Projo 7 to 7 News Blog

PROVIDENCE -- At 6:02 p.m. tonight, the Russian missile submarine Juliett 484 rose from under water, its bow majestically breaking through the surface of Providence harbor to gasps and cheers from the American military crews who have worked for a year to raise her.

The sub rose suddenly, shooting from the harbor floor to the surface in perhaps 10 seconds, six full hours after salvage teams started pumping water out of her and after several aborted attempts.

Frank Lennon, president of the Russian Submarine Museum, summed up his reaction in one word: Wow.

"I wasn't prepared for how fast it came up. I thought it would come up slowly, but it just went 'whoom,' " Lennon said. "But it's up, and it's up just the way they planned. Wow."

At noon today, military dive and salvage teams began pumping out some of the 575,000 gallons of water inside the submarine, as their final push to bring the submarine off the harbor bottom. Water, some of it murky and black, plumed out of pumps at the bow and stern of the museum ship, which sank at its mooring at Collier Point Park in April 2007.

It was a long day of incremental progress, as military engineers halted to check their work at each step. They pumped water out, then one by one released the six guide wires anchoring the submarine in place. Then they pumped again, absorbent sponges soaking up the pungent, oily water rolling around the sub for 18 months. By late afternoon, enough water was be pumped out that the bow of the submarine broke the suction holding it in the mud, and shook off the harbor floor.

With the aid of eight inflatable pontoons buried underneath the submarine, the rest of the boat slowly rose thereafter.

"I was absolutely thrilled. It was just pure excitement. After all of this hard work, to see it just rise out of the water, to see it come up like this, was amazing," said Petty Officer First Class Eric Lippmann, one of the Navy divers on station to help raise the submarine.

The military had hoped to raise the submarine last week, but the operation was delayed three times because of weather and concerns that the pontoons would not support the boat's weight.

-- Journal staff writer Daniel Barbarisi

 Tags  Providence Russian submarine

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