I love my job! I don't say that in the "trying to convince myself" kind of way; I really do love my job! In my years at The Mariners' Museum in Newport News, Virginia, I have done some pretty cool things. Among the coolest are leading Elderhostel cruises on the Chesapeake Bay and "playing" maritime archaeologist when the USS Monitor's turret was recovered by NOAA and the US Navy and brought to the Museum in 2002. To learn more about the Monitor, visit The Mariners' Museum and The Monitor National Marine Sanctuary websites. But I digress. I am the Director of Education and Distance Learning Programs at The Mariners' Museum, but for the next week, I will be a member of the 2009 'Battle of the Atlantic' Remote Sensing Expedition crew.
Thousands of books have been written about the subject, but as a quick history review, the Battle of the Atlantic pitted German U-boats against Allied merchant ships during World War II. As U-boats patrolled the Atlantic and off the East Coast of the United States, shoreline communities went dark to eliminate the danger of back-lighting merchant ships and making them easy targets for German torpedoes. With huge losses of shipping and lives, Winston Churchill would state after the war, "The only thing that ever really frightened me during the war was the U-boat peril." And the losses were great on both sides.
During the month of August 2009, a number of institutions will participate in the 2009 'Battle of the Atlantic' Remote Sensing Expedition. We'll be approximately 30 miles southeast of Cape Hatteras Inlet, North Carolina. The objectives of the program are to "conduct a range of remote sensing activities on shipwreck sites associated with the Battle of the Atlantic during World War II." The primary goal with be to investigate the wreck believed to be U-576 and two additional sites including USS YP-389 and the Bluefields.
In future posts, I'll be sharing more information about the history of these ships and the expedition itself. But for now, I need to begin packing to leave for Woods Hole on Monday. Once we are at sea, I've been told that we should have sporadic internet access, so I'm hoping to be able to post videos and pictures. If not, they will appear upon my return. So stay tuned for more!.
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Fair winds Anne Marie and smooth sailing. Just remember to keep a keen eye out there, some of the U-Boats did not return . . . but I doubt that they are still hunting. Have fun and make it an exceptional, productive adventure. We'll look forward to your posts. Fran
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