to ply its way across a calm Barents Sea to anchor.
Once in dry dock, experts will try to pinpoint the cause of the Aug. 12, 2000 tragedy and cut out the Kursk's cruise missile arsenal.
Russian news agencies reported President Vladimir Putin, quoted by Kremlin spokesman Alexei Gromov, as saying prosecutors and forensic experts would be first aboard the docked submarine.
Putin said everything possible would be done "to reveal and show to the public the true causes of this tragedy," Itar-Tass news agency reported.
The 18,000-tonKursk was raised through 100 meters of Arctic waters Monday with the help of fold-out anchors and lifting cables secured to the barge over 15 hours.
Salvage teams have already sawed off the devastated bow containing the torpedo tubes thought to have been the epicenter of the blasts. That part is due to be lifted next year. The salvage operation, contracted by Moscow to Dutch heavy transport firm Mammoet, was due to have ended on Sept. 15 but was repeatedly delayed by bad weather and technical mishaps.
CLEAR SKY, CALM SEA
In contrast, Wednesday's homecoming was marked by clear skies and calm waters and the stately procession of barge, submarine and trawlers headed into the bay, overlooked by snow-capped mountains and patrolling helicopters.
RTR state television said all other boats had been banned from the area during the operation and guards had been posted all around the perimeter of the bay to enforce this.
When experts have finished studying the wreck, it will be sealed and towed to a nearby shipyard at Snezhnogorsk, where its nuclear fuel will be unloaded and the vessel cut up.
Two massive, unexplained explosions sent the Kursk, one of Russia's most modern vessels, plunging to the bottom of the Barents Sea. But even successful completion of the salvage operation is unlikely to end the mystery surrounding its demise.
Officials have said all evidence as to the cause of the explosions is likely to have been destroyed by the blasts.
The sinking of the Kursk and the confusion surrounding efforts to rescue its crew left Russians shocked and angry, and Putin came in for harsh criticism for failing to interrupt a Black Sea holiday when news of the crisis broke.
The Russian president later vowed to raise the Kursk at any cost and return the sailors' remains to relatives for burial.
An official commission is still weighing three main theories into the sinking: a torpedo malfunction, a mine and a collision with another submarine.
I have it on pretty good authority that most of the salvage divers were Brits, and a (very) few Norweigans. News reports constantly refer to the Norweigans but not the Brits. Wonder why?
Welcome home.
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