Monday, October 26, 2009

WRECK OF WWI SUB DISCOVERED

The wreck of the British WWI E-Class submarine HMAS E18 has been found off the coast of Estonia by Swedish marine survey company Marin Matteknik (MMT) that had been searching for it for the past 10 years. The sub had been launched in 1915 and she was sent to the Baltic Sea to help Russia stop German shipments of iron ore from Sweden. The sub had a crew of 33 who all perished when it sank. The wreck was found 140km west of Tallinn, near the island of Hiiumaa, during October. The wreck of the E18 was found in fairly good shape. Her port side was damaged and she suffered further minor damages elsewhere.
According to “The Encyclopedia of Ships”, 55 E-Class submarines were built between 1913 & 1916. 22 of them were lost during WWI. They were 55m long, had two screws, diesel engines and two electric motors. The history of the E18 is available through Wikipedia at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_E18 . According to the web page found at http://www.daylife.com/photo/0aYof5f7us4LQ, the British naval submarine HMS E18 has been found on the seabed close to the Estonian island of Dago after having been missing for over 90 years. The submarine disappeared with all hands in the Baltic Sea during routine exercises in May 1916. Carl Douglas, the leader of search operations and owner of MMT, was able to locate the vessel with the help of maps detailing the location of mines on the Baltic Sea sea bed. A YouTube video can be seen at www.youtube.com/watch?v=IF8QcB_u6m0 .

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