Ocean Quest Adventure Discover Spectacular Images of WW2 Wrecks Using Tritech’s StarFish

13 May 2010

StarFish 450F, the shallow water sidescan sonar system from Tritech International, recently completed the successful deployment of a wreck dive in the low-visibility waters of Conception Bay off Canada’s Atlantic Coast.

The high performance StarFish 450Fsonar was able to operate at low-range, enabling the wreck team from Ocean Quest Adventure Resort (OCAR) to collect amazing detail of World War II (WW2) ships, SS Rose Castle and PLM-27, which were hit simultaneously and sunk by a German U-Boat during the war.

StarFish was able to clearly scan the wreck of SS Rose Castle where visible structures, as identified in the scan images, included rigging, substructures and cargo holds. At approximately 160 feet deep, this wreck is the deeper of the two wrecks scanned by the OCAR team in Conception Bay.

Encouraged by the scans obtained from the SS Rose Castle, OCAR continued with a second wreck dive to the PLM-27. Lying in much shallower waters, the PLM-27 is sunk at 100 feet of water with only 50 feet to the deck. Again, from the spectacular sonar images produced by StarFish 450F, substructures such as the stern gun, torpedo hole, the derricks and the cargo hold were all clearly visible.

StarFish 450F is a plug-and-play side scan, easily powered from any source and comes complete with user-friendly StarFish Scanline software. OCAR was impressed with StarFish 450F’s capabilities and indeed its ease in usability which allowed the team to complete both wreck dives in under one-and-a-half hours.

Andrew Hiscock, Wreck Booking Co-ordinator, OCAR comments on the different outlook StarFish gave their wreck dive: “We got amazing shots of both the wrecks from the StarFish 450F system and the scan of the PLM-27 could almost be used a map to navigate around the 400 foot wreck. After diving these wrecks for twelve years, it was great to see them from a completely different perspective.”

OCAR is based in Newfoundland, Canada in the region of Labrador, where the facility is the only full service dive and adventure resort.