<
https://reneweconomy.com.au/extraordinary-find-offshore-wind-seabed-survey-solves-century-old-maritime-mystery/>
"Seafloor surveys for a floating offshore wind farm off the coast of Scotland
have helped solve a 107-year-old maritime mystery, after stumbling upon the
uncharted wreck of a Russian merchant vessel that was sunk during the Great
War.
The 3GW MarramWind project, being developed by ScottishPower and Shell, is
proposed for construction in the North Sea, about 75km off the north-east coast
of Scotland, in water depths averaging 111 metres.
As part of all offshore wind farm developments, surveys of the seafloor are
carried out by gathering sonar scans to determine the suitability for
foundations – in this case, foundations suitable to mount anchors for the
tethers tied to the floating turbine platforms.
During the geophysical and environmental surveys conducted by the
Fugro
Galaxy, the scans revealed what is believed to be the likely resting place of
the
SS Tobol, a WWI Russian merchant vessel which was torpedoed by a German
U-boat in 1917.
Boasting its own tumultuous history – having been built Sunderland, England,
and operated as the
SS Cheltenham by a steamer company until it was captured
by Russian warships in 1904 – the ship was eventually transferred to the
Russian Imperial Navy and renamed
SS Tobol after the river in Russia.
By 1916 it had been relocated to the Russian Volunteer Fleet but was eventually
torpedoed by the German U-boat
U-52 on September 11, 1917 while sailing from
Blyth to Arkhangelsk.
“This really is an extraordinary find, given that our seabed surveys – which
give us vital information about seabed conditions and what that means for the
development of MarramWind – covered a distance of around 6,000 miles,” said
Colin Anderson, development manager for MarramWind.
“We always expect to come across wrecks when carrying out works like this, but
these tend to be smaller vessels and known to the authorities.
“While the
Tobol was known to have been torpedoed in the war, its location
was unclear, so to discover it after more than a century and uncover its
history is something special.”"
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
