Page 53: of Marine Technology Magazine (January 2018)

N-Sea Develops UXO Detection System

Subsea IMR provider N-Sea has launched Magsense, a vertical gradiometer array speci? cally designed for highly accurate Unexploded Ordnance (UXO) cam- paigns. Developed in-house by N-Sea, the system has been designed to collect and record high resolution data in magnetically noisy subsea environments and hostile conditions, delivering improved accuracy, ef-

Image courtesy of the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources ? ciency and safety in the detection of UXO.

Used in conjunction with a remotely operated tow vehicle (ROTV), the MagSense frame can be towed

Was Blackbeard through the water in ways previously not feasible, en- suring even the most uneven of terrain is tracked ac- an Avid Reader?

curately and consistently, N-Sea said.

What did Blackbeard and his pirate crew read on board Queen

Carousel Turns Over New Leaf for ESS

Anne’s Revenge?

Ecosse Subsea Systems (ESS) said it has reached an

Artifacts unexpectedly discovered in the wreckage of Black- agreement with a subsea contractor to buy back its beard’s sunken ? agship are helping researchers to determine if 800-ton carousel which can be deployed on a range the infamous pirate captain and his 18th-century crew were lit- of specialist subsea projects. The carousel was origi- erate and what sort of books they kept on board.

nally built and used on an offshore renewable project

While performing conservation work on artifacts recovered in 2014 after ESS identi? ed a supply chain issue sur- from the centuries old shipwreck, archaeological conservators rounding the availability of carousels required for re- with the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural newable and oil and gas work scopes. ESS also own

Resources’ Queen Anne’s Revenge Conservation Lab discov- complimentary cable lay tensioners (2x10 metric tons) ered 16 tiny fragments of paper – some still with legible printed as well as trenching equipment and have the option to text – in a ball of wet sludge lodged in one of the ship’s can- adapt or upgrade the capacity of the 800-ton carou- nons.

sel to 2,000 metric tons at their fabrication facility in

Although very few words were visible and the largest frag-

County Durham.

ment was only about the size of a quarter, conservators working to preserve the fragile paper were eventually able to identify

Aqueos Wins GoM Contract where they were from.

Aqueos Corporation was awarded a contract for a

Months of research revealed that the paper fragments were from large pipeline installation project located in the Gulf of the 1712 book, “A Voyage to the South Sea, and Round the

Mexico. Aqueos said the contract, which commenced

World, Perform’d in the Years 1708, 1709, 1710 and 1711,” a in December 2017 and will be completed in the ? rst voyage narrative by Captain Edward Cooke describing his ad- half of 2018, will support shallow-water pipeline in- ventures on the high seas.

stallations in water depths up to 100 feet. The work

Voyage narratives were popular in the late 17th and early 18th scope will utilize the Aqueos diving support vessel centuries, and the DNCR said books like the one found on (DSV) SPLASH, with surface dive teams utilizing its

Queen Anne’s Revenge would have been fairly common on jet propulsion and built in NITROX diving system.

ships of the time, yet archaeological evidence for them is ex- ceedingly rare as paper usually disintegrates very quickly under

SEAIOCMA Extends Cable Contract water, meaning the material is rarely found on shipwrecks – es-

Global Marine said its maintenance contract with pecially one that is 300 years old.

SEAIOCMA (South East Asia and Indian Ocean Cable “The historical record has several references to books aboard

Maintenance Agreement) has been extended for ? ve- vessels in Blackbeard’s ? eet, but provides no speci? c titles; this years, running to the end of 2022. The SEAIOCMA ? nd is the ? rst archaeological evidence for their presence on maintenance zone agreement, which is a cooperative

QAR,” the DNCR said. “This ? nd represents a glimpse into the club managed by 46 cable owners, provides the repair reading habits of a pirate crew,” of submarine cables that carry international telecom-

A display to showcase the ? nd is being planned as part of the munications traf? c. SEAIOCMA spans the area be- department’s Blackbeard 300th anniversary events during 2018.

tween Djibouti in the west, Perth in the south, Guam in the east and the northern tip of Taiwan. www.marinetechnologynews.com

Marine Technology Reporter 53

MTR #1 (50-63).indd 53 MTR #1 (50-63).indd 53 1/25/2018 10:56:18 AM1/25/2018 10:56:18 AM