Parbuckling

The enormous project to right and remove the remains of the Costa Concordia is now well underway.

There's some nice reporting on the NPR site:

• Costa Concordia Salvage Operation To Begin Monday

  "The old nautical term for the operation is called parbuckling. Over a 10- to 12-hour period, the ship — now slumped on its side on a sloping reef — will be slowly rotated as dozens of pulleys will pull it upright.

  "The big unknown is the condition of the side of the ship lying on the jagged reef, which juts into the hull by some 30 feet. But the engineers in charge are confident that the operation will be successful — so confident that there's no Plan B.

• How To Watch As The Costa Concordia Is (Hopefully) Righted .

The main website for the project is just loaded with information, diagrams, and details:

The parbuckling will be performed using strand jacks which will be tightening several cables attached to the top of the caissons and to the platforms, which will be pulled seawards, while the cables attached to the starboard turrets will be used for balancing.

This is a very delicate phase, during which the forces involved have to be offset carefully to rotate the wreck without deforming the hull.

The Guardian has a great blog with lots of updates, and lots of pictures: Costa Concordia: cruise ship lifting will be completed on Tuesday – live updates.

The white and black arrows on the photographs below show how far the Costa Concordia has been lifted. The black arrow shows the position of an upper deck before the salvage operation began, the white as it is in progress. The brown residue on the side of the vessel shows where it was submerged.

The BBC also has lots of great information: LIVE: Attempt to pull the Costa Concordia upright

The Washington Post has a dramatic slideshow.

And the Titan Salvage website has lots of information, too.

Overall, it seems like the project is going well.