JOHNS ISLAND — The decommissioned Naval weapons retriever that was lodged in the bank of Bohicket Creek over four years ago will be removed.
The South Carolina Department of Natural Resources contracted Stevens Towing, a Charleston-area marine towing and salvage company, to remove the ship. Crews with Stevens Towing will begin preparing the ship for removal around noon on Aug. 19.
SCDNR anticipates HAZAR, the 120-foot torpedo retriever, will be pulled from the creek by the evening, around 6 p.m. Once it is removed, the ship will either be destroyed or sunk and turned into an artificial reef.
The ship arrived in South Carolina waters in July 2021. HAZAR was purchased at a government surplus auction in March 2021 for $86,000 by Mohamad Kodaimati, who also goes by Sam.
The vessel is a decommissioned torpedo weapons retriever, a research vessel used at the Naval Undersea Warfare Center in Newport, R.I., for weaponry research and development. Then called TWR-841, the vessel was one of 10 commissioned by the Navy in the 1980s. The ship was decommissioned in 2019.
Shortly after Kodaimati brought the ship to South Carolina, the U.S. Coast Guard issued a Captain of the Port Order to the vessel. The order, issued on July 16, 2021, was because the ship lacked federal documentation and prohibited Kodaimati from operating the ship. Unable to move the ship, HAZAR was left on the bank of Bohicket Creek, a few hundred feet away from the Cherry Point Boat Landing and a handful of residences.
The removal represents an answer to yearslong calls from residents of Rockville and nearby Seabrook Island, as well as local officials, to remove the ship. Abandoned and derelict watercraft of any size pose environmental and navigational hazards, and residents felt these risks were greater in the 200-ton torpedo retriever.
But removing the ship proved complicated.
Previous legislation governing derelict watercraft left little room for DNR to declare boats and ships abandoned. As long as the owner laid claim to the vessel and assured the state they had a plan to move it, the ship couldn’t be considered derelict or abandoned. Without that official declaration, DNR couldn’t remove the ship.
In May, things changed.
South Carolina overhauled its abandoned watercraft law, enacted stricter penalties for abandoning boats in state waters and created a designated fund for removals. The bill received unanimous support from both the South Carolina House and Senate, and was signed into law on May 16 by Gov. Henry McMaster.
HAZAR is one of the first ships to be declared derelict and removed by the state under these new laws. Kodaimati failed to provide a bona fide plan for removal to DNR, and was arrested on July 22 on two charges of abandoning a watercraft. He could face fines of up to $43,400. Kodaimati is seeking a trial by jury for the charges.
No longer under Kodaimati’s ownership, DNR worked quickly to find a company to remove the ship, and awarded Stevens Towing a $235,000 contract on Aug. 13 to tow and drydock the vessel.
Stevens Towing will take the torpedo retriever to its shipyard on Younges Island, roughly 12 miles away from the ship’s current location.
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