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June 18, 2008

Update: Diving into the saga of the sunken Russian sub

Journal photo / Andrew Dickerman
A crew stands by on a U.S. Navy salvage vessel as divers work on the sunken Russian missile submarine in Providence Harbor today.

PROVIDENCE -- It’s a beautiful day to go for a dive, even if the water’s a bit murky.

Navy and Army divers are working together today on a salvage mission in the Providence River.

Yes, it’s the Russian submarine.

The submarine, which sank last April after a storm, won’t see the light of day today, but, we’re told, it will happen soon.

First there are some technical issues to deal with.

Today, Spc. David Craig, ND-2 Michael Mahoney and Spc. Paul Riedner stepped off a boat and into the greenish-gray waters of the river to do their part. After their dive, a hydraulic drill was lowered into the water.

The three will work together to drill open the missile tubes on the submarine, then fill them with air, according to Chief Warrant Officer Dale Kasztelan. The air will make the craft more buoyant, a great help when the submarine is actually hoisted to the surface.

-- projo.com staff writer Brandie M. Jefferson

But it’s not that easy to drill a hole under water. It’s kind of like a space walk –– the divers push against the ship, it pushes back. So they have to find ways to brace themselves using the ship, the muddy waters and each other.

They’ll be underwater for a few hours, Kasztelan said. But it’s not so bad. Sometimes the salvage divers are under water for upwards of six hours.

The salvage effort has another purpose, too. It's a way to provide training for the military divers, through the Defense Department's Innovative Readiness Training, which uses community-based projects.

Of course this isn’t the end of the sub saga. In a statement released by the Department of Defense, the work will “culminate in the safe recovery of Juliett-484, a.k.a. a sunken Russian submarine from the Providence River sometime this summer.”

But not today.

Posted by Brandie Jefferson at 3:42 PM | Permalink

June 18, 2008

Update: Diving into the saga of the sunken Russian sub

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