New Wreck : F8F-1 Bearcat (Point Loma, CA -- 230 fsw)

[beldridg]

Great find, quite possibly my favorite aircraft of all time.

Thanks! Yes, it is a very cool airplane. I have to admit that prior to working on the research, I didn't know a lot about the F8F Bearcat, but it turns out to be a really interesting plane.

- brett

 

[beldridg]

Just did! What you do is exactly where I'd love my dive "career" to go. I love the use of photogrammetry with the wrecks as well as the cave blogs! I'm graduating from university in two months so hopefully I can get myself into a career that will allow me to progress there.

Nice!

- brett

 

[Eric802]

It must be an amazing feeling knowing that you're probably the first person to lay eyes on that plane since the day it went down.

 

[beldridg]

It must be an amazing feeling knowing that you're probably the first person to lay eyes on that plane since the day it went down.

Yes, for sure. It is a very cool feeling and I love the detective work to identify it. Here is a list of all our discoveries in SoCal:

New Discovery – Wrecked in my rEvo

Posts about New Discovery written by Brett Eldridge

wreckedinmyrevo.com

- brett

 

[Jared0425]

Thanks. I signed up for your blog. The cause of my interest is searching for ancient shipwrecks in the Aegean that an old sponge diver told me about a few years ago. As some are quite deep (he described a "graveyard of shipwrecks" starting at 100 meters), I need to make use of cost effective technology before putting together an expedition with the Greek government. They need something solid, more than hearsay from a sponge diver.

Would a high frequency multibeam be better than a sidescan? Not a lot of hull structure could exist from something that old and made of wood. I got a Klein 500 kHz that's from the 80s that still is an awesome tool. Looking at an Edgetech for the future. It's unfortunate that they don't make the low frequency fish anymore.

 

[wetb4igetinthewater]

Would a high frequency multibeam be better than a sidescan? Not a lot of hull structure could exist from something that old and made of wood. I got a Klein 500 kHz that's from the 80s that still is an awesome tool. Looking at an Edgetech for the future. It's unfortunate that they don't make the low frequency fish anymore.

There's no wood for ancient wrecks unless buried in the sand. We are looking for cargo, amphorae/jars/pots primarily. Now if metal objects were underneath, that takes further investigation. Side scanning sonar is sufficient. Check out the results of the Fiskardo shipwreck off Kefalonia from ten years ago that was discovered by accident by marine geologists from the University of Patras. One of the professors, Dr. Ferentinos, was a student of Dr. Vamvakas who did his first PhD aboard the Calypso and was friends with Philippe. Like me, he's a member of the AHEPA (ahepa.org) and is interested in one of my projects.

It is amazing how smalla the world can be.

 

[beldridg]

Quick update: we finally received the accident report and it reinforces our belief that the aircraft is Bureau Number 94928. Details along with a copy of the accident report are posted at:

F8F-1 Bearcat Update (Point Loma — 230 fsw)

Original post is here: F8F-1 Bearcat (Point Loma, CA — 230 fsw) When we first found the wreck and identified the airplane as a F8F-1, we started working to identify the specific aircraft. In …

wreckedinmyrevo.com

- brett