Bajdek, Brennan

Ballard, Robert

Brennan, Michael L.

Catsambis, Alexis

Coleman, Dwight

Davis, Dan

Merrigan, Maureen

Moore, James

Roman, Christopher N.

Turanli, Tufan

Whitesell, Daniel

English

DigitalCommons@URI

University of Rhode IslandDigitalCommons@URIGraduate School of Oceanography FacultyPublications Graduate School of Oceanography2011Maritime History of ANZAC CoveMichael L. BrennanUniversity of Rhode Island, mobrennan@uri.eduDwight ColemanUniversity of Rhode Island, dcoleman@uri.eduSee next page for additional authorsFollow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.uri.edu/gsofacpubsPart of the Oceanography CommonsTerms of UseAll rights reserved under copyright.This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School of Oceanography at DigitalCommons@URI. It has been accepted forinclusion in Graduate School of Oceanography Faculty Publications by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@URI. For more information,please contact digitalcommons@etal.uri.edu.Citation/Publisher AttributionBrennan, M. L., Coleman, D., Roman, C. N., Turanli, T., Davis, D., Catsambis, A., Moore, J., Merrigan, M., Bajdek, B., Whitesell, D.,Ballard, R. (2011). Maritime history of ANZAC Cove. In K. L. C. Bell and S. A. Fuller (eds.), New Frontiers in Ocean Exploration:The E/V Nautilus 2010 Field Season. Oceanography 24(1), supplement, pp. 20-21.doi: 10.5670/oceanog.24.1.supplementAuthorsMichael L. Brennan, Dwight Coleman, Christopher N. Roman, Tufan Turanli, Dan Davis, Alexis Catsambis,James Moore, Maureen Merrigan, Brennan Bajdek, Daniel Whitesell, and Robert BallardThis article is available at DigitalCommons@URI: https://digitalcommons.uri.edu/gsofacpubs/16Ocean ExplorationNewFrontiers inThe E/V Nautilus 2010 Field SeasonVOL . 24 ,  N O. 1 ,  SUPPLE MENT |  M ARCH 2011g U E ST E d iTO R S | K AT H E R i N E  L . C .  B E L L  A N d S A R A H A .  F U L L E ROceanography20Maritime History of ANZAC CoveBy Michael L. Brennan, Dwight Coleman, Christopher N. Roman, Tufan Turanli, Dan Davis, Alexis Catsambis, James Moore, Maureen Merrigan, Brennan Bajdek, Daniel Whitesell, and Robert BallardThe entrance to Dardanelles Strait in the North Aegean Sea was the site of one of the greatest maritime battles of World War I. Mines sank a large number of warships dur-ing the Allied fleet’s attempt to storm through to Istanbul in March 1915, and U-boats sank others a few months later during the ANZAC (Australian and New Zealand Army Corps) landing on the Gallipoli peninsula (Rudenno, 2008). In 2009, the first expedition of Nautilus filmed and documented some of these wrecks for a National Geographic documentary. Hercules and Argus dived on HMS Irresistible inside Canakkale Strait, the submarine AE2 in the Sea of Marmara (Figure 1a), SMS Breslau outside the Dardanelles (Figure 1b), and HMS Triumph off Anzac Cove, where a landing craft from the battle was also filmed (Figure 1c). Battleships Irresistible and Triumph lie capsized on the seabed, while Breslau is upright with portions of its superstructure and guns still visible (Figure 1b). We also located and filmed a landing craft near Anzac Beach.During the side-scan sonar imaging survey of the World War I battle area, we found a circular feature on the seabed in close proximity to the Triumph wreck (Figure 2; page 17, Figure 4). Hercules explored this feature, which is made up of a ring of various-sized rocks with a small pile in the middle, visible in the lower right corner of Figure 2. The rocks are well rounded and partially encrusted by a muddy matrix, indicative of an erosional shoreface environment. While the exact nature and origin of this feature is unclear, the North Aegean Sea is an area where ancient settlements could be preserved, having been inundated by post-glacial sea level rise (Kraft et al., 1983). In July 2010, Nautilus returned to Anzac Cove and conducted a more comprehensive acoustic survey of this area. Approximately 30 of these stone features were found with side-scan sonar. Each varied in morphology, but all were roughly circular and measure about 40 m in diam-eter. In addition, we found all of these features at depths from 55 to 70 m within a 1-km radius of the Triumph shipwreck (Figure 3). This area of the Dardanelles and the Aegean shelf to the south was exposed subaerially during Figure 1. High-definition image captures of  warship wreck sites: (a) Australian submarine, AE2,  (b) light cruiser, Breslau, and (c) landing craft.abc21the Quaternary. The present-day seafloor represents an erosional surface created as the water level in the Aegean Sea rose (Gokasan et al., 2010). Anzac Cove’s substrate lies stratigraphically above the bedrock sill, which was eroded during the evolution of Çanakkale Strait; little sediment has built up here due to the swift currents associated with the strait. U-21 sank Triumph in May 1915. The U-boat’s captain, Otto Hersing, wrote in his log that his submarine was damaged by depth charges dropped by the destroy-ers protecting the battleship during the attack (Hersing, 1932). Such explosions on or above the seabed could have displaced the beach rocks that form the erosional surface and redeposited them, thus accounting for the multitude of features in the vicinity of the battleship wreck. Further investigations will include a closer examination with divers, as well as processing of subbottom profile data to image any geological structures of these features that may lie beneath the surface.During the survey of the cove, we observed and recorded an ancient shipwreck, dubbed Gallipoli A, south of Triumph. The wreck site consisted of a large mound of heavily concreted amphoras of Thasian or North Aegean type roughly dating to the Hellenistic period. The stacks of amphoras appear in part to remain in their original ori-entation, possibly held in place by the encrustations. The wreck was in good condition compared to other similar wreck sites in the Aegean (see page 15). Gallipoli A lies within 2.5 km of shore in an area where bottom trawl-ing is prohibited. This location, as well as the designated no-dive zone around the wreck of Triumph, have pro-tected the ancient wreck from damage. Trawl scars were observed with side-scan sonar farther out from shore during the survey, but this wreck’s fortunate location in close proximity to both the battle site and the coast illus-trate the tangible benefits of such fishing restrictions on submerged cultural resources.Figure 3 (above). Section of side-scan sonar mosaic showing Triumph shipwreck and positions of stone circle features to the southeast.Figure 2. image capture of side-scan sonar waterfall showing both the Triumph ship-wreck and a stone circle feature.Figure 4. High-definition image cap-ture of ancient shipwreck, Gallipoli A. Handles and mouths of amphoras are visible beneath the encrustations.

Maritime History of ANZAC Cove

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Maritime History of ANZAC Cove

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