Wreck Search Continues

After several years of "retirement" Captain Mike Hatcher, the Wreck Salvage King, is now back and working a new project, the details of which remain a closely guarded secret. He recently visited JW Fishers factory in East Taunton (MA, USA) to consult with underwater search specialists about the best equipment to use for his latest project. Hatcher and his associates selected the Pulse 12 boat-towed metal detector and Pulse 8X hand-held metal detector with interchangeable coils to add to their search operations. Both detectors have the ability to find all types of metal targets including cannons, anchors, gold... (read more)

2008-09-01 11:45:11

Survey Assistance for Wreck Removals

On 28 November 2015, Braveheart Marine performed multibeam and sidescan sonar measurement with the Nikyra. Diving and salvage company W. Smit was in need of assistance locating a submerged yacht in the Nieuwe Waterweg, Port of Rotterdam, The Netherlands. The company also supported Hebo Maritiemservice with survey activities on 4 December 2015, performing multibeam and sidescan sonar measurements with the Nikyra. A car was driven into the water near the ferry in Dussen, The Netherlands, and it was necessary to locate it. In the end not just one but two cars were found and they were salvaged by Hebo Maritiemservice. ... (read more)

2015-12-14 10:06:51

ROV for Deepwater Wreck Salvage

Blue Water Recoveries has awarded Perry Slingsby Systems (PSS) the contract to supply a Triton XLX 35 ROV for their latest deepwater salvage project. The 4,000 metre rated system includes the latest in tooling and survey interfaces, including High Definition video for improved performance. It also features the all new ICE (Integrated Controls Engine) real time control system with state-of-the-art Gb telemetry and graphical diagnostics. Blue Water is a world-leading ultra-deep-sea operations company that specialises in the research, location and filming of modern and historic shipwrecks. The TXLX will be employed on various deepwater recovery projects with a focus... (read more)

2008-07-03 11:36:41

French Survey for Ravenel Wreck

On 22 April 2014, the French hydrographic research vessel BH2 Laplace started a journey from Brest, France, to Saint-Pierre and Miquelon as well as the Canadian shores. One of the objectives is to find the wreck of the military trawler Ravenel which was lost in January 1962. Laplace includes 54 staff, 12 of whom are from SHOM. She entered in service in 1988 and has Brest as her home port since 1999. Laplace normally is in operation at the French coast for bathymetric surveys, searching for wrecks and other obstacles for navigation to be displayed on the nautical charts; or... (read more)

2014-04-28 02:19:18

Wreck of HMS Erebus Discovered

The Franklin Expedition ship discovered in early September by the 2014 Victoria Strait Expedition is Her Majesty’s Ship (HMS) Erebus, according to an announcement recently made by Canadian Prime Minister, Stephen Harper. Sir John Franklin, who was in command of the Franklin Expedition, sailed on HMS Erebus. The confirmation was made by Parks Canada underwater archaeologists, following a meticulous review of data and artifacts observed from the Arctic Ocean’s seabed and using high-resolution photography, high-definition video and multibeam sonar measurements. This announcement comes just three weeks after remains of the ship were found in the eastern stretches of the Queen... (read more)

2014-10-20 01:08:48

Whaler Terra Nova Wreck Found

During routine functional performance testing of the mutibeam mapping echo sounders on the Schmidt Ocean Institute’s flagship R/V Falkor in July 2012, the team aboard — including researchers from the University of New Hampshire, Ifremer, and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution — discovered the S.S. Terra Nova, a whaler, sealer and polar exploration ship that sunk offshore Greenland in September 1943 after being damaged by ice. The performance verification of R/V Falkor’s scientific echo sounders precedes oceanographic research cruises set to begin in 2013. The tests included a shallow-water survey off the southern coast of Greenland to assess the Kongsberg EM710... (read more)

2012-08-20 03:38:40

AUV Discovers Svalbard Helicopter Wreck

The wreckage of a helicopter that crashed in Svalbard, Norway, in 2003 has been discovered by a Hydroid REMUS100 AUV. The helicopter's crew escaped alive, but the wreck had not been seen since it sank into the Adventfjorden bay. Mark Moline, a professor from California Polytechnic State University, USA, who is currently a Fulbright Arctic Chair at the University Centre in Svalbard, was conducting research into climate-related changes to the Adventfjorden's ocean floor. When he downloaded the images from an oceanographic survey in September 2011, he discovered that the REMUS had photographed the missing helicopter wreck. The wreck is... (read more)

2011-12-14 10:11:40

Wreck Monitoring in Dredging Operations

Multiple survey and positioning techniques for MV <i>Assi Eurolink</i>

The problems posed by the wrecked vessel Assi Eurolink called for unique solutions that have set a new benchmark in the way that similar wrecks are made safe. On 25th January 2003 a collision occurred between the Swedish vessel Seawheel Rhine and a Dutch freighter, the Assi Eurolink. The collision was within the shipping lane ‘Friesland Junction’, about 77 kilometres (48 miles) off the coast of the Dutch island of Terschelling. The Swedish ship Seawheel Rhine sustained visual damage to her bow above water line, but the ship was able to continue to Hamburg. However, the Assi Eurolink sank almost... (read more)

2008-01-01 01:00:00

Sonar Used for Wreck Discovery

Adventure diver Ben Burville recently trialled Tritech's StarFish Side Scan Sonar off the UK's North-East coast. Ben scanned the seabed at the wreck site of the cargo ship SS Somali which sank under German fire in 1941 off Blyth. The images provided detail 50m either side of the boat at a depth of 25-30m. Metal shows up white (as it reflects the sonar waves) and different densities give different shades of colour; objects proud of the seabed leave a shadow. Images are divided into port and starboard as it moves forward.Over the SS Somali, it helped pinpoint the location... (read more)

2009-07-20 10:31:55

Submerged Flying Boat Wreck Survey

SRD (Sonar Research & Development Ltd) have completed a detailed sonar survey of the submerged wreck of a Sunderland flying-boat in Pembroke Dock (South Wales, UK). The survey of the RAF Sunderland, which sank at her moorings on a stormy night in November 1940, will be used by the Pembroke Dock Sunderland Trust in their efforts to recover, restore and eventually display this unique World War Two aircraft. To undertake the survey, SRD deployed its Subsea Visualisation System (SVS3) from a locally-available vessel. The digital multibeam sensors, operating at a frequency of 240kHz, were able to image the wreck... (read more)

2008-02-20 11:05:54