- Author
- Gregory, Mackenzie J.
- Subjects
- Ship histories and stories, History - WW2
- Tags
-
- RAN Ships
- None noted.
- Publication
- June 2001 edition of the Naval Historical Review (all rights reserved)
I believe that should one even think about the ocean bottom, you tend to regard it as smooth and generally flat, as it was, when as a child, you paddled in the warm shallows on your visits to the seaside.
Of course this fantasy is erroneous, some of the ocean bed is made up of rough ridges, and even an Everest type mountain exists under the surface of the world’s oceans.
Sound Ocean Systems in turn contracted Meridan Sciences to undertake a computer-assisted recalculation of all the US Navy’s Task Force movements on that night of the attack on I-52 back on June 23, 1944.
Early in 1995, the Russian research vessel Yuzhmorgeologiya was in Long Beach, California, available with her crew of 50 for charter. In April of that year, she was chartered by Sound Ocean Systems and sailed for the I-52 site in the Atlantic. On arrival, she commenced a day/night scan of the search area, but the Allies position of their attack on I-52 did not agree with the one plotted from the position given by the German U-Boat Captain, there was a difference of several miles.
Several days passed scanning the ocean floor, all of them totally abortive. Tidwell and the Russian crew were very frustrated at the lack of results.
Meridian Sciences, called in by radio, they had reappraised all available data, and now suggested a revised position for the whereabouts of I-52.
This new site was scanned over a few more days, still an empty screen, then to everyone’s delight, a distinct image appeared, the secret hiding place of the sunken Japanese submarine I-52 was no more, she had been found! Both the Allied and German positions for I-52 had been out, but Meridian’s replotting of all data had produced a new position that proved to be less than a half mile from her actual location.
Larry Barbernell, another Texan gold seeker claimed that Tidwell took research that was his exclusively, and stated he would seek a restraining order to stop any salvage attempts, and the Japanese Government also raised objections, indicating that they considered the wreck site was a war grave. Tidwell did not appear to be overly concerned on either count.
It now took three years to raise enough money to mount another expedition, and, in 1998, once more Tidwell returned to the I-52 site, and on November 21 descended with two Russian pilots in a steel hulled submersible MIR 2, a sister vessel MIR 1, also descended on the wreck site to lay transponders so that artifacts could be plotted on a grid.
A metal box from the sea bed was brought to the surface, it was hoped it would contain some of the sunken gold, but when opened in a secure place on board the research ship, disappointment once more, no gold, but opium, and it was dumped overboard. During another dive on I-52, Tidwell took down a Japanese Naval Ensign and fixed it to the wrecked submarine. In 1999, he visited Japan and met with some of the relatives of those killed when I-52 sank. The lure of gold from I-52 has left behind a trail of unpaid bills, and investors who have lost their money.
The extreme pressure existing at 3 miles plus, down below the surface of the Atlantic has safeguarded this Japanese gold; it remains unreachable, and may never be recovered.