So far, they have removed about 40 containers, said Joseph Farrell, CEO of Resolve Marine, the maritime salvage contractor assigned to the Dali. Resolve believes it will need to remove about 140 containers to refloat the ship.

The ship has power, but the bow thruster isn’t operational, Farrell said. The crash severed electrical wiring tied to the bow thruster, a propeller-shaped system that helps maneuver the ship at lower speeds, and crews are hoping to bring the thruster back online.

“If we can, it’s a bonus,” Farrell said. “We don’t need it. It just helps, not having to have a tug (boat) up on that bow during the refloat.”

The plan is for tugboats to eventually guide the Dali back into a berth at the Port of Baltimore, Farrell said.

Meanwhile, members of the ship’s crew remain on board, completing their “day jobs” by keeping the ship running, Farrell said.

Monday, news broke that the FBI had boarded the ship, and had begun a criminal investigation into the crash, alongside investigations already underway by the National Transportation Safety Board and the Coast Guard.

Since the collapse March 26, dive teams have battled difficult conditions, said Robyn Bianchi, an assistant salvage master at New Jersey-based Donjon Marine Co. who has been working on the site.

Among the biggest struggles, she said, has been poor visibility in the murky Patapsco, caused by the ebb and flow of tides, which continually stir up muck at the collapse site.

From inside a “dive shack” on a barge at the collapse site, Bianchi said she can view video footage directly from the divers — but it doesn’t show much.

“A lot of the time, it’s probably right up to here,” said Bianchi, holding her hand about a foot from her face.

There’s also the challenge of navigating an underwater environment strewn with debris, including chunks of concrete and rebar that could snag a diver’s breathing tube, which they refer to as an “umbilical,” Bianchi said.

On top of it all, there is the emotional weight of diving at the site, where six people lost their lives. One of Bianchi’s salvage divers located human remains during a dive, she said, one of the three bodies that have been pulled from the river so far.

The diver came to the surface, and helped direct Maryland State Police divers to the body, Bianchi said.

“If we can try and help our divers, who are going to be on this project for a long time, not to have to really see that, something that is going to have a mental effect on them, we try and keep that out,” Bianchi said.

“It’s not something that we do often,” she said. “But salvage divers are prepared for that.”

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