Storms subside and Kursk submarine recovery effort resumes

By Anna Dolgov

A fierce storm on the Arctic site on the Barents Sea forced the suspension of the operation Friday. But the wind lessened overnight and divers began submerging to the submarine, said Vladimir Navrotsky, spokesman for the Russian Navy's northern fleet.
The divers worked through Saturday to cut a hole through the thick rubber covering the submarine and the outer hull above the Kursk's ninth compartment. If the weather allows, Navrotsky said the divers would likely cut through the thicker inner hull Sunday and venture inside soon afterward.

Saturday's work was being done only by Norwegian divers because winds were still strong, Navrotsky said. According to Russian regulations, the Russian divers cannot resume work until the waves were less than four meters (12 feet).
Family members of the Kursk's crew waited anxiously Saturday for a helicopter to deliver the four bodies already recovered from the diving site to the ship's home port of Severomorsk. The bodies were pulled out Wednesday through a hole cut in the ship's eighth compartment.

A memorial ceremony was initially planned for the four Saturday in Severomorsk, but was postponed until Sunday because the gale prevented helicopters from bringing the four bodies ashore.
Winds had not calmed enough by Saturday night for the trip, prompting concerns it would be put off again.
In a chilling discovery, officials found a note in the pocket of one of the recovered submariners saying that 23 sailors had remained trapped alive in the ninth compartment for at least several hours after the powerful explosions that sank the submarine Aug. 12.

Many Russians have questioned the need for the risky, expensive recovery effort. It has revived the emotional debate over how Russian authorities handled the accident, including the two-day delay in announcing the accident and longer wait before accepting foreign help in the failed rescue attempt.
"Maybe they shouldn't have retrieved the bodies," Russian Orthodox priest Daniil Topolev, who served the first liturgy for the Kursk sailors after the accident, said Saturday. "You can compare this to as if people have been already buried, and then uncovered again."

Topolev, speaking on the grounds of his small church in the Barents port of Murmansk, near Severomorsk, said the fact that some of the sailors did not die immediately was significant in Orthodox tradition.
"They had time to repent. That's already good. Those who died at once, maybe they had time to cross themselves and say: Lord, save us. And those who remained, could repent," he said.

The cause of the disaster has not been determined. Russian officials have focused on the theory that the blasts were set off by a collision with another, possibly foreign, ship. But others have said the most likely cause was a torpedo exploding in its tube

(ba/AP)