[Discov] WWII Shipwrecks Sought in 'Graveyard of the Atlantic'

[DAVIDE]

A side-scan sonar image (410 kHz) of the German U-boat U-166 collected by the HUGIN 3000 in 2001




Researchers are on a three-week research expedition to study World War II shipwrecks sunk in 1942 in what's called the "Graveyard of the Atlantic."
The region off North Carolina is home to includes vessels from U.S. and British naval fleets, merchant ships and German U-boats, all sunk during the Battle of the Atlantic.
"The information collected during this expedition will help us better understand and document this often lost chapter of America's maritime history and its significance to the nation," said David W. Alberg, expedition leader and superintendent of the USS Monitor National Marine Sanctuary. "It continues the work conducted by NOAA's Office of National Marine Sanctuaries last summer to research and document historically significant shipwrecks tragically lost during World War II."
The expedition, which began last week and runs through Aug. 24, will also help document the condition of these vessels some 67 years after they were lost. Understanding the wrecks' current condition is a crucial first step in establishing efforts to preserve these historic sites, which serve as "time capsules from one of the darkest times in the nation's history," Alberg said.
Many of the wrecks, some lying as shallow as 130 feet, are popular recreational dive sites. Some have been severely affected by human activity, according to a NOAA statement.
Aboard the NOAA Ship Nancy Foster, scientists will use remote sensing technologies, including sidescan and multibeam sonar systems, in an attempt to locate several previously undiscovered WWII shipwrecks. NOAA and its expedition partners from the University of North Carolina will also deploy an advanced remotely operated vehicle to take high-definition imagery of these shipwrecks.
Then divers will survey and photograph visible sections of a British armed trawler, HMT Bedfordshire, using non-invasive methods. Bedfordshire was sunk by a torpedo fired from the German submarine U-558 on May 12, 1942, resulting in the loss of the entire crew. The survey team will also study marine life found at the site which now serves as a vibrant artificial reef. Consistent with U.S. and international policy, the shipwreck site is considered a war grave and will not be disturbed during the expedition.

• Original Story: WWII Shipwrecks Sought in 'Graveyard of the Atlantic'

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/...doftheatlantic

[DAVIDE]

Officials to survey shipwreck of lost Canadian sailors




Undated archival photo of the HMT Bedfordshire, a refitted British trawler that served in a 24-ship Royal Navy task force assigned to protect the U.S. shore from German submarines. U.S. government scientists are preparing to survey the sunken Second World War patrol ship in August 2009 off the Carolina coast. It contains the remains of Canadian and British sailors lost in a May 11, 1942 U-boat attack.



A year after divers were suspected of looting the wreck site, U.S. government scientists are preparing to survey a sunken Second World War patrol ship this month off the Carolina coast that contains the remains of Canadian and British sailors lost in a 1942 U-boat attack.
The HMT Bedfordshire, a refitted British trawler that served in a 24-ship Royal Navy task force assigned to protect the U.S. shore from German submarines, carried two Canadians and 35 British seamen to their deaths in the fabled "Graveyard of the Atlantic" in May 1942.
Last summer, officials with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration revealed that recreational divers were disturbing the Bedfordshire and other historic wrecks from the Battle of the Atlantic — all protected by an American government grateful for the sacrifices of Allied seamen at a time when the U.S. Navy lacked coastal vessels to counter the German U-boat threat.
One NOAA archeologist, Joseph Hoyt, stated last year: "A lot of divers, if they find a skull, or remains, will decide that others want to see it, so will move it out and bring it up on deck, without realizing it is extremely disrespectful."
Such concerns prompted this year's planned survey of the Bedforshire and several nearby wrecks, described by NOAA as "time capsules from one of the darkest times in the nation's history."
Beginning this week, NOAA divers "will survey and photograph visible sections of a British merchant ship, HMT Bedfordshire, using non-invasive methods," the agency said in a statement. "The survey team will also study marine life found at the sites. Consistent with U.S. and international policy, the shipwreck site is considered a war grave and will not be disturbed during the expedition."
The loss of the Bedfordshire is commemorated at Ocracoke Island, south of Cape Hatteras along the North Carolina's Outer Banks.
A small piece of land — formally bestowed to the British government in recognition of the Bedfordshire crew's sacrifice in defence of the U.S. — holds the graves of four sailors whose bodies washed ashore after the sinking.
The remains of the 34 other crewmen — including Royal Canadian Navy seamen James McCauley and Russell Davis — are believed to be entombed in the sunken ship or lost at sea.
The Bedfordshire was in search of a reported German submarine when it was surprised by an enemy torpedo on May 11, 1942.
Remarkably, it was a rescue effort the following year by the Canadian ship HMCS Athabaskan — in the Bay of Biscay north of Spain — that revealed precisely what had happened to the Bedfordshire on the other side of the Atlantic in May 1942.
The Athabaskan picked up five German sailors whose submarine — U-558 — had been destroyed by British warships. Among those rescued was sub commander Gunther Krech, whose logs detailed his U-boat's destruction of the Bedfordshire 14 months earlier.
The Athabaskan itself was destroyed by a German warship in 1944, its 128 dead marking the single greatest loss of life for Canada's navy during the Second World War.
NOAA's planned dive to the Bedfordshire coincides with a scheduled survey by Canadian scientists this month of a sunken U.S. seaplane that sank off the Quebec coast in November 1942.
Parks Canada announced last week that the site of the lost Second World War aircraft — believed to contain the remains of five U.S. airmen who couldn't escape the flooded fuselage after a failed takeoff — had been discovered in May in the Gulf of St. Lawrence.
U.S. and Canadian officials said last week they are considering the recovery of remains from the sunken aircraft.


Source: http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Off...572/story.html

[Kylan271]

We just found the remains of the HMAS Sydney and German Kormoron recently of Western Australia..our greatest naval loss and tragedy..no survivors and no wreck found for over 50 years. I didn't know you had a colection of threads like this,lol. Amazing,impressed.