21st Century « Shipwreckology

Archives For November 30, 1999

August 30, 2003 – Russian Sub K-159 Sinks in Barents Sea

August 30, 2012 — Leave a comment

CC Image courtesy of The Bellona Foundation on Flickr

Nine years ago today the Russian Navy lost the nuclear powered submarine K-159 when it foundered in the Barents Sea . The sub had recently been slated for scrapping and was en route to a date with the breakers yard. Commissioned in 1963, the K-159 served in the Soviet Northern Fleet (the same fleet as Tom Clancy’s Red October) and suffered a reactor accident in 1965. Reports vary on the extent of repairs to the reactor, but the ship returned to active service and was retired in 1989. The K-159 lay derelict in a Russian naval yard for fourteen years with minimal maintenance until the decision was made to scrap the ship in 2003. Due to extensive rusting of the ship’s outer hull, pontoons were secured to the K-159 to provide additional flotation.

Manned with a 10 man skeleton crew, the sub was taken under tow to a Russian scrapyard. While under tow, a storm ripped away the K-159’s pontoons and the sub began to take on water. Within a few hours the K-159 dipped below the waves of the Barents Sea and came to rest in 781 feet of water. In addition to killing 9 of her crew members, the sub took with it 1,760 pounds of radioactive spent fuel. Plans for salvage have continually been postponed, however the Scottish salvage company Adus located the sub and published sonar scan images of it resting on the sea floor in 2010. The Dutch salvage company Smit & Mammoet (the same firm which salvaged the Russian sub Kursk) submitted a salvage proposal in 2011, but salvage work has yet to begin. While the wreck generated initial concerns of radioactive contamination of the Barents Sea, to date there has been no documented increase in radiation levels in the area.

In 20th Century, 21st Century, Polar Regions, Russian Shipwrecks, Salvage, Warships

New Zealand Shipwreck Discovered in 1982 Now Believed to Pre-Date Captain Cook’s Voyages

August 29, 2012 — Leave a comment

CC Image courtesy of NASA on Flickr

Thirty years ago locals discovered the remains of a wooden ship off Pouto Point in New Zealand. The group salvaged a few wooden timbers before the vagaries of the sea buried the wreck under more than 90 feet of sand. Through the use of radio carbon dating and tree ring sequencing, scientists now believe the ship to have sunk around 1705 – making it 65 years earlier than Captain Cook’s exploratory voyages to New Zealand.

New Zealand was first located by European explorers in 1642 when Dutchman Abel Tasman landed on the islands. Although numerous places and items have been named after Tasman, he is perhaps best known for the Tasmanian Devil Looney Tunes character. The current historical narrative asserts that the next European to visit the islands was Captain Cook in 1769; however, the dating of this ship calls into question whether Cook was indeed the next European to visit the islands. The types of wood recovered have led researchers to believe the ship was refitted at Genoa or Java before wrecking off Pouto Point, New Zealand. British admiralty maps dated 1803 suggest the Portugese may have discovered New Zealand in the 1550s. The wood recovered from the wreck and the timing of its sinking in 1705 would be in line with the supposition that the wreck was the result of another expedition to New Zealand as both Genoa and Java were transit stations for Portuguese ships. One researcher had believed it to be the wreck of the Portuguese ship Cicilla Maria, however the new dating information now precludes that possibility. Irregardless, the dating of the wreck sheds further light on the origins of European settlement in New Zealand.

In 18th Century, 21st Century, Conservation, Oceanian Shipwrecks, Pacific Ocean

Book Review – Fatal Dive

August 28, 2012 — Leave a comment

Peter Stevens

Reporter Peter Stevens’ latest book, Fatal Dive, is an engaging and easy to read work about the disappearance of the US sub USS Grunion off the coast of Alaska during World War II. Launched only a few weeks after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the Grunion’s first combat deployment was against Japanese shipping in the Aleutian Islands. Commanded by Lieutenant Commander Jim Abele, Grunion and her 70 man crew successfully sank 2 Japanese sub-chasers, survived a depth charge attack by a Japanese destroyer and then disappeared with all hands after crippling the Japanese merchantman Kano Maru. Apart from Western Union telegrams declaring the crew members Missing In Action, the relatives of the crew were largely kept in the dark as to the causes of the sub’s loss.

Stevens’ straightforward writing style and the book’s relatively short-length of 175 pages (plus a 60 page appendix containing short bios of each crew member) make it a quick, but thoroughly enjoyable read. Fatal Dive chronicles the life of Lt. Commander Abele, the Grunion’s first combat cruise and subsequent loss, and the dramatic story of her discovery by Lt. Commander Abele’s sons 65 years later. Stevens’ avoids getting bogged down in historical minutiae and instead focuses on the characters in the story from both sides of the conflict. His writing effectively conveys the sense of excitement and danger faced by the Abele brothers and their crew as they work to locate the ship in the treacherous waters of the Bering Sea. Stevens concludes the book with a discussion of the causes of the ship’s sinking and why the US Navy subsequently chose to torpedo any explanation of her loss. Fatal Dive is a great choice for a quick weekend read for any history or mystery buff.

In 20th Century, 21st Century, American Shipwrecks, Book Reviews, Japanese Shipwrecks, Merchant Vessels, Warships, WWII

Mapping of Charleston’s Civil War Naval Battlefield Completed

August 27, 2012 — Leave a comment

The Attack on Fort Sumter, Currier & Ives

Archaeologists from the University of South Carolina just completed a 4 year long survey of Charleston, South Carolina’s Civil War naval battlefield. While many associate Charleston with the attack on Fort Sumter or the CSS Hunley, the city was the scene of multiple naval engagements and an important port for Confederate blockade runners. The archaeological team created a map of wrecks, gun emplacements and harbor obstructions in 2010 and has spent the last 2 years surveying some of those sites.

Among the sites are the wrecks of several Union ironclads that were sunk in action with Confederate land batteries or by “torpedoes” – early versions of what are mines in today’s naval parlance. The archaeologists also sought the wrecks of the “Stone Fleets” – a fleet of approximately 30 ex-whaling ships and merchant vessels purchased by the US Navy, stripped of all valuable implements, loaded with stone and then sunk as block ships in the approach channels to Charleston Harbor. Because the ships were wooden hulled and had been stripped of most of their metal fittings, the USC team had to rely on side scan sonar, further complicating the task of locating the ships. The remains of Confederate blockade runners were also surveyed by the team, including a set of three wrecks that are now buried beneath dry land due to the shifting sands of the beach. The survey will be helpful not only to historians, but also to the US Army Corps of Engineers and other planning entities for the avoidance of wrecks and other obstructions in the harbor.

In 19th Century, 21st Century, American Shipwrecks, Atlantic Ocean, Civil War Shipwrecks, Conservation, Merchant Vessels, Warships

Shackleton’s Whiskey

August 22, 2012 — 1 Comment

CC Image courtesy of sandwichgirl on Flickr

Two years ago, three bottles of whisky were recovered from the base camp Sir Ernest Shackleton used during his British Antarctic Expedition (1907 – 1909). Shackleton and his team approached to within ~100 miles of the South Pole and turned back after Shackelton decided it would be too risky to continue. Two years later Captain Robert Scott’s Terra Nova expedition would return to successfully reach the South Pole (although they were beaten by a month by Norwegian Roald Amundsen), but perished on the return journey. Shackleton had been on Captain Scott’s Discovery Expedition in 1904 and later returned to the South Pole as commander of the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition (1914 – 1917). The Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition is most famous for the loss of the ship Endurance and the subsequent account of the travails of the crew.

Fast-forward to 2010 and the recovery of the three bottles of whisky by the Antarctic History Trust. Although the whisky was not frozen due to its alcohol content, the bottles were slowly thawed in a New Zealand conservation lab. In 2011, they were then turned over to Whyte & Mackay, the distillery that succeeded the originally producer of the whisky. Using a painstaking process chronicled here and here, scientists at Whyte & Mackay discerned the whisky’s recipe and the distillery has released a limited run of 50,000 bottles of the whisky for sale.

In 20th Century, 21st Century, Conservation, Polar Regions, Royal Navy, UK Shipwrecks

Book Review – A Man and His Ship

August 21, 2012 — 3 Comments

Launched in 1951, the trans-Atlantic passenger liner SS United States was a triumph of American engineering. Designed for speed, safety, comfort and easy wartime conversion to a troopship, the ship incorporated numerous innovations in its construction. During her maiden voyage, she captured the speed record known as the Blue Riband for both the eastern and western crossings of the Atlantic. Commercially operated from 1952 to 1969, the SS United States carried thousands of passengers between Europe and New York City in speed and style. Among her passengers were such notables as John Wayne, Bob Hope, Salvador Dali and the Duke and Duchess of Windsor. Historian Steven Ujifusa’s recently published A Man and His Ship is a history of the SS United States and her designer, William Francis Gibbs. In his book, Ujifusa masterfully weaves together the biography of William Francis Gibbs, his quest to design the ultimate passenger liner and the construction and life of the SS United States.

Neatly divided into two parts, Ujifusa opens the book with William Francis Gibbs’ life prior to the construction of the SS United States. Gibbs had no formal training as a naval architect and yet he went on to a wildly successful career in naval architecture after designing and pitching a ship in collaboration with his younger brother. Ujifusa lays out Gibbs story in a manner compelling to any reader interested in what drives individuals to the pinnacle of success in their field. The second half of the book focuses on Gibbs’ crowning achievement – the design, construction, life and record-breaking performance of the SS United States. Ujifusa writes with a style easily accessible to a layperson and doesn’t require a knowledge of the minutiae of naval architecture.

Ujifusa concludes with the recent history of the ship including an unsuccessful attempt by Norwegian Cruise Lines to utilize the ship as a cruise liner and the current plan by the SS United States Conservancy to convert the ship to a floating hotel/conference center in Philadelphia or New York City. In sum, A Man and His Ship is a page turning tome celebrating the ingenuity, self-motivation and indomitability of the American spirit.

In 20th Century, 21st Century, Atlantic Ocean, Book Reviews, Conservation, Passenger Liners

Royal Navy Announces Specifications of Type 26 Global Combat Ship

August 21, 2012 — Leave a comment

Photo: BAE Systems/MOD

The Royal Navy has projected British power since the 16th century and is responsible for sending hundreds, if not thousands of ships to the sea floor. Yesterday, the UK Ministry of Defence unveiled plans and specifications for the latest weapon in the Royal Navy’s arsenal. Designated the Type 26 Global Combat Ship, the 485.5 foot, 5,314 ton frigate will replace the Royal Navy’s aging Type 23 frigates which began entering service in 1990.

Noted defense contractor BAE Systems designed the ship and incorporated numerous innovations into its plans. A rear helicopter hangar, vertical missile silos, “a flexible mission space for unmanned air, surface and underwater vehicles, or additional boats” and a medium caliber deck gun give the Type 26 a potent punch. What is most remarkable about the ship is not its armament, but rather its sensor systems and radar silhouette. Even though the ship will be 485.5 feet, its radar silhouette will be akin to that of a small fishing boat. The Type 26’s armament, sensors suite and design give it the ability to perform both power projection and humanitarian duties. Current cost estimates peg the construction of the frigates at approximately $393 – 500 million each and the Royal Navy aims to purchase 13 of the vessels. If the cost troubles of the UK’s two new Queen Elizabeth class aircraft carriers are a guide for the Type 26s, though, then expect costs to be significantly more than $393 – 500 million.

In a separate twist to the procurement story of the Type 26 frigates, the award of the shipyard contracts will take place after Scotland’s 2014 referendum on independence and a vote for independence would most likely keep Scottish shipyards from competing for the contract. Irregardless of where the ships are built, they will give the Royal Navy a formidable tool to ensure freedom of the seas and locales such as the Falkland and South Georgia Islands.

In 21st Century, Royal Navy, Warships

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