Salvage firm to evaluate ship damage

From the Manila Standard Today (Jan 20): Salvage firm to evaluate ship damage

An international salvage firm employed by the United States Navy had been dispatched to Tubataha Reef to evaluate the extent of the damage to the American minesweeper USS Guardian that ran aground at the protected marine park, sources said on Saturday. The US Fleet Industrial Supply Center in Singapore has purportedly asked the technical services of the salvage firm to remove the vessel from the Tubataha Reef without inflicting further damage to coral reefs, the source said. “The US Navy requested the salvage firm to tow the USS Guardian out of where it is stuck in the Sulu Sea without further damaging the corals it hit when she ran aground on Thursday,” the source said.

The motor tugboat Trabajador, owned by the salvage company, left the Subic port on Thursday and was already en route to the Sulu Sea to assess the damage to the Guardian. M/T Trabajador, the source said is expected to arrive the area where the US ship had been stuck early Sunday and engineers on board will immediately evaluate the situation.

A US Navy destroyer or cruiser may also arrived in Puerto Princesa City on Sunday to support the evaluation process and the US Navy Seventh Fleet, based in Okinawa, Japan, has sent two support vessels to ferry out the Guardian’s 79-man crew. The Guardian made a two-day port call in Subic, Zambales in January and left on January 15 for a still unknown destination, but it was reported to have ran aground on January 17.

http://manilastandardtoday.com/2013/01/20/salvage-firm-to-evaluate-ship-damage/