Marine Archaeology Goes 3D [audio 1st 14min]

On 14th October 1939, a British battleship HMS Royal Oak was sunk after she was hit by German U-boat U47 in Scapa Flow just off the Orkney Isles in Scotland. 833 lives were lost when the ship sank in just over ten minutes. The wreck is now designated an official war grave. Almost 70 years on, the HMS Royal Oak is still leaking oil, which could pose a threat to the coastline of Orkney and Shetland. The MOD have already launched salvage operations to remove some of the oil but they require high resolution images of the wreck in order to make sure thay have made the site secure. Dr Martin Dean, marine archaeologist at the University of St. Andrews, has been called in to do this and, with the aid of Dr Chris Rowland, an expert in animation and 3D visualisation from the University of Dundee, together with Dr Mark Laurence make up the ADUS (Archaeological Diving Unit Survey) Team. They have come up with some new technology that has allowed them to get some of the clearest pictures of a wreck underwater ever seen. Using multi-beam sonar from their research vessel, recording the image over several passes and getting as close to the hull of the ship as they can -- they have come up with images that can be electronically tweaked and enhanced to allow them to see the wreck in full 3D and even create ‘fly bys’ where they can virtually circle the ship and view it from any angle.