Anyone wonder how many Torps are still out in the ocean?

[SteamWake]

Originally Posted by perisher

A torpedo without its warhead is buoyant. I guess that in this case the torpedo was set to run shallow and hit the bottom. Over the years the warhead detached and / or part of the heavier machinery fell out and the torpedo body regained its buoyancy.

After laying on the ocean floor for some 30 years ?

Im a sailor and if theres one thing I know for certain... Water will find a way in.

[SteamWake]

Originally Posted by Briggsy

To be absalutly honest. a WW2 torp's should be the lest of your worries. when there is a ready made Nuke laying in the thames.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/essex/content/a..._feature.shtml

Experts feel that, if left alone, it and what remains of its dangerous cargo, will quietly rot harmlessly away.

See thats what Im sayin

[joea]

Originally Posted by Briggsy

To be absalutly honest. a WW2 torp's should be the lest of your worries. when there is a ready made Nuke laying in the thames.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/essex/content/a..._feature.shtml

Well that's hardly a nuke. Still enough explosive to be pretty darn like one.

[Chock]

This is a regular problem in and around the Skageraak, where many WW2 German subs were sunk. However, the more pressing problem being not so much the ordnance still kicking around, as the chemicals in the batteries leaking out when the wreck corrodes, means this is the source of a number of heated debates in surrounding countries, as to whether to raise the wrecks or seal them up, to prevent environmental damage.

Very occasionally some old mines turn up around the UK coast and these do present a real danger to shipping. This of course is also the premise for the Russian submarine movie '72 Meters', in which a WW2 mine floats up and is struck by a Soviet sub (not a bad submarine movie, if you can find a copy incidentally).

Living as I do in the NW of England, where the Luftwaffe did much of its business, UXBs turn up every now and again, and the nearby channel out of the Mersey into the Western Approaches is another favourite for turning up German air-dropped mines every once in a while. I'd not want to be on board the Irish Sea high-speed Seacat ferry if it hit one of those babies, that's for sure!

[SteamWake]

Originally Posted by Chock

as the chemicals in the batteries leaking out when the wreck corrodes, means this is the source of a number of heated debates in surrounding countries, as to whether to raise the wrecks or seal them up, to prevent environmental damage.

Typical.. heated debates over a few gallons of acid diluted into 10's of millions of gallons of sea water :rotfl: Frankly "sealing them up" would most likely do more damage than the acid itself.

On a side note did you know that the chemical make up of sea water is virtually the same within a few parts per million wether it be the pacific, atlantic, artic, or antarctic ?

[Kant Schwimm]

Fisherman dragged up a torpedo off the kent coast just last week, needless to they dropped it PDQ, bomb disposal took care of it.

(google BBC torpedo)


Think it was one of mine from my Atlantic missions:hmm:

[Sailor Steve]

Originally Posted by Gildor

[I guess there would be a time that this is not an issue back in history. What I mean is, for example, during the war of 1812 they probably did not have encased explosive shells. Didn't they just use cannonballs to cause kinetic damage. Or maybe they did have hollow balls that would explode with a fuse. SOmeone with more knowledge could probably enlighten us.

You're absolutely right, and wrong at the same time. Mortars apparently go as far back as the 1500s, but the first exploding cannon shell was made in 1823.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell_(projectile)

Not more knowledge, certainly, but knowing where to look.

[BlackSpot]

There's a sunken ammo ship from WWII in the Thames estuary. It's still full of ammo. Saw this on TV recently. It's a shipping hazard (masts still out of the water) and it's slowly breaking up.

[SteamWake]

Originally Posted by BlackSpot

There's a sunken ammo ship from WWII in the Thames estuary. It's still full of ammo. Saw this on TV recently. It's a shipping hazard (masts still out of the water) and it's slowly breaking up.

Uhhh read the previous page.

[Kaleu_Mihoo]

Originally Posted by Snuffy

That's nothing.

Here in the states where the American Civil War was fought, there are still people being killed by unexploded 19th century ordinance. (It's probably not as prevalent here as it would be on continental Europe, but the thought of artillery shells from the 1860s still being capable of exploding and killing someone boggles the mind!)

And having lived on the battlefield of Mechanicsville Virginia (during the 7 days battles), I've found plenty of spent .58 minis all over the place as well as fragments of exploded shells.

I once lived in a small city in Poland, very near to the Oder river, the last big terrain obstacle for the russian army before reaching Berlin and a place for fierce defensive fights of the Germans. Now you can imagine what would you find there with a simple metal detector . MG34s, 42s and such other "devices" , german and russian ammo, grenades, splinters etc. There were some accidents too, when people were trying to disarm a rusty shell etc.
My grandfather once digged up a *.* nazi badge like this one http://www.aganow.webpark.pl/nsdap.jpg in his garden, fortunately its owner wasn't found there also :rotfl:
greets

[nfitzsimmons]

Originally Posted by Gildor

Sorry Snuffy. I might have come across as being a "know-it-all." That wasn't my intention. It's still amazing though. Do they have rules for visitors at Civil war battle sites about dangerous areas because of unexploded ordinance? If that is the case, wow.

I guess there would be a time that this is not an issue back in history. What I mean is, for example, during the war of 1812 they probably did not have encased explosive shells. Didn't they just use cannonballs to cause kinetic damage. Or maybe they did have hollow balls that would explode with a fuse. SOmeone with more knowledge could probably enlighten us.

Keep in mind that the United States National Anthem lyrics, written by Francis Scott Key as he witnessed the siege of Baltimore, Maryland mentions, " The rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air."

Yes, they did have explosive ordinance then.

[SteamWake]

Originally Posted by nfitzsimmons

Keep in mind that the United States National Anthem lyrics, written by Francis Scott Key as he witnessed the siege of Baltimore, Maryland mentions, " The rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air."

Yes, they did have explosive ordinance then.

Heck they even had sumbarines ! Google USS Hunley

[bookworm_020]

IF you want a bigger boom than an unexploded torp, try this!

http://www.gunnies.pac.com.au/gallery/grand_slam.htm

She went boom alright!

[Cakewalk]

Originally Posted by SteamWake

How in the hell can a torpedo "float" ?

:rotfl:

And most likely the depth chambers stayed intact, even after more than 60 years. Once the warhead rusted or fell off, the rest of the torpedo must have been light enough to float up and away.

[Snowman999]

Originally Posted by fastfed

I was just thinking with the amount of "misses" Sub's and Uboats had, there has to be so many Torps still sitting on the bottom of the ocean ( LIVE )

I was on Guam in 1985 when a live WWII torpedo washed in and lodged in a reef. A USN EOD team went out in a Zodiac and blew it up. Looked like a fun job.