MOSCOW, Russia (25 August 2004) -- Russian scuba divers, with a little help from a state-of-the-art robot, have reached the wreck of a famous icebreaker that has lied untouched for 70 years at the bottom of Russia's far-northern Chukotsky Sea, RIA Novosti news agency said. The scientific ship Akademik Lavrentyev left the Arctic port of Anadyr, on Russia's Chukotsky peninsula, last week to reach the spot where the Chelyuskin icebreaker sank in 1934 after becoming trapped in ice. According to Yevgueny Kupavykh, who heads the scientific expedition, the shipwreck lies 50 meters (165 feet) under the sea, 155 miles from Cape Severny and 144 miles from Cape Uelen, RIA Novosti said. Kupavykh said that the expedition's scuba divers were trained to work in extreme conditions as the temperature of the water around the wreck hovered the freezing point. A state-of-the-art robot operated by remote control and equipped with video cameras and scanners was also used to explore the wreck of the Cheliuskin. According to Kupavykh, more information will be available after the expedition's return to Anadyr, planned for Tuesday. | | The icebreaker Chelyuskin left the port of Murmansk in July 1933 to explore Russia's far northern waters. But it soon became trapped in an icefield in the Chukotsky Sea and drifted with the ice for seven month before finally sinking in February 1934. Some 100 passengers, including a two-year-old child, managed to flee the sinking ship and spent three months in a tent built on the ice before being rescued in a spectacular airlift. No one died in the incident. SOURCE - AFP |
