RESURGAM

:''This article is about one of the first mechanically powered submarines put to sea.'' '''Resurgam''' ''(Latin for “I shall rise again”) is also the motto for the city of Portland, Maine and was the one word on a famous wooden sign over a church door in Plymouth, UK during the blitz – now in granite.''
There were two '''Resurgam''' submarines, designed and built by Reverend George Garrett as a weapon to penetrate the chain netting placed around ship hulls to defend against attack by torpedo vessels. The first, built in 1878, was a 14 ft (5 m), hand powered, one-man vessel nick-named “the curate's egg” due to its shape. Its small size and one-man crew meant it would have been ineffective as a weapon. The second, ''Resurgam II'', was more easily compared with a modern submarine. It was 40 ft (12 m) long, 9 ft (3 m) in diameter and weighed 30 tons. It was powered by a steam engine with an underwater duration of 4 hours under power.
''Resurgam II'' was launched at Birkenhead on 26 November 1879. It sank on 25 February 1880 in Liverpool Bay, near Rhyl in Wales, without loss of life, while being towed to Portsmouth for evaluation by the Admiralty.
The wreck was discovered in 1995 by an experienced wreck diver, Keith Hurley while attempting to clear snagged fishing nets in 18 m (60 ft) of water.
It was designated under the Protection of Wrecks Act on 4 July 1996. The hull is intact although partially damaged and is at risk from illegal diving and trawling. After her discovery, the conning tower steering wheel was broken and portable items have gone missing.
In 1997 a project undertaken by the Archaeological Diving Unit and over one hundred volunteer divers coordinated by the Nautical Archaeology Society surveyed the structure of the hull and the colonising marine life and used remote sensing equipment to search for debris in the surrounding area.
The wreck is currently protected against further erosion by sacrificial anodes. Plans to raise her have so far not been fruitful.
''Resurgam '' was featured in the TV programme "Wreck Detectives" in 2004.

Contents

See also

References

See also

★ ''Plongeur''

References

★ Divernet article about discovering the submarine ''retrieved on 20 November 2006''

★ Fenwick, Valerie and Gale, Alison (1998), pp 143-144, ''Historic Shipwrecks, Discovered, Protected and Investigated'', Tempus Publishing Limited, ISBN 0-7524-1473-9.

★ Statutory Instrument 1996 No. 1741 Office of Public Sector Information. Retrieved on 2006 October 19.

★ Advisory Committee on Historic Wreck Annual Report 2005. Retrieved on 2006 October 6.

★ Wreck Detectives 2004