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By Jhoo Dong-chan
Discussions on how to salvage the Sewol ferry are underway after President Park Geun-hye promised on April 6 that the government will "actively consider" lifting the ferry out of the water.
The salvage task force team under the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries said at a press conference on April 10 that the salvage operation, if approved, is technically possible.
Raising the Sewol, however, is expected to be a gigantic task that will take at least several months ― and possibly years.
It took only a month in 2010 to raise the Cheonan warship torpedoed by North Korea, which was five times smaller than the Sewol and had broken into two. The sea where the frigate was submerged was not as deep as where the ferry sank.
Salvaging the 6,825-ton ferry, with some 4,000 tons of cargo and water inside, will be an unprecedented operation in the country's maritime history.
Four large cranes, including two Samsung Heavy Industries' cranes with a hoisting capacity of 11,600 tons, are currently deployed to the shipwreck site.
The task force team is suggesting two different methods.
One possibility is sending divers to drill 93 lifting holes on the ferry's starboard and connect chains, and lift it at the site without turning the ferry upright as cranes hoist it. Then, the ferry would be placed on a U-shaped floating dock after it surfaced.
The second alternative would be to lift the Sewol about three meters from the seabed and move it to shallower water, where there is better visibility, after wiring it through lifting holes. The cranes would repeatedly raise, move and put down the ferry until it reaches an area where the current is stable and weak.
"The second plan is better," said Lee Kyu-yeul, the head of the task force team, during his technical analysis on the salvage operation at the ocean ministry in Sejong governmental complex on April 10.
"For plan one, there is a risk that the ferry could be destroyed into pieces if the crane wires fail to sustain it due to unexpected strong currents."
The bereaved families of the victims, however, insist that the first alternative is the only option.
"We believe that the second plan is more dangerous. Dragging the ferry several kilometers underwater could destroy the cabins inside, eventually damaging the unfound victims' bodies," said Chung Sung-wook, the father of a student victim.
There is also some resistance to the salvage operation itself.
During the National Assembly Agricultural and Fisheries Committee meeting on April 7, Minister of Oceans and Fisheries Yoo Ki-june said that the Sewol salvage operation would cost around "550 billion won ($500 million)."
He said the government had already spent 185 billion won ― most of it on the lengthy search and rescue operation and financial support for victims' relatives ― and had budgeted 140 billion won more for future compensation payments to families.
Rep. Kim Jin-tae of the ruling Saenuri expressed his concern on his Facebook page that the salvage cost would be astronomical, and its operation would also risk divers' lives in the process.
The government will soon choose a private contractor for the salvage operation.
"Some maritime companies in Japan and Holland are interested in the operation and are expected to bid on the project. After choosing the contractor, the salvage operation is expected to launch around August," said an ocean ministry official.
Earlier this month, the governmental support program to compensate the victims' families faced protests from some of the relatives who have demanded the Sewol special bill be dismissed and immediate salvage of the ferry begin to recover the bodies of the nine missing victims.
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