A lot of effort and planning helped bring the Juliett 484 up from the muddy bottom of Providence Harbor. Says Petty Officer First Class Eric Lippmann, one of the Navy divers: “After all of this hard work, to see it just rise out of the water, to see it come up like this, was amazing.”

The Providence Journal / Bob Thayer

PROVIDENCE –– At 6:02 p.m. last night, the Russian missile submarine Juliett 484 rose from under the water, its bow majestically breaking through the surface of Providence Harbor to gasps and cheers from the American military crews who have worked for a year to raise it.

The sub rose suddenly, shooting from the harbor floor to the surface in perhaps 10 seconds, 6 full hours after salvage teams had started pumping water out of it.

Frank Lennon, president of the Russian Sub Museum, summed up his reaction in one word: Wow.

“I wasn’t prepared for how fast it came up. I thought it would come up slowly, but it just went ‘whoom,’ ” Lennon said. “But it’s up, and it’s up just the way they planned. Wow.”

At noon yesterday, military dive and salvage teams began pumping out some of the 575,000 gallons of water inside the submarine, as their final push to raise it. Water, some of it murky and black, plumed out of pumps at the bow and stern of the museum ship, which sank at its mooring at Collier Point Park in April 2007.

It was a long day of incremental progress, as military engineers halted to check their work at each step. They pumped water out, then one by one released the six guide wires anchoring the submarine. Then they pumped again, absorbent sponges soaking up the pungent, oily water that had been rolling around the sub for 15 months. By late afternoon, enough water had been pumped out that the bow of the ship broke the grip of the mud and shook off the harbor floor.

With the aid of eight inflatable pontoons buried beneath the submarine, the rest of the boat rose.

“I was absolutely thrilled. It was just pure excitement. After all of this hard work, to see it just rise out of the water, to see it come up like this, was amazing,” said Petty Officer First Class Eric Lippmann, one of the Navy divers stationed to help raise the submarine.

The military had hoped to raise the submarine last week, but the operation was delayed three times because of weather and concerns that the pontoons would not support the boat’s weight.

The delays are little surprise, Lippman said. This is the first time an operation like this has ever been undertaken. Submarine raisings are extremely rare, and a Russian submarine in an American harbor takes the task from difficult to outlandish.

“There’s not a lot of people telling us how to do this,” Lippmann said.

There is still no word on what happens now, according to Lennon. After some time safely afloat, the sub will need three or four days of airing out — its innards are overgrown with sea life — before a true examination can be done and the cost of restoration determined.

“As of today, all of our options are still open,” Lennon said. “We’re not being unrealistic — this sub’s been underwater. There’s been corrosion, there’s been deterioration, we just don’t know how much.” It’s possible that it could be reused as a museum, if a partner can be found to help restore it, though it will definitely not return to its current location at Collier Point Park. It’s also possible it could end up back underwater as a reef. The museum received a call this week from Australia, asking if it could be brought to the Great Barrier Reef to serve as an underwater dive attraction. If neither restoration nor a reef option pans out, it will probably end up as scrap.

The military financed the submarine salvage as a training operation for its dive and salvage teams. Last fall, divers arrived to attach cables to the submarine and secure it for the winter, leaving it resting on its side in 40 feet of water in Providence Harbor. The military returned in May and soon used hydraulic motors to pull the ship upright

Over the last month, Army and Navy dive and salvage teams pumped water out of the sub and then tunneled underneath to place pontoons called "belly bands" below it. When inflated, these helped give the submarine the buoyancy it needed to rise out of the water. Juliett 484 was commissioned by the Soviet Union in 1965 and served in the Soviet Baltic and Northern fleets as a ballistic missile submarine until its decommissioning in 1994.

It was then converted into a restaurant in the North Sea. When that venture failed, it was sold to a group in St. Petersburg, Fla. In 2001, the submarine was used in the filming of the Cold War thriller K-19: The Widowmaker, starring Harrison Ford. It opened as a museum in 2002. The submarine came to Providence as a museum ship in 2002. It sank in a storm at its Collier Point Park berth in April 2007, after hatches were left open, the military has said.

It has since become something of an international curiosity. Russian and American television have done segments on the stricken submarine, and former crew members have sent e-mails and letters from all over the former Soviet Union.

A half-hour after the sub broke the surface, Lennon and Ken Johnson, another of the old Navy men who run the sub museum, gathered on the dock to celebrate the moment. They broke out their last bottle of K-19 Vodka, issued in Russia on the 100th anniversary of Russian submarine service in 2006. With their submarine finally visible behind them, they drank to the sight.

dbarbari@projo.com