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Old 10-18-2008, 10:43 PM   #12
Diver1111
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Default It can be found...

As to this mystery ship-it's highly likely that it can be found with hi-qual side-scan-sonar equipment-if it's even real-no offense to Mr. Herpen intended. But some of the points raised herein are valid. Even my unit could locate it if I can get close enough to it to pick it up (I have limitations etc. that decrease as left/right search range increases-as with any side-scan gear). This means that the farther out you scan the more difficult it can become to discriminate amongst objects due to distance. However, greater ranges also yield greater possibilities for object ID-a topic for another day.

However, with the right equipment-and I won't give away trade secrets as they pertain to make, model, scan settings, scanning techniques, software etc. of equipment that would do the job-if this thing is real and the steel hull (even with nothing on deck at all-think...completely flat) is even 1 INCH out of the mud with the rest completely buried it would light up like a Christmas tree because it's steel. The skill is image interpretation amongst other variables-but in this case no challenge if any reasonable portion of it is above the mud line A hard target like steel is an excellent reflector, I believe the best of all-even better than stone. But at 120 feet long, and even in pure silt, this thing is probably sticking out of the bottom pretty high-even easier to see on SSS.

I was training in side-scan offshore recently with a state-of-the-art, hardcore, true commercial unit, picking up lobster lines connecting lobster pots (1/2" diameter line)-a soft, minimally reflective target by any measure-in 90 feet of water about 300 feet away-and it was not a problem at all to conclude what it was.

Sonar-any sonar (2D fishfinder or 3D side-scan, including sub-bottom profilers that look below the ocean/lake/river bottom into the sediment) work on the principle of reflectivity of the energy wave being sent out. Hard is better than soft-SSS 101. But soft can tell you lots of things, too.

Wood can be a bear to ID-and different types of wood have different reflective properties. The attached image shows what can be seen-trees-even in 182 feet of water-are not a problem for even the untrained eye to ID.

Bottom line-this can be found if it's "there" at all.

Again, no disrespect to Mr. Herpen. I'd love to think she's down there.
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