Dive The Best Wrecks of The World
Dives to the Wreck of the German Battleship Bismarck
It was May 1989, 48 years to the month since the great battleship had gone down. A lone research vessel had arrived in the area for the final battle. Their mission was to 'find the Bismarck'. The expedition was led by oceanographer Dr Robert Ballard who discovered the Titanic in 1985. He hoped to find, investigate and photograph Bismarck’s remains. It would not be easy; surviving records of the battle gave at least three different positions as to where the battleship sank. The search area had to include all of them and would be some 200 square miles (520 square kilometers) in size, an enormous area of seafloor to survey. Success would not come easy.
Painstakingly they ran their track lines along the imaginary seafloor grid. Ballard's strategy was to first find signs of the debris field which would range from small, light objects to large heavy elements such as the four gun turrets which had fallen away as the ship rolled over while sinking. After days of searching on June 5 1989, Argo's cameras showed evidence of the debris field. Now the search went into its final and most focused stage. Several more days were necessary before the Bismarck itself was pinpointed. It had been a difficult operation complicated by the fact that the seafloor in one area of the wreck was dominated by a massive group of underwater volcanoes rising up from the ocean floor.
Although Dr Ballard and his team concluded their brilliant expedition with excellent remotely obtained photographs and film footage, no manned submersible had ever visited the Bismarck wreck. In May 2001, DOE and the Shirshov Institute mounted a successful Expedition to become the first manned submersibles to witness the battleship at its final resting place. The wreck lies at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean some 600 miles west of Brest at a depth of 4,790 meters (15,700 feet).
The State of the Wreck.
The hull rests upright embedded in mud that covers the keel to about the level of the ship's designed waterline. Despite of the heavy shell and torpedo damage that the British inflicted on the battleship and the obvious effects of the sinking itself, the wreck is in surprisingly good condition. Few other shipwrecks are as well preserved as the Bismarck, and, except for the last 35 feet of the stern (frame 10.5) that broke away, the hull is intact. The main battery turrets dropped off the hull due to their own weight as the ship rolled over and sank, and they are now upside-down on the bottom. But the secondary battery turrets and most anti-aircraft guns are still there in their proper location. Both the forward and after conning tower, and the bridge, though heavily damaged, are with the hull, too, and the propellers are clearly visible. In the debris field that surrounds the hull, other parts of the battleship can be found such as the foremast, the mainmast, the funnel, rangefinders, etc. Considering the fact that on most parts of the decks the wooden teak planking is still conserved, and even the paint, it is most likely that the wreck will resist the effects of the corrosion for at least a few hundred years if not more.
Legal and Ethical Considerations.
According to the international law, the wreck of the Bismarck, sunk in international waters, is property of its country of origin, and is considered a war grave. After the discovery of the wreck, the German government issued the following statement regarding future diving expeditions to the wreck site:
"Die Bundesrepublik Deutschland betrachtet sich als Eigentümer des ehemaligen reichseigenen Schlachtschiffes Bismarck. Tauchgänge in das Innere des Wracks sowie Bergungsversuche bedürfen der Zustimmung der Bundesregierung. Diese wird wie in anderen Fällen gesunkener Schiffe aus den Weltkriegen, bei denen mit Toten im Wrackgerechnet werden muß, grundsätzlich nicht erteilt. Die Bundesregierung fühlt sich den beim Untergang des Schiffes zu Tode gekommenen Seeleuten verpflichtet. Gemäß internationalen Gepflogenheiten sieht sie das Wrack der Bismarck als Seemannsgrab an, das entsprechend zu respektieren ist."
"The Federal Republic of Germany considers itself the owner of the former sovereign Battleship Bismarck. Diving excursions to the interior of the wreck as well as recovery attempts require consent of the Federal Government. This has been categorically denied in other cases of sunken ships of the World Wars, because one must expect to find remains of the dead in the wreck. The Federal Republic feels it is its duty to protect the seamen who went to their deaths in the sinking of the ship. Following international customs, we view the wreck of the Bismarck as a seamen's burial site that must be accorded proper respect."
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