Sunderland & Catalina Found - Help with Underwater ID
Posted: Thu May 22, 2014 3:18 pmHi Everyone,
Thanks to Brian to getting us on here. I run Dive Oban and Argyll, a diving business out of Oban but i'm also an underwater photography, marine biologist and have a lot of interest in diving shipwrecks amongst other things. Some of you may have seen the news reports on the discovery of the flying boat wrecks during the surveys done from the research institute. We were able to locate some of the location using old fisherman's snags etc. We dived the sites over the last few months and have the first underwater pics of the wrecks.
Diving conditions near the wrecks can be challenging with depths over 30m and limited visibility. However the wrecks have been colonised by colourful marine life such as plumose anemones and fish. Being seldom dived in the past, the wreck sites have a lot of artefacts and features remaining. It was understood that the wrecks (and in particular the Sunderland) could be a war grave so the divers were careful to explore the site without disturbance. On the wreck of the Sunderland it was noted that the anti-aircraft guns and ammunition was present, along with fuselage, wing tank and wing structure. The Catalina is a far more intact wreck site with the cockpit sticking out of the sediment with cockpit glass, steering wheel, throttles, seats and gauges all intact. The engines are clearly visible and the propellor blades stick well out of the silt. For wreck diving enthusiasts, to see these planes in such condition was exciting. The team have dived a Catalina wreck in the Clyde but there is very little left compared to these wreck sites.
Bit of a pain to try and upload all the pictures to the forum but I've put them on the site so you can easily view them and discuss from there. I do have lots of pics of random debris but it would be to open up the discussion on them and perhaps I can repost various pictures when discussing varying aspects of the wrecks.
For example the Sunderland's wing looks like it's sitting the right way up and still has the rubber cover however I believe the known Sunderland wreck turned turtle.
Look forward to the discussion
Cheers
Shane
Thanks to Brian to getting us on here. I run Dive Oban and Argyll, a diving business out of Oban but i'm also an underwater photography, marine biologist and have a lot of interest in diving shipwrecks amongst other things. Some of you may have seen the news reports on the discovery of the flying boat wrecks during the surveys done from the research institute. We were able to locate some of the location using old fisherman's snags etc. We dived the sites over the last few months and have the first underwater pics of the wrecks.
Diving conditions near the wrecks can be challenging with depths over 30m and limited visibility. However the wrecks have been colonised by colourful marine life such as plumose anemones and fish. Being seldom dived in the past, the wreck sites have a lot of artefacts and features remaining. It was understood that the wrecks (and in particular the Sunderland) could be a war grave so the divers were careful to explore the site without disturbance. On the wreck of the Sunderland it was noted that the anti-aircraft guns and ammunition was present, along with fuselage, wing tank and wing structure. The Catalina is a far more intact wreck site with the cockpit sticking out of the sediment with cockpit glass, steering wheel, throttles, seats and gauges all intact. The engines are clearly visible and the propellor blades stick well out of the silt. For wreck diving enthusiasts, to see these planes in such condition was exciting. The team have dived a Catalina wreck in the Clyde but there is very little left compared to these wreck sites.
Bit of a pain to try and upload all the pictures to the forum but I've put them on the site so you can easily view them and discuss from there. I do have lots of pics of random debris but it would be to open up the discussion on them and perhaps I can repost various pictures when discussing varying aspects of the wrecks.
For example the Sunderland's wing looks like it's sitting the right way up and still has the rubber cover however I believe the known Sunderland wreck turned turtle.
Look forward to the discussion
Cheers
Shane
