Repairs delay deep-sea survey of sunken Japanese fishing vessel

HONOLULU - The Navy's efforts to scan the wreckage of a Japanese ship sunk by a U.S. submarine were set back yesterday, when a deep-sea robot was removed from the sea for repairs.

The Navy is using the robot to evaluate the feasibility of raising the 190-foot Ehime Maru, which sank minutes after the USS Greeneville surfaced underneath it Feb. 9.

Yesterday, crew members using the robot noticed a tear in the tether used to raise and lower it. Navy officials said a sonar machine is still on the ocean floor scanning the wreckage, and the video-equipped robot could be ready to use today.

Families of nine men and teen-age boys missing since the sinking are pressing the Navy to recover any bodies that might be entombed in the Ehime Maru, even if that means conducting what experts say would be a monumental and unprecedented salvage of the entire ship.

Videotape taken by the robot since Friday showed the exterior of the ship seemingly in pristine condition, but the Coast Guard said the full extent of damage had not been determined.

The Navy said the deep-sea robots might be too big to enter the wreckage to retrieve any bodies from it.

The commercial fishing training vessel was headed toward fishing grounds 300 miles southeast of Oahu when the USS Greeneville collided with it during an emergency rapid-ascent drill. Twenty-six people were rescued.

The Navy announced Saturday it would conduct a court of inquiry, its highest-level administrative investigation, into the accident. The inquiry will focus on the actions of the Greeneville's three top officers: The submarine's captain, Cmdr. Scott Waddle; its executive officer, Lt. Cmdr. Gerald K. Pfeifer, and the officer of the deck, Lt. j.g. Michael J. Coen.