THIS MONTH in 1917, the first Guinness merchant vessel, the WM Barkleywas torpedoed. It sank seven miles east of the Kish Bank off Dublin. Four crew died in the accident.
Divers have previously visited the wreck site, but this week saw the release of detailed images of the sunken vessel that were created from sonar data acquired by the Marine Institute's research vessel RV Celtic Voyager.
The WM Barkleyimages were generated as part of the Infomar programme (Integrated Mapping for the Sustainable Development of Ireland's Marine Resource), an extensive inshore seabed mapping exercise.
In 2010, data collected for Infomar revealed the shape of the broken vessel at the seabed.
“It lay from east-north-east to west-south-west on the sandy bottom, which had been scoured around the wreck by the strong prevailing currents into large hollows and ridges,” states a release from the Marine Institute, which runs Infomar jointly with the Geological Survey of Ireland.
Then a year later a towed sidescan sonar provided by the Moore Marine Group recorded more details of the wreck site, including deck features and complex sand wave structures.
"As the first Guinness-owned ship, the WM Barkleyplayed an important role in the story of the transportation of Guinness beer overseas," said Eibhlin Roche, Guinness Archivist. "It is exciting to finally know the exact resting place."
AND THAT'S NOTthe only interesting find from the sea being reported this week. A newly discovered virus found off the coast of Chile is a veritable giant, at least in viral terms. The virus, which has been called Megavirus chilensisof course, is 10 to 20 times wider than the average virus, the BBC reports.
"Its 1,259,197-bp genome is the largest viral genome fully sequenced so far," write the study authors in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.