The Search for Amundsen; Mission (almost) Complete

Written by Rob McCallum - Thursday, 03 September 2009 15:28

Today marks the beginning of the end of the expedition as the Hugin is deployed for the last time. Together we have searched all six of the search boxes which is a tremendous achievement given the size and complexity of the expedition. Fine weather, fair seas and a hard working crew have combined to help the expedition achieve a 100% coverage of the search area, despite the retirement of Tyr during the early days.

As Hugin slips off the ship and into the chill waters of the Barents Sea, we gather to watch the familiar orange torpedo gather its bearings, calibrate it’s systems and then dive down out of sight and onto it’s programmed mission. We are all aware that the entire expedition comes down to this mission; the last cast of the die, one last spin of the wheel ...

Later, as Hugin is winched aboard and the technicians remove the hard-drive ready for downloading, I wonder what is inside this fantastic machines memory. Have we (Hugin) already discovered the wreck of the Latham? We will now have to wait 7 hours to download the data and to replay it back on our array of screens, scanning the moving ‘waterfall’ of sonar imagery one last time. Until then, Hugin alone knows what is down in the depths below us. This inanimate machine has recorded everything within the area around us and alone carry’s the secret. The sense of anticipation on board is palpable. As the Expedition Leader I am grateful that we have managed to search the entire search area without major mishap or severe delay. On the other hand however I would dearly love to find the Latham flying boat, in part to satisfy a personal curiosity, but mostly because I would like to see the hard work of the project proponents and contributors rewarded by what would be a very significant event.

This afternoon we are buzzed by an Orion aircraft from the Norwegian Air Force which drops gracefully our of a leaden sky of low cloud to salute Harstad and the search for Amundsen. Later, the new navy frigate KNN Otto Sverdrup passes by and pirouettes around Harstad on her way North to Spitsbergen. As always during long periods at sea, it’s nice to have company, if only temporarily.
We settle down for the evening meal. Afterwards we will watch process the data, assess targets and during the long night ahead, investigate the targets of interest. It promises to be an interesting night ...

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