TROMSOE, Norway members of the Anglo-Norwegian diving team which last week gained access to the doomed submarine Kursk spoke of their feelings when they realized that no one on board had survived the disaster.
"We're all very disappointed. We really thought that there was some hope to find survivors," said Tony Scott, one of the 12 specialist divers who worked with the Russians at the site of the accident, in the Barents Sea.
"We didn't do it in a mercenary way.
We were not doing it for extra gain or extra glory. We just wanted to try to save lives," added the British diver.
Scott and his colleagues worked in relay last week from their support ship, seaway eagle, until they finally forced a way into the sunken nuclear-powered vessel, only to find that the whole submarine had been flooded.
The team returned at the weekend to this Norwegian port, eager to see their families after a week at the site of the August 12 catastrophe, which claimed the lives of all 118 men on board.
Another British diver, Alistair Clark, described how they set about their mission.
"We first sent roves (remote-operated vehicles) to monitor the site and then the three first divers went off early on Monday.
"They had been given the tapping codes to communicate with the crew inside a submarine. Four quick bangs, that means Hello, anybody there?'.
"They didn't hear any response, even though acoustics carry quite well at such a depth," he said. "That means that by the time we were there they were dead." Even then, Clark added, they did not give up.
"We wanted to continue as long as there was a glimmer of hope.
There could have been some survivors lying unconscious inside." The divers were working at a depth of 100 meters (350 feet), beyond where Russian divers were equipped to operate.
Contrary to the reports of the Norwegian officer who coordinated their efforts, Clark was full of praise for the Russian rescue team.
"They did everything they could to get their people out of there," he said.
"They couldn't supply us with better information. This is fantastic cooperation," he told AFP, adding he had been shown detailed sketches of the vessel before the dive.
His Norwegian colleague Jon Are Hvalbye agreed: "The Russians did everything possible to rescue their people." Their comments contradict those by the Norwegian admiral who led Western rescue efforts on the Kursk.
In an interview to be published in Monday's edition of the German magazine Der Spiegel, Admiral Erinar Skorgen blasts the "breathtaking incompetence" of the supervising Russian officers.
Skorgen, who coordinated the work of the deep-sea diving team, said Russian officers running the operation were guilty of excessive secrecy.
Each member of his team had been obliged to work under strict surveillance, while Russian experts on site clearly did not know what was going on and had practically no idea of what to do, Skorgen told the magazine.
But Scott, asked whether the team's work had been delayed by the Russian military, replied: "Not at all." A Russian military court opened a criminal investigation into the disaster on Wednesday under Article 263 of the Russian criminal code.
The code covers any "violation of the rules of safety in the driving and use of a rail, air or naval vehicle, that has led to the death through negligence of more than two people."