possible underwater archaeological targets. Private and academic
interests at the Autonomous Underwater Vehicle fest (AUVfest) see the
three-D pictures the Navy's mine detection equipment supplies.
The (Rhode Island Historical Preservation and Heritage) commission
owns the four abandoned wrecks that the high-tech instruments were
sent to probe during the past two weeks. These included the British
frigates Cerberus and Lark, which were ordered scuttled when cornered
by larger French warships that came to the aid of America in 1778. The
other two wrecks included a wooden barge, off Prudence Island,
believed to be carrying granite blocks and a more modern steel ship.
Vessels offer glimpse of what lies beneath
01:00 AM EDT on Thursday, May 22, 2008
By Richard Salit
Journal Staff Writer
Brennan Phillips, an engineer, is onboard a torpedo weapon retriever
ship with the REMUS 600, which had been exploring the wreck of the
British ship Cerberus.
The Providence Journal Frieda Squires
NEWPORT — You won’t find any historic or dignified names on these
vessels, no USS John F. Kennedy or USS Saratoga.
Instead, the collection of sleek unmanned undersea craft on display
yesterday in a warehouse-style building at the Naval Undersea Warfare
Center bore the type of numbing technological acronyms — BPAUV, REMUS,
MARV and HAUV — you’d expect from the military and the scientists
gathered here to show them off.
While their names may be inscrutable, their purpose is clear: To
protect Navy vessels from hidden mines, the weapon that has wreaked
more damage and sunk more ships than all others combined. What isn’t
so obvious, however, is the devices’ practical applications,
particularly their ability to reveal what’s on, and beneath the sea
floor.
For the past two weeks, the Navy has brought together civilian and
military experts from around the country to demonstrate and test how
the high-tech apparatus can be used to help marine archaeologists. The
experiments have focused on several wrecks off the shores of Aquidneck
Island, including British warships scuttled in shallow waters during
the Revolutionary War.
“This is state-of-the-art stuff,” said D.K. Abbass, founding director
of the Rhode Island Marine Archaeology Project, which has been
searching for, and studying, shipwrecks in state waters since 1991.
“The images are just so much better.”
The event that has united Abbass and her fellow archaeologists with
military officials and technologists is AUVfest 2008, a periodic
gathering the Navy hosts to support the development of so-called
“autonomous undersea vehicles.” This is the first time since its
creation more than 10 years ago that AUVfest has been held in Newport.
It began May 12 and ends tomorrow.
Yesterday, the media was invited into the secretive and typically off-
limits Naval Undersea Warfare Center, while today Navy admirals and
nearly 200 other guests will get to tour the same areas. The highlight
of the event is a building on Narragansett Bay, where the collection
of undersea vessels is on display.
Most are yellow and look smooth and narrow like torpedoes. A few have
wings while one even has four fins, making it the only one “capable of
swimming and crawling,” according to a brochure. All have a variety of
imaging systems, such as sonar, that use acoustics or magnetics or
other properties to detect underwater objects. They weigh from 180 to
2,000 pounds.
The smallest of these, the HAUV, with its vaguely crab-like shape,
demonstrated its ability to closely survey a ship’s hull for
explosives. Its operators sent it under water to inspect the bottom of
the mothballed aircraft carrier Saratoga, tied to a pier near
AUVfest’s expo center.
“It moves without touching it,” said Jerome Vaganay, a spokesman for
its designer, Bluefin Robotics. It follows a precise pattern during an
inspection, he said, but “you can stop the vehicle with a joystick” to
have it focus on suspicious areas.
Those on hand came from government labs, private companies and
academic institutions, such as applied research labs at Pennsylvania
State University and the University of Texas, according to William H.
Schopfel, demonstration manager for the Navy’s Office of Naval
Research.
He and others emphasized the collaboration between the Navy, the
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Office of Ocean
Exploration and Research, the University of Rhode Island and area
archaeologists, including Abbass’ group and representatives of the
state Historical Preservation and Heritage Commission.
The commission owns the four abandoned wrecks that the high-tech
instruments were sent to probe during the past two weeks. These
included the British frigates Cerberus and Lark, which were ordered
scuttled when cornered by larger French warships that came to the aid
of America in 1778. The other two wrecks included a wooden barge, off
Prudence Island, believed to be carrying granite blocks and a more
modern steel ship.
During the week, information from the various undersea vehicles that
scrutinized the murky Bay waters was transmitted to a room at NUWC
equipped with computers and large monitors. There, operators sought to
instantly produce images of objects being studied and to create three-
dimensional maps of the underwater areas.
“The exercise is to see if we can use more technologies … to secure a
port as quickly as possible,” Schopfel said.
But other benefits include improved charts, detection of undersea
debris and abandoned fishing gear and archaeological discoveries.
“We found something that isn’t on the charts,” said Schopfel. “It is a
large piece of metal on the bottom.”
He showed yesterday’s audience numerous images of the sea floor that
showed ghostly, blurred objects and patterns. One, he said, was curved
and resembled an anchor while another was long and narrow and
metallic.
“Everyone is pretty much in agreement this is a cannon,” he said.
“The technology is very impressive and moves us forward in very
exciting ways,” Abbass said.
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