MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay (25 Feb 2004) -- Divers recovered a piece of the Nazi battleship Admiral Graf Spee from its watery grave off the coast of Uruguay on Wednesday, more than 60 years after it was sunk by its captain to keep it from falling into enemy hands. The Graf Spee sank nine commercial vessels in the Atlantic Ocean in late 1939 before it was badly damaged in the battle of the River Plate, one of the first naval clashes of World War II. It made port in Montevideo, but neutral Uruguay gave in to diplomatic pressure from Britain and ordered the Graf Spee out to sea, where the captain scuttled it with explosives to prevent the enemy from getting hold of the vessel. A group of private investors from Argentina and Germany aims to refloat the remains of the pride of the Nazi fleet and rebuild it on land as a museum. An international team of divers on Wednesday refloated the range finder, a component that held the first radar antenna installed on a warship. | | "I am looking at the range finder and it is just fabulous," project spokesman Alfredo Etchegaray said by phone from the diving site, 4 miles (7 km) out to sea from Montevideo. The ship lies in waters no deeper than 36 feet (11 meters). The diving team set about trying to raise the range finder earlier this month, but strong ocean currents and poor weather conditions hampered efforts. The 27 tonne find, which is 34 feet wide and 20 feet tall (10.5 meters wide and 6 meters tall), is now perched on the base of a marine crane, awaiting transport to shore. The team is studying how to lighten the Graf Spee so it can raise the ship's hull, which is in two pieces, one 490 feet (150 meters) long, the other 98 feet (30 meters) long. The divers hope to recover the remains of the pocket battleship -- a smaller, lighter version of a conventional warship -- over a period of three years. SOURCE - Reuters |
