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Sydney search boost
Volume 50, No. 16, September 06, 2007 |
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MORE MONEY PLEDGED: Bruce Billson annnounces the extra $2.9 million.
Photo: LS Nina Nikolin |
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| MYSTERY: HMAS Sydney II which was lost in late 1941 with its entire crew of 645. |
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The search for the wreck of the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) cruiser HMAS Sydney II, has been bolstered with renowned British shipwreck hunter David Mearns joining the cause.
Mr Mearns’s career has included the discovery of the British HMS Hood and German ship Bismarck. This has been the second recent boost for the search, with the Commonwealth Government announcing on August 24 a further $2.9 million grant to assist in locating the wreck.
The grant was announced by Bruce Billson, Minister Assisting the Minister for Defence, in addition to the original Commonwealth grant of $1.3 million. The Government grants are to assist Western Australian based not-for-profit search group HMAS Sydney Search Pty Ltd.
Sydney II was lost off Western Australia in November 1941. The crew of 645 men were lost following a fierce engagement with the German raider Kormoran.
“The location of the ship’s final resting place remains our nation’s most enduring maritime mystery,” Mr Billson said.
HMAS Sydney Search Pty Ltd, with the support of the RAN Seapower Centre Australia, has been painstakingly researching the last moments of the Sydney II in order to determine her final resting place.
“We are hopeful that the additional funding will enable a meaningful search to commence off the Western Australian coast in the near future, drawing on the extensive knowledge and expertise of HMAS Sydney Search Pty Ltd, our own Royal Australian Navy and Mr Mearns,” Mr Billson said.
“Mr Mearns has an outstanding track record of locating shipwrecks.”
The month-long deepwater operation is expected to start in January. In addition to the Sydney II search HMAS Sydney Search Pty Ltd will also attempt to locate the Kormoran.
The latest announcement comes after the dismissal of claims by a group of amateur salvage divers who thought they had found the Sydney II’s final resting place near Dirk Hartog Island, off the West Australian coast.
The chairman of HMAS Sydney Search Pty Ltd, Ted Graham, explained that while the large search area and water depth would mean that the search would be an extremely challenging assignment, advances in technology would greatly improve the chance of success.
“We now have a remarkable search capability, state of the art wide-swath side-scan sonar technology to cover this large area where we believe the wrecks of both Sydney and Kormoran have sunk,” Mr Graham said.
“This proven and highly-efficient sonar technology has been used to find other significant shipwrecks like the Hood, Bismarck, Derbyshire as well as many other smaller wrecks sunk in much deeper water.
“We also know more about the seabed in the search area thanks to the kind donation of maritime assets made by Perth-based Geo Subsea Pty Ltd, which provided its multi-beam survey vessel to conduct a preliminary survey through the area.
“Fortunately, the survey showed that the seabed was clear of major geologic features which could complicate our sonar search.”
Mr Mearns, speaking to Stateline Western Australia, said he was confident of success.
“The first step is to find the German ship Kormoran and after we find the Kormoran then we’d find Sydney II. It is going to be a real challenge, and probably one of the most difficult ones I’ve faced in my career.
“I found Bismarck in three hours and I found Hood in 39 hours. Although very proud of those achievements, I cannot guarantee that we’re going to produce things as quickly as that for the Kormoran or Sydney II. But we’re not talking in terms of two or three months, it’s more like a month, a month and a half.” |
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