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| Salvagers of Cougar Ace: Part 2 |
 Read part 1 of "Salvagers of Cougar Ace" here.
A plane lands at Adak, an Aleutian island with an airstrip. Men hurry off in cold weather gear. The reinforcements have arrived. First among them, Phil Reed, the chief naval architect for Titan Salvage. Two deep sea diver, Yuri Mayani and Billy Stender, have also arrived.
At the Cougar Ace, a coming storm has whipped up the seas and waves are threatening to break into the cargo hold. The 150-foot tug Sea Victory has gotten a rope around a cleat on the back of Cougar Ace and is using the tug's 7,200-horsepower engine to pull the ship towards the lee of an island. If that can be done successfully, Cougar Ace will be protected from the elements and not at as much of a risk for sinking.
Reed surveys Johnson's notes and agrees that the best plan of action is to fill the low-side ballast tank to counterbalance a rapid roll. To do this, the team has to journey to the deepest part of the ship and drill a hole in the tank, filling it completely. To get there, they must use spelunking techniques, walking on walls that have now become floors because of the ship's list.
The Cougar Ace is successfully transported to the lee of an island as this happens and Reed begins to lead the team into the murky labyrinth of the ship's hold. It takes three hours to get to their destination. Drilling begins on the cargo hold and water erupts out. The tank is full and pressurized, meaning that water must be flowing through a broken vent on the underwater side of ship. The team has caused the worst outcome possible: The deepest cargo hold is flooding.
Trepte presses his finger against the hold. The water stops. All of the team but one returns topside to come up with a solution. The two remaining men take turns keeping the hole closed. After an hour and a half, the team returns with a tapered metal bolt and closes the hole.
With the tank full, it's time to roll the ship.
Large pumps are distributed throughout the ship that will move water around to rebalance the ship. Reed programs it into his computer, sometimes running a model that rights itself, sometimes watching his simulated model flip over.
The pumps start up and the ship slowly comes off of its 60-degree list. Hour after hour, the ship returns more and more to an upright position. After two days, the Cougar Ace is upright. Ninety-nine percent of the cargo is intact and no environmental damage occurred. For their trouble, Titan is paid $10 million.
The cars on the Cougar Ace sit in a parking lot for a year before being destroyed. They appeared unharmed from being on the ship but the company doesn't know what sitting at a 60-degree angle might have done to them.
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