PEARL HARBOR, Oahu, Hawaii -- The U.S. Navy began the delicate operation of moving the sunken Japanese fishing vessel Ehime Maru to shallower water early Friday morning.

According to the Navy, the construction ship Rockwater 2 began lifting the Ehime Maru at about 1:30 a.m. The actual moving began at about 4 a.m. and has been progressing well, according to Navy officials, with the ship moving about three nautical miles in the first 12 hours.

"Everyone is highly motivated and confident we'll be able to carry out the operation as planned," Lt. Cmdr. Gregg Baumann said.

The vessel is being lifted about 90 feet using a specially designed assembly, which will help move the ship 14.5 miles to an area about one mile from the Honolulu Airport reef runway (see map, below).

The Navy said that if the weather remains favorable, the Ehime Maru will be moved at a speed of up to 0.8 knot, which is faster than was expected. The operation is expected to take at least three days.

"After we lifted the vessel up, we saw Rockwater 2 was very stable," Baumann said. "We saw that lifting hardware and wires and tensions we were measuring on the lifting wires all very good for us."

Officials said that 3-10 gallons of diesel fuel leaked out of the Ehime Maru when it was first lifted off the ocean floor.

The Ehime Maru sank into 2,000 feet of water when it was struck from underneath Feb. 9 by the submarine USS Greeneville. It is being moved to waters with a depth of about 115 feet, where divers can examine the wreckage for the bodies of the nine men and boys presumed to have died and other items from the ship.