Very Cool Ship Image

[Daylonious]

Check out this cool sonar image of a sunken luxury liner.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&ObjectID=10368210

Ghost ship brought to life from the blackness of the sea

14.02.06
By Anne Beston

New technology has revealed a ghost-like image of the sunken cruise liner Mikhail Lermontov in the Marlborough Sounds.

Using sonar that works on a similar principle to ultrasound scanners that show fetuses in the womb, National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research scientist Dr Ken Grange has captured new images of the ship showing the hull, funnel, cranes, bridge and decks.

Divers rarely see more than a small part of the 155m-long wreck because of poor visibility.

Dr Grange said the pale patches shown in the image above the front half of the wreck are schools of fish.

The ship, once the pride of the Russian cruise fleet, has lain on the sea floor at Cape Jackson at a depth of about 50m since the night of February 16, 1986, when it struck a rock in Port Gore Inlet and sank.

Of the more than 700 passengers and crew on board the 15-year-old vessel, only one crew member died.

Picton pilot and acting harbourmaster Captain Don Jamison made the decision to take the Lermontov through a passage never before used by ships of its size.

Dr Grange said Niwa bought the new sonar, which uses sound waves to produce digital images, to map shallow-water marine habitats.

It operates at a frequency of 675kHz and is mounted in a small torpedo-shaped "towfish" that is pulled along by a boat so it is just above the sea floor.

Raised objects bounce back sound waves which are processed into a digital signal and sent to a computer on the surface.

The Mikhail Lermontov is the third biggest diveable cruise shipwreck in the world.

Only the Empress of Ireland and the Titanic are bigger.

 

[dlndavid]

nice wreck, and only one person died when it sank.

 

[miscbadvr]

Very cool indeed. Thanks for the post.

 

[JustinW]

Thats some pretty cool stuff. They are doing some pretty amazing things with sonar technology.

 

[stiebs]

The Mikhail Lermontov is the third biggest diveable cruise shipwreck in the world.

Only the Empress of Ireland and the Titanic are bigger.

I'm not sure about the Empress of Ireland, but I wouldn't call the Titanic a diveable wreck (unless you're in a submersible)

 

[H2Andy]

wow... that's a creepy image

nice, though

I'm not sure about the Empress of Ireland

yeah, people dive the Empress of Ireland all the time. Titanic, at a
depth of 2.5 miles... is ... a bit deep

 

[alijtaylor]

"Lermontov Sinking still lures conspiracy Buffs

16.02.06
Despite talk of hidden evidence, the sinking of the Mikhail Lermontov 20 years ago today left few unanswered questions. Ruth Hill reports.


Richard Prebble, Minister of Transport when the Mikhail Lermontov sank in the Marlborough Sounds in 1986, still gets phone calls from "conspiracy theorists".

When the Russian luxury liner went down that night, it left rumours and innuendo swirling in its wake, talk of sealed evidence under lock and key.

But Mr Prebble says it is "completely untrue" that the New Zealand Government suppressed evidence.

"This has to be one of the most clear-cut cases ever," he says.

"The pilot, Captain Don Jamison, never disputed that he made the decision to take that route and it was wrong and that was why the ship sank ...

"But why he decided to guide the ship over a passage that he actually knew was too shallow, I don't think he'll ever be able to answer."

Captain Jamison told the inquiry he had been working 80 hours a week for the four months before the accident and was mentally and physically exhausted.

The Mikhail Lermontov's last voyage was billed as "The Two-Week Cruise of a Lifetime" - but it nearly ended in the loss of hundreds of lives.

Under the command of Captain Vladislav Vorobyvev, the ship left Sydney on February 6, 1986.

After visiting Auckland, Tauranga, Wellington and Picton, the ship, with 734 people on board, left Waitohi Wharf on the afternoon of Saturday, February 15, heading for Milford Sound.

Captain Jamison, the Marlborough Harbour Board harbourmaster, pilot and acting general manager, joined the ship to guide her out of the Marlborough Sounds.

For some unexplained reason, Captain Jamison directed the helmsman to steer between Cape Jackson and the lighthouse, barely 460m from shore.

Passengers reported hearing a thud around 5.37pm.

That was the pinnacle rocks gouging a 12-metre gash in the hull.

Water flooded in, short-circuiting the electrical systems and killing the engines.

The ship started to list badly but no alarm sounded. There was a public announcement to say that dinner would be an hour late.

However some passengers suspected something was amiss when crew members appeared wearing lifejackets.

Captain Vorobyvev dashed to the bridge and ordered the ship to beach. Maritime officials say his decision to put passenger safety before the ship saved hundreds of lives.

A mayday call was issued.

Havelock fisherman Michael Harris was one of the first on the scene.

He had been anchored about halfway along Cape Jackson with another fishing boat when he saw the huge liner squeezing through the gap.

"I turned on the radio and they were already sending out distress calls," he remembers.

The two fishing boats immediately followed the stricken ship as it headed for the shore.

Mr Harris grabbed his camera and his photos are the only record of the Mikhail Lermontov's final hours.

He was very impressed with the actions of the liner's crew.

"They handled it really well, I thought, did a terrific job, with a lot of help from locals."

Only one person was killed: a 33-year-old Russian engineer.

About 20 fishing boats and recreational vessels came streaming out of Picton to help with the rescue.

The Arahura, which had been en route to Picton, diverted to the scene and arrived at 9.30pm.

The Navy vessel Taupo also searched throughout the night for those lost in the water, and survivors adrift on liferafts.

Everyone worked through the pitch-black night in driving rain.

The rescue efforts were complicated by the fact there was a 25 knot southerly, which blew the ship back offshore toward Gannet Point near Port Gore, 56km from Picton.

Finally, at 10.15pm, the Mikhail Lermontov hit the seabed with its bow, and the boat rolled on to the port side.

Witnesses described the deafening roar as the ship went down, crashing, banging and hissing.

A preliminary marine inquiry by the New Zealand Government, which was released on March 6, 1986, blamed Captain Jamison for the accident, praised the Russian crew for their efforts in saving all the passengers, and declared the lifesaving equipment on board the ship was adequate.

Insurance claims were believed to total around $100 million.

The harbour board reached an out-of-court settlement with the owners.

The Soviet Union conducted its own inquiry, as was its right under international maritime law.

A man with a striking resemblance to Russian President Vladimir Putin was present at the inquiry in Australia, and can be seen in newspaper photos accompanying Captain Vorobyvev to court.

Mr Harris was flown to Sydney by the port company - but he was never called to give evidence, which he says "surprised" him.

His only contribution was to show his photos to the lawyers and tell them what time each was taken.

Twenty years later, he says he is not interested in getting into "the whys and wherefores" of the sinking.

"It all gets a bit controversial, many people have got a lot of views and have written a lot of things on it.

"All I know is what I saw."

Captain Vorobyvev was given a four-year jail sentence by his Government, but that was suspended.

Mr Prebble says his personal opinion was that it was "very hard on the captain, who wasn't even on the bridge at the time".

There was never any doubt that it was the New Zealand pilot that was at fault, he said.

"The only reason he wasn't charged was because there were no charges we could charge him with," he says.

An "oversight" in New Zealand law at the time meant that New Zealand-registered pilots working on foreign ships could not be prosecuted.

In fact, it was only in 2003 that the law was changed to correct this anomaly.

"The ministry did write to him, suggesting very strongly that he surrender his pilot's licence, which he did.

"I understand that he reapplied for it later, and was reissued with it."

Mr Prebble said he wrote to the Russians to offer to hold an inquiry, but was told in no uncertain terms that it was not necessary.

"They were very clear that it was their ship, they were going to hold the inquiry and they would send us the results of the inquiry, which they did." Captain Jamison has never spoken publicly of the sinking and worked for Strait Shipping for 10 years before his retirement in 2001.

Meanwhile, the 155m Mikhail Lermontov lies almost perfectly intact in about 50m of water, and has become one of Marlborough's most popular diving attractions.

- NZPA

 

[XJae]

that's a nice sidescan, especially since it hasn't collapsed yet.

The Mikhail Lermontov is the third biggest diveable cruise shipwreck in the world.
Only the Empress of Ireland and the Titanic are bigger.

can't expect reporters to get everything right. isn't 508' short for a passenger liner?
oregon 520', republic 585', bianca c 600', doria 697', britannic 712', lusitania 790'