David Mearns

David Louis Mearns, born circa 1958, is a United States-born marine scientist and deep water search and recovery expert, long resident in the United Kingdom. He is famous for locating the wrecks of several ships lost during World War II. Mearns and his company, Blue Water Recoveries Limited, are in the Guinness World Records for the deepest shipwreck ever found, the German blockade runner Rio Grande, which was located at a depth of 5,762 metres (18,904 ft).^{[citation needed]}

In 2008, Mearns led a search team to find the Australian cruiser HMAS Sydney and the German auxiliary cruiser Kormoran, which both sank following a mutually destructive engagement off Western Australia in 1941. Prior to finding HMAS Sydney, Mearns said that it was, in some ways, "bigger than the Titanic" because of what it meant to Australia. "Nothing comes close to the Sydney."^[1]

At the end of 2010, he successfully led the search for another missing Australian shipwreck, the Hospital Ship Centaur, which was torpedoed off Queensland by a Japanese submarine in 1943.^[2]

On 1 November 2010, Mearns was awarded an honorary Medal of the Order of Australia in recognition of his discovery of Sydney and Centaur.^[3]

He has been responsible for the discovery of over 50 shipwrecks,^[4] including:

• the British battleship HMS Hood
• Lucona, sunk in 1977 by a bomb planted by Udo Proksch, as part of an insurance fraud
• Derbyshire, an ore-bulk-oil carrier which disappeared in 1980

Mearns also led the 2001 expedition to the ship that sank Hood, the German battleship Bismarck, which had been found by Robert Ballard and his team in 1989.

Bibliography

• Mearns, David and White, Rob, 1945- Hood and Bismarck. Channel 4, London, 2001.
• Mearns, David L., The search for the Sydney. HarperCollins Publishers, Pymble, N.S.W, 2009.

References

1. ^ "'I'll find HMAS Sydney'". Sunday Telegraph via news.com.au. 2006-11-12. http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,20741311-2,00.html. Retrieved 2008-09-01. 
2. ^ Fraser, Andrew (21 December 2009). "Discovery proves maligned navigator got it right". The Australian: p. 3. http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/discovery-proves-maligned-navigator-gordon-rippon-got-it-right/story-e6frg6nf-1225812246120. Retrieved 21 December 2009. 
3. ^ Smith, Aaron (4 November 2010). "Shipwreck finder gets honourary OAM". Australian Geographic. http://www.australiangeographic.com.au/journal/shipwreck-finder-gets-honorary-order-of-australia.htm. Retrieved 5 November 2010. 
4. ^ "Modern king of the shipwreck hunters". Herald Sun (Melbourne). 18 March 2008. http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/special-reports/modern-king-of-the-shipwreck-hunters/story-e6frf8so-1111115822381. Retrieved 14 June 2011. 

• Elizabeth Gosch, "Maritime legend" The Australian (April 11, 2008)

External links

• Blue Water Recoveries (official website)

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Name	Mearns, David
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