Dozens of Shipwrecks in Norwegian Lakes
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Dozens of Shipwrecks in Norwegian Lakes

An international team from ProMare (US), the Norwegian Maritime Museum (Norway), the Norwegian University of Science & Technology (Norway), and Teledyne Gavia (formerly Hafmynd ehf) have located nearly two dozen, well-preserved shipwrecks in the lakes of the Telemark Waterway in south-central Norway. The shipwrecks located in the waterway are suspected to range in date from the Medieval/Viking Age to the mid-19th century. The waterway has been used for transportation of people and goods for hundreds, if not thousands of years.


The team surveyed the location over a period of three days and will return to the area in the summer of 2011 to continue exploring the waterway for more shipwrecks and evidence of historic and ancient watercraft and commerce.


To locate the shipwrecks the team deployed a Gavia AUV, provided by Teledyne Gavia, equipped with the latest sonar imaging and inertial navigation systems. The Gavia AUV has a modular design and a depth rating in excess of 500m. The Gavia vehicle was used in several locations from a vessel of opportunity, and gathered astonishing images of ships lost for centuries. "The Gavia AUV's performance was impressive in what was assuredly difficult and unknown terrain. The Gavia AUV made surveying in the deep lakes in Telemark (Norway) possible and gave us brilliant results we could not have achieved with a towed sonar system or another AUV of lesser depth rating or of a less robust design and construction." stated Brett Phaneuf of Promare.


For more information about this project, please email [email protected] or contact Pål Nymoen at the Norwegian Maritime Museum.


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