A big torpedo discovered on the Scapa Circulate seabed has been destroyed after a daring three day mission by Royal Navy divers. The machine was initially found throughout a routine survey within the waters off Orkney final week with a 100 metre exclusion zone instantly put in place.
A five-strong Explosive Ordnance Disposal group travelled 400-miles north from their base at Faslane to succeed in the scene on Friday. Charlie Squadron’s Chief Petty Officer (Diver) Roy Edwards informed how the mission was made harder because of the explosive mendacity perilously near an oil pipeline.
He mentioned: “It was a difficult job. The suspected ordnance was positioned 210 metres from an oil pipeline and the climate was additionally a difficulty with a sea state 2-3 and wind gusting at 20 knots. The torpedo was very degraded, and we wanted to maneuver it to a secure location, away from the pipeline, earlier than it may very well be safely disposed of.
“It was a fragile job.”
The three-day operation was damaged down into a number of phases. After diving, finding, and marking the torpedo, the group subsequent connected straps and used underwater lifting tools to lift it fastidiously to the floor.
The torpedo was then towed some 4 kilometres to a brand new location properly away from underwater cables, pipelines, and fish farms. Lastly, simply after 5pm on Sunday, the divers carried out a managed underwater explosion to get rid of the ordnance.
The torpedo was badly degraded which means specialists had been unable to definitively establish it, nonetheless, it's believed to be a Mark 8 torpedo which first entered manufacturing within the Twenties.
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