Cattewater Wreck

The Cattewater Wreck is a wooden three-masted, skeleton-built vessel, one of many ships that have wrecked in Cattewater. This wreck is close to the entrance of Sutton Harbour, Plymouth Sound, England. Its name is still unknown as it has not been fully investigated. It was located during dredging in 1973. After it was discovered it became the first ship to come under the protection of the British Protection of Wrecks Act 1973. It is believed to be from the 16th Century.

There has been some investigation of the ship including an in-depth examination through sonar. Two devices were used for this. The Sub-bottom Profiler from East Germany which uses a conical beam of 10 – 30 kHz that can investigate through the silt 10 metres deep. They also used a Sidescan sonar, originally designed for mine hunting, which uses sonar beams sideways as opposed to down. Through this process the investigators were able to distinguish the general design of the ship and a believed tonnage.

ee also

*Protection of Wrecks Act 1973

External links

* [http://www.culture.gov.uk/NR/rdonlyres/F47CA311-8CA4-4F43-9DE1-A1FE323AA934/0/achwsreport19992000.pdf|Commitee Report on Wrecks]
* [http://www.portup.com/~dfount/sidescan.htm#whatis|sidescan sonar info]
* [http://www.imagenex.com/Products/Sub-Bottom_Profiler/df-1030_sub-bottom_profiler.html|Sub Bottom Profiler site]