Press Release: Amelia Earhart Search

Press Release

October 19, 2000
For Immediate Release
Contact Person:
Lynn Jourdan 207.967.0666

Maryland Company Salvages Israeli Submarine

Hanover, Maryland - After resting on the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea for over thirty-two years, the bridge and conning tower of the Israeli submarine DAKAR was successfully raised and delivered to the naval base at Haifa on Wednesday, October 10th. Nauticos Corporation, an ocean exploration company based in Hanover, Maryland, located the DAKAR in the Mediterranean Sea in May 1999 at a depth of approximately 10,000 feet. Current operations conducted by Nauticos, under contract to the Israeli Government, and their subcontractor Phoenix International, Inc. of Arlington, Virginia, include conducting a forensic investigation to determine the cause of the tragic loss of the submarine and its crew of sixty-nine Israeli sailors.

The Sail recovered by Nauticos from the INS DAKAR

The DAKAR was a WWII “T-class” submarine built by the British, and sold to the Israelis after modifications, upgrades, and sea trials. In 1968, the DAKAR was en route to Haifa via Gibraltar on its maiden voyage for delivery to the operational fleet. During this transit, communications inexplicably ceased and the submarine was never heard from again.

Nauticos Corporation committed a combination of advanced, proven equipment and a highly qualified team of forensic, salvage, and operations experts to undertake this operation for the Israeli Navy. The Nauticos team was headed by Tom Dettweiler, who also served as the Operations Manager on the successful mission in May 1999 that located the Dakar. The operations team consists of ocean experts from Nauticos and Phoenix.

From Tom Dettweiler, Expedition Leader: "To be the first to stand on the bridge of DAKAR after 32 years, attaching lines to secure her to the deck of our ship for the final leg in the voyage home to Haifa, is a feeling I will remember forever. She rode into Haifa standing upright, and proud, the Israeli flag flying over her. These images will be with me for eternity. It took a skilled team of Nauticos and Phoenix people to complete such a lift from greater than 9000 feet, safely and securely."

Steve Abdalla, the Nauticos Project Manager, observed that, “It was quite an emotional experience to be a part of this recovery, especially after having been on board in May of 1999 when we made the initial discovery."

The recovery was conducted using a special synthetic rope, from a depth of 3,000 meters. The wreckage was 19 feet tall, 15 feet long and 9 feet wide, weighing over three tons. The controlled lift of this three ton section of the submarine and detailed photographic inspection of the site was conducted by the REMORA 6000, a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) owned and operated by Phoenix International. REMORA, capable of operating to a depth of 20,000 feet, is equipped with video and still cameras, as well as robotic manipulator arms.

The ROV attached two clamps to the very top of the bridge fin (also known as a sail). The top of this fin is the bridge, and it is from here that the submarine is commanded while on the surface. The ROV was positioned approximately 20 meters away from the wreckage after attaching these shackles, and then the towing winch aboard the ship took up the slack in the lift line. Once the line became tight, the crew could see, through the cameras of the ROV, the wreckage tilt from the horizontal position it had been laying for over 30 years, to stand upright. After another few minutes of taking up the remaining tension, the wreckage slowly lifted from a cloud of bottom sediment to begin the rise to the surface. Nine hours later, at the very stern of the support vessel, M/T Eas, the bridge fin emerged from the murky depths. It was 4:30 a.m., so the only light was from the deck lights of the M/T Eas, adding to the aura. A moderate sea swell caused the section to bob a bit before breaking the surface. The aft crane lifted the section out of the water for the first time in 32 years, hoisting the wreckage onto the deck just at the stern of the M/T EAS. The crane and lift line held the bridge fin upright as the Nauticos and Phoenix crews moved in to lash it down and prevent it from swinging or even worse…plunging back into the ocean.

A View Inside the Sail of INS DAKAR

Nauticos president, David Jourdan gave his thoughts regarding the operation: “Our team is proud to continue our work with the Israeli Navy and help to symbolically complete the DAKAR's voyage to Haifa. I hope that solving this mystery will provide some resolution for the families of the crew of the DAKAR.”

Nauticos will be featured on the Discovery Channel on December 20th in the documentary "The Search for the Japanese Fleet", chronicling the company's discovery of the Japanese aircraft carrier KAGA, sunk at the Battle of Midway in the Pacific in 1942.

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