The ship Mayo supposed to salvage the Russian submarine Kursk has international crew which should first remove the bow laden with torpedoes, and later tow the 18,000-tonne vessel to port.
PHOTO - TASR/AP
MOSCOW – The ship leading the operation to salvage the Russian nuclear submarine Kursk arrived in Norway from the scene of the wreck last Thursday to load robot cutting equipment to remove the vessel‘s torpedo bay. Russian news agencies said the high-tech Mayo diving support ship, with an international team of deep-sea divers on board, arrived in the port of Kirkenes after cleaning silt from the hull of the Kursk with robot gear. Mayo and its Russian, British, Norwegian and Dutch divers are expected to sail back in the next few days to the site of the wreck in the Barents Sea, where 118 sailors died after two unexplained explosions on board Kursk last August.
A Kremlin-aligned website providing regular updates on the salvage operation, www.kursk.strana.ru, quoted Deputy Prime Minister Ilya Klebanov as saying the early stages of the project were going according to plan.
Russia wants the vessel in dry dock by September 20. The Kursk‘s torpedo-laden bow will be severed by robot cutting gear and left on the sea bed for now. Then divers will drill holes in the rest of the vessel and attach cables. Lifting gear will then haul the 18,000-tonne submarine to the surface, where it will be towed to port under a huge barge.
Reuters
