Defying tricky winds and river currents, salvage experts manoeuvred a floating crane near the submerged wreckage of the German battleship Graf Spee off Uruguay on Monday.
The battleship, a symbol of German naval might early in World War II, prowled the South Atlantic, sinking as many as nine allied merchant ships before it was crippled by British warships in December, 1939.
The Graf Spee was scuttled by its captain and is now broken in two, mired in tonnes of mud and silt in waters less than eight metres deep just outside the port of Montevideo.
Private investors from the United States and Europe are helping to fund a multimillion-dollar plan to recover the ship piece by piece.
The Battle of the River Plate began on December 13, 1939, near the mouth of the River Plate as the German warship was pursued by two British light cruisers, HMS Exeter and HMS Ajax, and HMS Achilles of New Zealand.
Accounts at the time reported that thousands of Uruguayans followed the battle from coastal clifftops and rooftops during a booming gunbattle offshore.
The Graf Spee was crippled after receiving several direct hits, and her Captain, Hans Langsdorff, took her to refuge in Montevideo harbour. However, the ship was unable to make repairs within the 72-hour period afforded in a neutral harbour by international convention.
Captain Langsdorff took her out of the harbour and sank her on December 17, 1939.
The crew was taken by ship to Buenos Aires. The captain committed suicide days later.
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