SC to remove 120-foot derelict Navy vessel after four years in Charleston area waters

JOHNS ISLAND — The S.C. Department of Natural Resources will soon remove the derelict Navy torpedo retriever from Bohicket Creek.

The 120-foot research vessel, called HAZAR, has been stuck in the marshy banks of the quiet creek for over four years. SCDNR announced that it will remove the vessel Aug. 19 alongside Stevens Towing, a Charleston-based marine transportation and salvage company.

HAZAR belonged to a man named Sam Kodaimati, who purchased it at a government auction in 2021. The ship arrived in South Carolina waters in July 2021. Kodaimati parked the ship next to a private dock near Johns Island.

SCDNR officers arrested Kodaimati on July 22, charging him with two counts of abandoning a watercraft — the first test of the state’s harsher laws governing abandoned and derelict vessels. Kodaimati could face fines of up to $43,000.

Stevens Towing was awarded a $235,000 contract to remove HAZAR and tow it to a drydock.

Once the ship is pulled from Bohicket Creek, the state has laid out two options for what happens next:

The vessel could be turned into an artificial reef by clearing it of any hazardous materials, oil and fuel, and then sinking it with its doors and windows open.

Or it could also be demolished, a process that involves ripping the ship apart with heavy machinery, such as an excavator, and its remains taken to a landfill.

Residents spent years calling on state and federal agencies to remove the ship, concerned with the environmental and navigational hazards the vessel posed.

The Coast Guard removed 3,500 gallons of oil and oily water from the ship last September.

The removal slated this week is “more than a cleanup,” Tom Mullikin, director of SCDNR, said in a statement.

“It’s a commitment to protecting our coastal resources and ensuring that sensitive habitats like our salt marshes remain healthy and resilient,” Mullikin said. “This action shows that SCDNR takes both enforcement and restoration seriously.”