Text 25069, 87 rader
Skriven 2008-12-16 10:53:44 av Ward Dossche (2:292/854)
  Kommentar till text 25056 av Roy Witt (1:397/22)
Ärende: Graf Spee
=================
RW>WD> Originally it was completely above the water but the overal weight
RW>WD> of the wreck pushed it into the mud.
 
RW> You mean it was above the bottom surface and then it sank into the mud.
 
Sort of.
 
Langsdorf scuttled it on a sandbar and never commented much on it, also because
he committed suicide within a couple of days. He did it on a sandbar because
that way he could save his complete crew, not just the ones that had left the
Spee at Montevideo.
 
It is generally assumed that more destruction was planned but charges misfired.
The reason for this theory was the fact that wreck barely sunk like just a
couple of feet. The upper-deck railing did not touch water at low tide just to
give you an idea.
 
Structurally it is still one piece.
 
Not too long afterward, the cruiser USS Helena anchored close-by and a crew
went on board to inspect the Graf Spee, they took a lot of photographs but I
don't think they have been de-classified yet. The purpose was to learn about
the ultra-modern gunnery range-finding radar but the electronics of that had
been destroyed.
 
The wreck has been boarded many times, the Brits also did it. Tourists
certainly.
 
Also, it sits in sand, not really mud. That makes a world of a difference to
lift it. That operation is quite possible with today's technology but so
expensive, it needs sound financial backing.
 
On the other hand, if they pull it off, they have a unique world class
attraction where tourists will come to. And the wreck itself now is a shipping
hazard, so it needs to be removed anyway.
 
RW>WD> At hightide, what remains of the superstructure, is below water. At
RW>WD> lowtide it is above the water, in other words within reach.
 
RW> You can touch it when you take your row boat out there.
 
That is a good description because you can. I'm not exactly certain but it
barely lies off-shore ... 2-3 nautical miles?
 
RW>WD> The hull is in one piece and very heavy of course. One of the main
RW>WD> hazards is unused ammunition which is still in the magazines and of
RW>WD> which there's no clue in what condition it is.
 
RW> I doubt the cannon powder bags will be dangerous. They probably got
RW> soaked
RW> with sea water and deteriorated a long time ago. What's in cases may be
RW> intact and that old powder may be unstable.
 
Indeed. This country has a long history with unexploded ordnance. During WW1 so
much shelling was done that unexploded ammo is discovered on a weekly basis.
The army has a special unit in the former battlefields of 1914-18 doing nothing
else daily but collecting explosive devices and dismantling or exploding them.
They also still cost lives, people dig 'm up, especially after winter, and
sometimes mishandle them.
 
Yesterday during works at the tracks of the railroadstation of Ghent a 500lb
unexploded bomb was discovered from WW2.
 
There's also a special unit which does nothing else but handle unexploded gas
ammunition from WW1 which also gets discovered.
 
And then there are the thousands of tonnes of gas grenades which some idiot
decided to drop in the sea at 2 miles from the beach in the 1920-ies.
 
I expect steel armour piercing grenades to be in a better shape than iron
grenades from WW1 though you never are certain what 70 years of salt water in a
warm climate will do.
 
During mu military service part of the training was as a gun loader in the #4
gun of a 105m/m and 155m/m self-propelled howitzer battery. For those knowing
about artillery, #4 is the one which does the zero-ing in for all the guns in
the battery (6 guns to a battery), which means it does all the trial/test shots
ordered by the forward observers and only when zeroed-in do the others
participate. #4 has the full complement of ammo in its tower and when as a
loader you're there and surrounded by a couple of thousand tonnes explosives
then it's impressive. You realise that if that load explodes due to some
malfunction, nobody will make an effort to find something of you.
 
 \%/@rd

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 * Origin: Many Glacier -o=O=o- Preserve - Protect - Conserve (2:292/854)