Finding shipwrecks is not easy. It is a combination of survivor reports, excellent archival research, a highly skilled team, top equipment and some good old-fashioned luck and that’s just what happened with the recent discovery of SS Iron Crown, lost off the coast of Victoria in Bass Strait during the Second World War.
At June, 1942 during World War 2 an Australian Ore Freighter SS Iron Crown was being sunk by Japanese Submarine. There were 43 crew members onboard out of which 5 survived and 38 were killed.
For many years different archeologists were trying to find out the shipwreck in the deep blue sea, but all in vain. After 77 years, in April, 2019 the Marine Archeologists of Australia started to search for it by using the equipments including a Sonar Equipment and a Special Drop Camera.
They used the CSIRO research vessel investigator to look for the shipwreck. They deployed multi beam echo sounder technology on a ship 1.2 meters below the sculpture. They got signals and measured the signals on the receiver.
On 16th April, 2019 they visited the site and noted that the multi beam was giving a feature of shipwreck. The measurement was 100 meters in length, 8 meter sitting at a water depth of 650 meters. This was the time to drop the camera in the water, which collected the footage of the SS Iron Crown. They matched the details with the archival photos with location, dimension and features, after which they concluded that the SS Iron Crown sculpture is founded.
SS Iron Crown was a 100 meter long Freighter, chartered by BHP to transport ore from Whyalla to Newcastle. According to the Archeologists, the survivors managed to grab life jackets, to jump clear of the ship and to grasp the wreckage until they were rescued by SS Mulbera.
According to the Voyage Chief Scientist Emily Jateff said that the shipwreck was found 100 km off the Victorian coastline. She said that it is an important discovery.
SS Iron Crown was an Australian ship built at the government dockyard at Williamstown, Victoria, in 1922. This ship was used for merchant purpose.