David Mearns – Search Director, The Finding Sydney Foundation Looking back on the 43 days since we began mobilising the SV Geosounder on February 27th I can safely say that the Finding Sydney Foundation team, including all their offshore subcontractors... [read more]
David Mearns – Search Director, The Finding Sydney Foundation Before the start of our ROV dive on Kormoran’s wreck and debris field I cautioned everyone that in contrast with HMAS Sydney the wreck of Kormoran was going to be in a very bad state and that... [read more]
David Mearns – Search Director, The Finding Sydney Foundation I was expecting another long day (and night) today diving on the sonar targets we named as the “battle site” between Kormoran and HMAS Sydney largely because of their location on a line that approximates... [read more]
David Mearns – Search Director, The Finding Sydney Foundation The top objective of today’s ROV dive to HMAS Sydney’s debris field was to identify the largest sonar target, which I was confident was Sydney’s detached bow. This was achieved, along with... [read more]
David Mearns – Search Director, The Finding Sydney Foundation Immediately after posting our search diary yesterday we were forced to recover the ROV because of an alarm telling us it was low on oil that is used to fill an important transformer housing... [read more]
David Mearns – Search Director, The Finding Sydney Foundation Whilst it has taken longer than expected I am very pleased we can now show the first pictures of HMAS Sydney to a waiting Australia. At 15:10 (AWT) on Thursday 03 March 2008, our cameras focused... [read more]
The SV Geosounder returned to Geraldton, Western Australia on Thursday 20th of March 2008. The demobilisation of the Williamson Sonar Spread has been completed and the mobilisation of an ROV team and specialist deepwater camera and lighting equipment... [read more]
David Mearns - Search Director, The Finding Sydney Foundation Knowing it was unlikely that such unique deeptow side-scan sonar equipment would ever again be available and mobilised on a vessel off the coast of WA, I had decided to collect the best possible... [read more]
David Mearns - Search Director, The Finding Sydney Foundation The day began very early for all of us today. Actually for the past few days there hasn't been much difference between days and nights as they have all rolled into one long marathon session... [read more]
Joint Statement David Mearns - Search Director, The Finding Sydney Foundation Lieutenant John Perryman, RANR – Official Observer At 11:03 (AWT) on Sunday 16 March 2008, a small dark shape was detected coming into view on the starboard side of our SM30... [read more]
David Mearns - Search Director, The Finding Sydney Foundation Wreck of HSK Kormoran Discovered The wreckage of the German Raider HSK Kormoran was found by the search team on board the SV Geosounder at 17:30 (AWT) on March 12th, 2008 in the approximate... [read more]
David Mearns - Search Director, The Finding Sydney Foundation We ran our first "higher-resolution" line late last evening past some suspicious looking sonar targets at the southern extremity of our search box. By higher-resolution, I mean that... [read more]
David Mearns - Search Director, The Finding Sydney Foundation After our early problems I am very pleased with how the search has progressed over the past couple of days. The Williamson & Associates SM30 side-scan sonar search system was selected for... [read more]
David Mearns - Search Director, The Finding Sydney Foundation A few days ago I wrote about the rhythm of a search expedition - how a good rhythm consists of a search line followed by a turn to the next line repeated many times over with monotonous regularity... [read more]
David Mearns - Search Director, The Finding Sydney Foundation We've had such a lousy string of luck since the start of this search it was about time that things started to go our way. An enormous amount of effort by the Williamson & Associates... [read more]
David Mearns - Search Director, The Finding Sydney Foundation We have now been at sea for 8 days and are still being plagued by technical problems and unseasonably rough weather. A search line we started early this morning had to be aborted because I... [read more]
David Mearns - Search Director, The Finding Sydney Foundation Shipwreck search projects generally fall into a rythym of running the side-scan sonar down a trackline followed by a turn to the next search trackline, repeated many times over. So a good rythym... [read more]
David Mearns - Search Director, The Finding Sydney Foundation With Ophelia out of the way we were able to resume the search today and start to make a dent in the search box. However you compare it, our search box is extremely large. In marine terms it... [read more]
David Mearns - Search Director, The Finding Sydney Foundation There is only one photo to go with our blogs today because there is only one subject that has dominated our day. The weather. Despite the fact that she was downgraded early in the day, Ophelia... [read more]
David Mearns - Seach Director, The Finding Sydney Foundation When I said yesterday that more twists and turns were to come I wasn't expecting them to come so fast. The first twist was a particularly cruel one. Towards the end of our first sonar trackline... [read more]
David Mearns - Search Director, The Finding Sydney Foundation The most anxious time for any search is the first sonar trackline through the search area. This is when you learn whether the area you are searching consists of either rough geological terrain... [read more]
David Mearns - Search Director, The Finding Sydney Foundation Other than getting out of port safely the simple objective for today was to conduct a sea-trials of the two Williamson & Associates side-scan sonar systems before we got too far away from... [read more]
On the 29th February 2008 the vessel “SV Geosounder” set sail from Geraldton, Western Australia to find the resting place of the World War II cruiser HMAS Sydney II, tragically lost in November 1941 in the Indian Ocean with its entire crew of... [read more]
