Bidding farewell to the Bismarck

Rob White reports

Today we said farewell to 'Bismarck'. On a gently rolling sea, we brought back the ROV from its journey to the bottom of the Atlantic depths.

Filming with the splash bag

Even despite the relative calm, getting this system back on board is not a task to be taken lightly -not when you've got heavy equipment like this.

The system is in fact in two parts: the 'depressor', which weights the long cable from the ship down to stop it yanking at at the ROV while it's floating in the ocean depths (and converts the ROV's signal to get it back up that long wire); and the ROV itself.

The depressor weighs a ton, the ROV more than twice as much - and neither is to be trifled with as it comes back on deck.

Meanwhile Gary and our cameraman Mike Robinson took one of our cameras for a dip. You DEFINITELY shouldn't try this at home unless you've got what they've got - a 'splash bag'. This is a zipped-up waterproof container which enables you to put the camera in the sea.

Heading north

You can operate it too, and it floats. But it's still a difficult task in a boat rising and falling by a metre or two as you try to get the shot right.

By evening, we were well on our way - 9 knots, heading North-North-West, to our next task: find and film the wreck of what was once Britain's greatest warship: the mighty 'Hood'.



More picture of the Bismarck are available in the gallery section.

Real video footage of the ship is available in the video clips section.