Scuba Geek

Experts seek to find famous wreck, the BonHomme Richard July 3, 2006

Posted by Andy Carroll in : WreckDiving , trackback

The BonHomme Richard sank in 1779 off Flamborough Head and was made famous by John Paul Jones stating ‘Surrender - I have not yet begun to fight’. Several expeditions have already been amde to find the ship, but next month a new expedition being led by Dr Robert Neyland, head of the underwater archaeology unit at the US Navy Historical Centre, will use hi-tech methods to try and find the wreck. From the BBC;

“We thought that one way to go about it would be to take the last historical information for locations of the fleet and the ship itself,” he said. “We put that together with the weather and tide information for that time period which have been recreated very well. “We then used modern computers to create a predictive model of where the ship went down,” he added.

Dr Neyland is confident the wreck can be found despite the depth of waters involved.

“It is going to be in waters that are relatively deep - probably 150 to 200ft,” he said. “Divers are able to work in those waters - and archaeologists too.”

Having dived that area the expedition will have a tough time finding the wreck. The bottom is very sandy, and visibility is often reduced. Much of the wreck could be buried meaning that identification would be difficult. Good luck to them though.