Confidence

[Thomas Carl Cofield]

Based on my review of the evidence you have gathered to date, I have great confidence that you are on to it, i.e., finding the real site and moving toward solving the mystery. Do you have plans to leave persons behind to secure the site , or is that necessary in view of the remoteness ? Have you thought far enough ahead about plans to show the artifacts?

[richie conroy]

would u want to be left at gardner, as nice as it looks i certainly wouldn't  :) 

[Thomas Carl Cofield]

Excellent point, Mr. Conroy. I've heard of people offering to do stranger adventures (eg. Magellan; Neil Armstrong); so one never knows. This is a pretty interesting  journey here. I just have a feeling the mystery, or at least some of it, is about to be resolved.

[richie conroy]

fingers crossed just hope the plane is not badly beaten up, so bad that little pieces are spread down reef face in little segments and are dismissed  :)

[Martin X. Moleski, SJ]

Based on my review of the evidence you have gathered to date, I have great confidence that you are on to it, i.e., finding the real site and moving toward solving the mystery. Do you have plans to leave persons behind to secure the site , or is that necessary in view of the remoteness ? Have you thought far enough ahead about plans to show the artifacts?

Niku VII is a "look, but don't touch" expedition.

I'm not conscious of any plans for a museum exhibition.  Our late oceanographer, Howard Alldred, thought the plane would have probably have been turned into aluminum sand by now.  I don't think anyone in TIGHAR expects to find much more than bits and pieces--if we're lucky!   :(

[Jay Burkett]

Marty,

From what I have seen of WWII era aircraft that have been found in tropical waters over the past few years (photos from scuba divining magazines, Nat Geo, etc.) they tend to remain relatively intact if they are out of the surf zone.  The Devastator in the Jaluit Lagoon is a good example.  Would it not be reasonable to find rather large portions of the aircraft covered with coral and marine growth, but, otherwise rescognizable as not being part of the natural landscape?  This would seem to be the case the deeper the parts came to rest as the reef coral and vegitation growth becomes less as you go deeper.  Do we have a good reason why the assumption can be made the the surviving bits and pieces are going to be small?  You have aroused my couriosity!

Jay

[Chris Johnson]

Jay,

many WW2 air craft are to be found in the more sheltered Lagoon situation such as the one you mention.

The Electra would have been washed over the reef edge on the seaward side on Niku where it would be prone to the actions of tide and storms, see the Norwich City Wreck.

[C.W. Herndon]

Jay, here is Marty's latest overhead picture of the Norwich City wreck.

[Chris Johnson]

In 1937 it looked just like any old ship, see this photo taken by the NZ survey Norwich City

[Andrew M McKenna]

Marty says:

"Our late oceanographer, Howard Alldred, thought the plane would have probably have been turned into aluminum sand by now."

I've disagreed with Howard on several of his thoughts, and this is one of them.  I don't think we've ever found evidence to support this notion that the aircraft was largely ground up and distributed as sand down current.


"I don't think anyone in TIGHAR expects to find much more than bits and pieces--if we're lucky!"

I for one am willing to go out on a limb and say that I think that there will be large sections of the electra found.  While pieces of it may be torn off during the landing, or afterwards, I imagine that once the main body was floated off the reef by the rising tide / wave action, the destruction would have largely stopped leaving substantial portions intact to be found, hopefully by side scan sonar during this expedition.

Looking forward to finding out if I'm right.   :-)

Andrew

[Bruce Thomas]

We've been seeing that KAP picture of SS Norwich City a lot recently.  I think it was taken on Niku V in 2007.  Comparing it to the older pictures of the shipwreck does give one pause about the power of the relentless ocean pounding.

Two other things just struck me this time around. 

First, the smallish round objects remind me that when the Wheel Of Fortune was first seen in 2002 near Tatiman Passage by Dr. Greg Stone, the shipwreck was suggested as a possible source of an object that just happened to look like an aircraft wheel.

But the second thing, which jumped out at me, is that the reef surface is bone dry in a lot of places with all that "stuff" lying about in the tropical sun.  Some people seem to continue to pooh-pooh the idea of the reef serving as a suitable landing surface for an airplane in 1937.  They can't seem to conceive of that, but this picture communicates the idea quite well.

[C.W. Herndon]

Well said Bruce! That is the first picture I have seen of the reef when it was completely dry.

I also was amazed at how many "light colored" objects show up in the picture that are obviously parts from the ship wreck. And after all those years.

[Dave Potratz]

Andrew wrote:
"I for one am willing to go out on a limb and say that I think that there will be large sections of the electra found."

Agree. I would join you out on that limb, sir, for the insightful reasons you state.
dp

[Greg Daspit]

http://tighar.org/Publications/TTracks/2010Vol_26/find.pdf
This is an interesting article of what might be expected to be found in 2010.

Are they going to announce anything right away if they find something definitive?
Or have they agreed to hold any historic news until after the Discovery show?

[Tom Swearengen]

Andrew---it needs to be a pretty stout limb---I there with you, as are a bunch of us.
Tom