Sonar builds image of sunken ship
SEVERAL of the ships were recorded using a sonar system onboard Bangor University’s research vessel.
The vessel sends out soundwaves and the amount of time which it takes for the waves to bounce back helps the crew to build up a detailed model of the sunken ship.
The data reveals damage caused by torpedoes, mines and ramming.
Some of the wrecks are still intact, but others are beginning to collapse.
At the end of the war, the 200-strong German submarine fleet surrendered. One ended up in Porthmadog, with residents allowed on board for a small charge. The UB 98 submarine was scrapped in 1922 but several pieces remain today.
Various parts were used in local projects, including sheets of metal used in making a tunnel on the Ffestiniog Railway.
A programme of marine geophysical survey, undertaken by the Centre for Applied Marine Sciences, School of Ocean Sciences, Bangor University, in the spring and summer, captured the wrecks.
Additional survey work involving the Nautical Archaeology Society will include the capture of underwater video footage on five of those wrecks, which will be combined into 3D inter-active digital models for use in the project’s website and a travelling exhibition.
The project’s travelling exhibition will visit 18 Welsh maritime museums from July 2018, before closing in December 2019.
Deanna Groom, senior investigator (maritime) at the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales, said: “We are grateful to the Heritage Lottery Fund for its support and to the museums and community groups who have shown such interest.
“These sites are poignant and evocative.”