Underwater robot films hospital ship wreck
Source: Agencies |
January 12, 2010, Tuesday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
SHIPWRECK hunters have captured the first underwater footage of an Australian World War II hospital ship that sank in 1943 and left 268 people dead.
A search team led by United States shipwreck hunter David Mearns sent a submarine robot more than 2,000 meters below the surface to snap the images of the Centaur on Sunday. The footage showed the ship's bright red cross and a corroded number 47, its identification number.
The Centaur sank off the Queensland coast in 1943, with just 64 survivors.
Australia said the ship sank after being torpedoed by the Japanese, but Japan says the circumstances surrounding the sinking are unclear.
Mearns found sonar footage of the Centaur on December 20, 48 kilometers east of the southern tip of Moreton Island at a depth of 2,059 meters. Sunday's images confirmed the wreck was the Centaur.
Yesterday, Mearns and his crew sent the robot into the depths to take a second round of pictures, which included images of the ship's bell and an escape hatch that a survivor climbed through just before the Centaur sank.
Queensland Acting Premier Paul Lucas has called on Japan to apologize for the sinking.
A search team led by United States shipwreck hunter David Mearns sent a submarine robot more than 2,000 meters below the surface to snap the images of the Centaur on Sunday. The footage showed the ship's bright red cross and a corroded number 47, its identification number.
The Centaur sank off the Queensland coast in 1943, with just 64 survivors.
Australia said the ship sank after being torpedoed by the Japanese, but Japan says the circumstances surrounding the sinking are unclear.
Mearns found sonar footage of the Centaur on December 20, 48 kilometers east of the southern tip of Moreton Island at a depth of 2,059 meters. Sunday's images confirmed the wreck was the Centaur.
Yesterday, Mearns and his crew sent the robot into the depths to take a second round of pictures, which included images of the ship's bell and an escape hatch that a survivor climbed through just before the Centaur sank.
Queensland Acting Premier Paul Lucas has called on Japan to apologize for the sinking.
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