Teamwork frees stuck cruiser

[unhappycamper]

The cruiser USS Port Royal takes a starboard list as the USNS Salvor tries to free the ship Feb. 9 after it ran aground about a half-mile south of the Honolulu airport while off-loading personnel into a small boat. The Salvor, the Motor Vessel Dove and seven Navy and commercial tugboats freed Port Royal off a shoal Feb. 9.


Teamwork frees stuck cruiser
By Philip Ewing - Staff writer
Posted : Saturday Feb 14, 2009 11:17:27 EST

About 90 minutes after sunset Feb. 5, the cruiser Port Royal was ending its first day back at sea after four months in the shipyard. It was almost quitting time.

The ship had slowed for a few minutes in the clear water about a half-mile off an island runway at Honolulu International Airport so a training team could get into a small boat and ride to nearby Hickam Harbor. With its passengers gone, the 9,600-ton warship could then slip back into its berth at Naval Station Pearl Harbor and tie up for the night.

But that didn’t happen. Instead, the ship ground onto a rocky shoal just off the runway. When the sun came up the next day, it was still there.

Port Royal spent four nights on the rocks, leading to one of the biggest Navy surface salvage jobs in years.

After salvage ships wrenched it free early Monday, the Port Royal had lost several blades from both its screws; its anchors and anchor chains; parts of its sonar dome; and its skipper, Capt. John Carroll, who was relieved of command as soon as the ship made it back.


Rest of article at: http://navytimes.com/news/2009/02/navy_portroyal_021409w/%2e