Digital Extra

Attempts failed Wednesday when padeyes, or rings, welded to the tug's bow shattered as a floating crane tried to lift the grounded vessel.

Although those efforts were unsuccessful, the tug did slide, stern first, about 15 feet into deeper water, a Coast Guard official says, raising the prospects that if salvagers can lift the Scandia's stern, other cables can be slid underneath its bow.

Those 3.5-inch-thick cables will be used as a sling, forming the front end of a cable cradle from which the tug will be hoisted.

"You won't see one of these (slings) break," assured Coast Guard Lt. Tim Pavilonis.

The operation will begin with salvagers pumping off the water flooded into the tug Thursday to keep it steady. As this proceeds, riggers will attach the cable harness to the 240-foot boom on the crane Chesapeake, capable of lifting 1,000 tons. The Scandia weighs about 450 tons.

The best opportunity to move the tug is at high tide -- about 11:30 a.m. -- "but it could come off before, during or after high tide," Pavalonis said. "We can't say for sure."

The Scandia and its barge in tow, the North Cape, went aground Jan. 19 after a fire in the tug set both vessels adrift. The North Cape leaked 828,000 gallons of home heating fuel, fouling miles of coastline.

If successful Saturday, salvagers will tow the Scandia to the Newport Navy base, where inspectors investigating the disaster hope to survey its engine room to determine the fire's cause.

While work is under way on Moonstone Beach, a few miles away in Narragansett, neighbors and area businesses are scheduled to hold a fund-raiser for the hundreds of fishermen hurt by the spill.

The event will be held at the Pier Marketplace from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. and will include music, face painting, a bake sale, drawing and coloring contests, entertainment for children, a raffle and, from noon to 3 p.m., a silent auction.

The fund-raiser was an idea of three local businesswomen, Christine Sheil, Kathleen Ryan and Venerina DaSilva.

"We made a couple of calls to see what we could do for the families of fishermen," Sheil said Friday, "and it's just exploded."

"Everything has been donated," she said.

Sheil said people who attend should either bring one or more canned food items or buy a raffle ticket.

The event is intended to raise money for the Jonnycake Center and for the Fishermen's Relief Fund set up by the Galilee Mission to Fishermen.