Seabed Constructor is a deep-sea exploration vessel that has yet again made it to the news for the second time in less than a year. Why? Seabed Constructor was able to discover another missing submarine!
The civilian vessel was able to find the remains of Minerve – a French attack submarine. The discovery comes about eight months after the Seabed Constructor found the wreck of the Argentine submarine, San Juan. The ship makes use of onboard sensors coupled with sea vehicles that can be operated remotely for mapping and discovering objects that are on the seabed floor.
Minerve was a 980-ton diesel-electric submarine that was lost about fifty years ago in the Gulf of Lion. Gulf of Lion is a huge bay that is located between the coastlines of Spain and France in the Mediterranean Sea. The submarine had fifty-two members and was lost while carrying out a training mission. The Seabed Constructor found the submarine in 2,370 meters of water in three pieces that were located about 27 miles off the coast of Toulon, France. The first three letters of the name, Minerve, were clearly visible on the wreck’s hull.
Seabed Constructor was also able to discover the remains of the ARA San Juan back in November 2018. San Juan had disappeared in November 2017 and 44 crew members on board. Seabed Constructor is operated by Ocean Infinity that is based in Texas. The ship is 377 feet long and is technically defined as a ‘multi-purpose offshore vessel.’ The ship collects ‘seabed intelligence’ as per the company by making use of robotic surface craft, HUGIN robotic submarines.
The robotic fleet of Seabed Constructor works in formations and is capable of covering a huge area of ocean in a short span of time. The ship can also rely on two larger remotely operated vehicles for carrying out an investigation of objects that it finds of interest on the seabed floor and can even raise objects that weigh 45 tons from 20,000 feet of water easily. The last reported location of the ship was Isla de Alboran, located off the coast of Morocco.
