Crews are working around the clock on the amazing and expensive effort to salvage the Costa Concordia, pulling it off the rocks off Italy’s Tuscan coast where it ran aground and capsized in January, 2012.

They’ve so far managed to pull the ship up 25 degrees towards a correct upright posture.  After months of preparation, work began at 9 O’clock in the morning local time, and went much slower than engineers originally anticipated.  But despite the delays and an overnight storm that halted everything for a few hours, engineers say the results has matched their expectations.

“Everything has gone has gone smoothly, as expected and this last phase should go as safely as possible,” said Franco Porcellacchia, leader of Costa Cruise's technical team.

They've stopped pulling the ship with huge chains, and have begun filling the huge tanks welded to the sides with water to provide the ballast to pull the 114,000-gross tonnage ship upright.  Eventually, water will be pumped out of tanks on both sides and replaced with air, floating the ship so it can be towed away.  The cost of the salvage effort will eventually top A$853 million.