I'd seen some of those before, but still a very good review. Thank you for that link.
The local daily blab was publishing various accounts of the Costa Concordia salvage, breathlessly proclaiming that nothing like this had ever been done before. I sent a few links and notes for them to check regarding the Oklahoma salvage, and by golly, when their final account of the Costa salvage story got published, they mentioned the Oklahoma recovery operation.
If you look at those pictures, you'll see a very large amount of structural steel and lots of rigging and tackle being used, much of which probably couldn't be spared right after the war began. Another reason I'm sure they waited until they just couldn't spare the docking space anymore.