MONTEREY, California (22 May 2005) -- Imagine a 785-foot-long flying aircraft carrier that allows airplanes to take off, and has hooks to pull them back aboard when they return. Sound futuristic? Back in the 1930s one such contraption, a "rigid airship" called the USS Macon, hit strong winds and sank into the ocean off Point Sur in Monterey County. Researchers with the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary and other research groups went to sea this month to scope out the remains of the Macon as part of a year-long research project. Seventy years ago, 83 crew members on the Macon were returning from a mission when their dirigible ran into a storm off the Central Coast. Wind hit the ship hard enough to sever upper fins that were already damaged, according to Moffett Field Museum. The ship began to fall, and the crew jumped into life rafts. All but two escaped with their lives. The Macon has rested on the seafloor ever since. For researchers, the submerged wreck is not just debris trashing the ocean — it's a potential archeological resource. The sanctuary for years has focused on habitat and biological issues. Now it's turning its attention to cultural resources, the same way the National Parks Service might view a historic cabin on park land. There are at least 445 shipwrecks in sanctuary waters, and researchers had to make a choice. A plane-toting blimp stood out. "The Macon made it high on our list because there were so few of these ships to begin with," said Andrew DeVogelaere, research coordinator with the sanctuary. Researchers with the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute and the U.S. Navy used the institute's first remotely operated vessel and mapped two debris fields around the ship in 1990 and 1991. This month, explorers found more. "There's a whole other area with different parts of the wreckage," DeVogelaere said. The team also included members from the U.S. Geological Survey, Moss Landing Marine Laboratories, the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute and the Channel Islands Marine Sanctuary. Back in 1935, the Macon was considered a pretty high-tech craft. And decades later, researchers are using high-tech techniques to study it. The team used side-scan sonar to map the wreckage. A 224-foot ship, the McArthur II, pulled what is called a "fish" through the water. That "fish" is like a small yellow submarine that bounces sound off the seafloor. Sounds are reflected differently, depending on the type of surface they hit. A hard surface will record a darker image, for example, while sandy surfaces record a lighter one. A commission set up to determine the cause of the ship's demise concluded that the blame belonged not to the crew, but to the Navy's refusal to repair the Macon's tail damage before it was sent on its ill-fated mission. The Macon was the nation's last rigid airship. | | The Macon had a crew of 100 officers and men. With those rough images mapped, scientists will return next year to take photographs and precisely chart the condition of the wreckage. Eventually, the sanctuary wants to create an educational program around the Macon with a possible lecture series and Web classroom activities. "We want the public to view what we're viewing," DeVogelaere said. The Macon saga represents a unique part of American aviation history, as well as the Central Coast's past, said Tim Thomas of the Maritime Museum of Monterey. The museum opened an expanded exhibit on the Macon this week. The Macon was part of the military's "Lighter than Air" program. Of four blimps that were part of that effort, three crashed, Thomas said. In 1933, the Macon had flown to its new home at Moffet Field. The big hangar at the field that still is visible from Highway 101 was built for the Macon, Thomas said. The Curtiss F9C-2 Sparrowhawk airplanes were released via a trapeze and harness which lowered the planes through a T-shaped hole in the Macon's underside. Retrieving the planes, however was a difficult process. Like a performing air stunt, the pilots had to match their speed to that of the ship, and "catch" the trapeze with a hook at the top of the plane. The harness would then be attached to the fuselage, and the aircraft would be raised.For the next two years, area residents would commonly see the mammoth flying machine in the sky. "She was a flying aircraft carrier," Thomas said "Literally, it was the size of the Titanic." It could carry five Curtiss F9C-2 Sparrowhawk planes. Four of those crashed with the Macon. DeVogelaere said researchers hope their effort will bring that part of history to life for new generations. "It excites the imagination," he said. "It teaches people history, and it gives you a sense of exploration." |
