Talk about a tilt. The off-balance landscape of the New Carissa is even steeper, as Titan Salvage pulled the wood chip ship’s stern several more feet out of the sand this week off Coos Bay's North Spit.

That hasn’t stopped salvors from going down and taking another slice of the ship.

On one hand, lifting the wreck up makes the work easier — Titan is bringing the New Carissa to its cutting crew, rather than having to send divers down to cut off it in the surf. On the other hand, now workers are walking on walls.

“It is much steeper,” Salvage Master Shelby Harris said.

He didn’t have precise measurements of the angle, but estimated that the wreck has come up about 12 to 14 feet, making the slant almost vertical.

Safety-wise, the job may be simpler. Before, workers navigated the wreck at times without needing ropes and harnesses. Now, those ropes are a necessity, Harris said.

The job is more difficult these days for other reasons, too. Titan has burned through the easy stuff. That’s the stuff, Harris said, that anyone could get to and remove. Salvors now must cut into the engine room and inner depths of the stern. This work requires serious planning.

“We are getting to the hard part — tip of the iceberg,” Harris said.

Harris and Titan Managing Director David Parrot have been waiting a long time to get here. Now they can see the propeller. It’s partially out of the water and may not be in pristine condition, but it is a pleasant sight nonetheless.

“It’s beat up and mangled, and it’s beautiful,”  Harris said.

Having lifted the wreck a significant amount, Titan backed off the pulling force and turned the effort back to slicing off chunks Thursday. The 3-inch anchor chains remain tight. They still are putting about 900 tons of force on the wreck, but Harris said the power may not be necessary.

“We feel confident that we can relax the chains and it won’t move,” he said.

Sand has quickly washed around the wreck’s new resting place, stabilizing the stern.

But it won’t rest for long.

Titan is waiting for the next turn in the weather and big seas. Before the next storm rolls in, the crew will have to prepare the barges for pulling again. The first round of yanking and jerking on the wreck put as much stress on the Karlissa A barge as it could handle. The front legs of the barge have dug deeper into the sand and the platform itself is under stress. Crews will make adjustments to the jacks to put the barge back on it best footing for another bout.

In the meantime, cutting crews are wforking fast to lighten the load. From shore Thursday the wreck looked like a half-devoured carcass hanging from six giant meat hooks. Four salvors with torches worked at making an even bigger dent in it.

Thursday afternoon workers removed a 17-ton piece. That’s not big by Titan standards, but crews will pile up more like it before trying to pull again.

“We were whaling on it today,” Harris said.