It moved!

Or so Titan Salvage officials think.

Titan crews kept the chains tight on the New Carissa stern all day Wednesday and Wednesday night, letting the force of the constant tension and ocean waves do its work.

“We think it moved, but we can’t tell for sure,” Titan Salvage Master Shelby Harris said today.

Harris said they didn’t put any gauges on the shipwreck to determine whether it moved, but workmen were climbing around on it today and planned to install a gauge.

“It looks steeper,” Harris said.

Salvage Superintendent Dave Grecho confirmed it.

“The deck is steeper,” Grecho said today. “I just walked on it.”

Titan Salvage’s deadline to get the work done is Oct. 1.

 “For us it's been a nine-year effort to get it removed,” said the state’s Steve Purchase. “It's been a long and arduous process. I’ll be pleased when it is done.”

Purchase, the assistant director for the Department of State Lands, said the removal has gone smoothly so far and state officials expect Titan will be gone well before October.

“They are certainly well ahead of where we thought they would be,” Purchase said.

He said local and county governments and permitting agencies, such as the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, and the public have cooperated with the project. But he’s careful not to get too  excited. Purchase was with State Lands when the New Carissa went aground nine years ago. He has watched the stubborn stern stand its ground for too long to be overly confident.

“It’s Murphy’s Law with the New Carissa,” he said.

Maybe so, but another small summer storm moving through today will bring northwest swells of 6 to 7 feet and southwest winds in the afternoon to 20 mph — and perhaps boost Titan’s efforts.

“We’re just pullin’ and waitin’,” Harris said, “and keeping a load on it.”