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GAS PIPELINE PROBE UNCOVERS SHIPWRECKS IN BALTIC SEA
3/10/2010
by Capt. Darrick Lorenzen |
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This was an interesting article I found:
STOCKHOLM (AFP) – A dozen previously unknown shipwrecks, some of them believed to be up to 1000 years old, were discovered in the Baltic Sea during a probe of the sea bed to prepare for the installation of a large gas pipeline, the Swedish National Heritage Board said Monday.
“We have managed to identify 12 shipwrecks, nine of them are considered to be fairly old,” said Peter Norman, a senior advisor with the Heritage Board, told AFP.
“We think many of the ships are from the 17th and 18th centuries and we think some could even come from the Middle Ages,” he said, stressing the discovery offers enormous cultural-historical value.
The shipwrecks were discovered during a probe by the Russian led Nord-Stream consortium of the sea bed route of its planned gas pipeline from Russia to the European Union which will take it through the Baltic.
“They used sonar equipment first and discovered some unevenness along the sea bottom…so they filmed some of the uneven areas, and we could see the wrecks,” Norman explained.
The discovery was made outside Sweden’s territorial waters, but within the economic zone, he said.
None of the wrecks were in the actual path of the Nord-Stream pipeline is set to take, but they were in its so called anchor corridor, meaning they are in an area where ships laying the pipeline might anchor, Norman said.
“That’s one of the reasons this probe was done: to avoid damaging wrecks on the sea bed,” he said, adding that the Swedish National Heritage Board had received assurances from Nord-Stream that “the positioning of the wrecks will be taken into account when they lay the pipeline”.
Due to its low temperatures and oxygen levels, the Baltic Sea is known as an ideal environment for conserving shipwrecks, which can remain virtually unblemished for hundreds and even thousands of years.
According to Norman, some 3000 shipwrecks have been discovered and mapped in the Baltic, but experts believe that more than 100,000 whole and partial wrecks litter the sea bottom.
“What makes the discovery so unique is that these wrecks have their hulls fully intact,” Norman said, adding however that there were no plans to raise the wrecks, which lie at a depth of more than 100 meters (328-feet).
Commercial divers should be doing some research on this jobsite! Sounds like a few years of work at least. Technical divers should be drooling about right now! Here lies enough shipwrecks to provide high adventure for divers into the next century!
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