Expedition to Baltic Sea Mystery

Expedition to Baltic Sea Mystery

© 2012 by Linda Moulton Howe

 

“In mid-May 2012, we are preparing an expedition with more
sophisticated sonars, cameras and other equipment to hopefully
determine what these strange objects are and if it is safe to try a dive to them.”

– Peter Lindberg, Co-Owner, Ocean Explorer, Stockholm, Sweden

 

Lower left:  197-foot-diameter unidentified structure is 275 feet
down on the floor of the Baltic Sea some 60 nautical miles from
nearest land between Sweden and Finland. Discovered on June 19, 2011,
on the last day of a treasure hunting expedition to find sunken wrecks,
a second smaller anomaly (upper right arrow) was also found 600 feet away.
Side scan sonar image © 2011 by Ocean Explorer X-Team, Sweden.

The red circle marks Stockholm, Sweden, facing the Baltic Sea, one of the largest
brackish seas in the world. The water is a mixture of fresh and salt waters, but only
about 35% as salty as the ocean. The Baltic waters are so murky that divers cannot
see more than a few feet. The basin between Sweden and Finland was formed
by glacial erosion. The Baltic Sea is about 1,600 kilometers (1,000 miles) long and
averages 193 kilometers (120 miles) wide, with depths ranging from
55 meters (180 feet) to the maximum depth of 459 meters (1,506 feet).

 

March 30, 2012  Stockholm, Sweden – The Baltic Sea is a good preservative. The salt content is low and there are no wood-burrowing organisms. Andreas Olsson, Head of Archaeology at the Swedish Maritime Museum, estimates there could be 20,000 ship wrecks on the Baltic Sea floor. “It’s like a ship wreck laboratory – the best in the world” where the cold, dark water has preserved sunken objects for centuries.

Two long-time divers who joined together in the mid-1990s to hunt for sunken treasure in shipwrecks at the bottom of the Baltic are Peter Lindberg and Dennis Asberg. They are co-owners of Sweden Ocean Explorer, a company devoted to searching for sunken shipwrecks and treasure, who call themselves the Ocean X Team.

L-R:  Peter Lundberg and Dennis Asberg, co-owners of Sweden
Ocean Explorer in their home city of Stockholm.

In 1997, the men discovered a Swedish sunken wreck that carried 2,500 bottles of champagne in well-preserved bottles that were once headed for the Russian Imperial fleet that flourished between 1869 and 1919. Collectors paid $13,000 a bottle.

1997 discovery of well-preserved cache of 2,500 bottles
of fine champagne once headed for the Russian Imperial fleet
that flourished between 1869 and 1919. Collectors paid
$13,000 a bottle. Image © 1997 by Sweden Ocean Explorer.

On June 10, 2011, 42-years-old Peter Lindberg and his partner, Dennis Asberg, set off on an expedition to find three shipwrecks on the bottom of the Baltic they knew had champagne, spirits and cognac originally destined for Russia. The ships had been sunk by German U-boats during the World War I. But after nine days of technical difficulties and changing boats, their search was still ongoing sixty miles from the nearest land when Peter noticed a very strange image on their side scan sonar.

Side scan sonar image of larger unidentified sunken object
first discovered on June 19, 2011, 275 feet down on the floor
of the Baltic Sea between Sweden and Finland. Side scan sonar
image © 2011 by Ocean Explorer X-Team, Sweden.

Theories about what the large, circular object could be range from a piece of asteroid; to an ancient archaeological structure; to 19th Century Russian warships built in circular shapes; a Soviet Cold War underwater base – or even UFOs. But the old Russian round ships were only about 30 meters across and historically were never known to be in the Baltic Sea. The unidentified circular object is twice that size – 60 meters or 197 feet in diameter.

19th Century illustration of Russian circular
ironclad ship, the Novgorod, in 1847.

Sonar images of the unidentified sunken object that Ocean Explorer released to the public provoked comparison to the Millennium Falcon spacecraft in George Lucas’s Hollywood Star Wars films, first released in May 1977.

Millennium Falcon spacecraft in George Lucas’s Hollywood
Star Wars feature films, first released in May 1977.

Side scan sonar image of 197-foot-diameter unidentified
sunken object first discovered on June 19, 2011, 275 feet down
on the floor of the Baltic Sea between Sweden and Finland. Side scan
sonar image © 2011 by Ocean Explorer X-Team, Sweden.

Peter Lindberg talked to me recently about the surprising discoveries and his current plan with Dennis Asberg to return in mid-May 2012 to the unidentified sunken objects with more and better gear to try now to determine what they are made of and what they might be.


Interview:

Peter Lindberg, Co-Owner, Ocean Explorer, Stockholm, Sweden:  “Suddenly when we were searching for one of the wrecks, this circle (unidentified circular structure 275 feet down on Baltic Sea floor) just showed up. My comment to the guys sitting around me was, ‘Hey, guys, we have a UFO!’  That, of course, was for fun, but anyway, it looked like a UFO. Then we checked the film we had recorded (with side scan sonar) and then we understood this is something very strange.

CAN YOU TALK ABOUT WHAT WAS GOING THROUGH YOUR MIND AND YOUR DISCUSSIONS WITH YOUR COLLEAGUES ABOUT WHAT THIS MIGHT BE?

The size of the circle is approximately 60 meters (197 feet) in diameter and the size of it when I saw it was the thing I understood this is nothing that can come from a ship or something. It’s too big for that.

THIS IS AN OBJECT THAT IS SOMEWHAT CIRCULAR ON THE BOTTOM OF THE BALTIC SEA BETWEEN SWEDEN AND FINLAND THAT IS 197 FEET. THAT IS LARGE. THAT IS ALMOST TWO-THIRDS THE SIZE OF A FOOTBALL FIELD DOWN THERE.

Yeah, exactly! You can place a jumbo jet over it and the jet would nearly fit inside the circle. Yeah, it’s very big! Many things about the circle are strange.

IS IT TRUE THAT YOU ALSO FOUND A SECOND OBJECT SOMEWHERE NEARBY?

Yes. We found the second object about 200 meters away from the circle.

WHEN DID YOU FIND THE SECOND OBJECT?

Just minutes later. Then we also have the track. It’s about 4,000 or 5,000 feet long (of sea floor pushed into long ridge as if from impact.)

Above:  197-foot-diameter circle-object; and below:
its 4,000 to 5,000 foot-impact-track outlined in green lines discovered
on the Baltic sea floor 275 feet down in side scan sonar images
taken on June 19, 2011. Images © 2011 by Sweden Ocean Explorer.

The second object is about 200 meters away from the larger circular object and it also has a track, but a much shorter track. But it’s going in the same direction as the big circle’s track.

Black pointer in upper right is aimed at the second object
“200 meters (656 feet) away from the larger circular object” that Peter
Lundberg describes as rectangular with “two arches.” Sweden Ocean Explorer’s
June 19, 2011, side scan sonar image photographed on computer screen.

And when we draw a line through the bases of both tracks, they cross at the same spot where the circle’s track starts – or ends. So it looks like the two objects have come from the same direction, from the same spot.

[ Editor’s Note:  The bottom of the Baltic Sea is like a dead zone – no currents. So the Ocean Explorer team thinks the “sand bars” or tracks near the objects must have been created by impact forces.]

WHEN YOU SAY TRACK, DO YOU MEAN THAT IT IS LIKE SOME SORT OF GOUGE ON THE BOTTOM OF THE BALTIC SEA WHERE THE BIG, ALMOST 200-FOOT-DIAMETER OBJECT MAY HAVE LANDED AND THAT YOU ARE LOOKING AT THE TRAIL OF WHERE IT SCRAPED TO THE POINT WHERE IT IS?

Yeah, it might be like that, absolutely. Or it could be some kind of  an old volcano or something. The sonar image – what I can understand from it – it does not look like that. But it can be that (volcano) as well. We don’t know really, but there are two tracks going to or from these two objects. The objects are not in the middle of the tracks. The tracks are either starting with the objects or ending at the objects. Both of the tracks are coming from the same spot and from the circle, it is about 1,600 meters away. And from the second object, it’s about 1,800 meters away. But when we draw a line from the objects to the tracks, they end up at the same spot.

THAT SPOT IS WHERE?

1500 meters south of the circle.

THAT WAS THE IMPACT SITE? AND THE OBJECT SLID TO THE POSITION THAT IT IS IN NOW? AND THE SECOND OBJECT ENDED UP IN THE POSITION THAT IT IS BECAUSE THERE WAS AN IMPACT AND BOTH OBJECTS SLID ON THE BOTTOM OF THE BALTIC SEA?

If it is an asteroid and when it hits the water, it is coming very, very high speed. And when it hits the water, this asteroid breaks up into two pieces. The smaller one flies away a little bit, but the larger one as we see now – the circle – it’s going through the water body with such high speed, it is a pressure wave going through the water down on the bottom and the track is because of that. And then the circle ends up where it is now.

The second object, the smaller one, when this object hits the water and the smaller object flies away a bit further on. Then it hits the water and sinks down. So I think in that case, the track is there because it has been a pressure wave through the water that has made the track.

CAN YOU TALK ABOUT BOTH OBJECTS?

Yes, we have the first object, the circle. It’s round, but if you zoom in you will see that there are some kind of objects that are very squared. It’s not natural formation on the bottom.

 

Second Object with Two Arches

Second unidentified object about 200 meters (600 feet) from the larger,
circular object that Peter Lundberg says has two arches (black pointer)
on a somewhat rectangular box-like structure. Side scan
sonar image © 2011 by Ocean Explorer X-Team, Sweden.

The second object is about 200 meters away – or 600 feet. It is about 120 feet across, but it is not round. It is like a rectangular box. But the top of it is like two arches put together. It looks like a church window – Gothic church window.

And if they (both objects) were in one body from the beginning – we don’t know, but I mean it might have been like that.

THAT THE RECTANGULAR OBJECT WITH THE ARCHES MIGHT HAVE BEEN SOMEHOW CONNECTED TO OR INSIDE OF THE LARGER ROUND OBJECT?

Yeah, exactly. The circle is broken up on one side. I mean it might be that the other object – the smaller rectangular shaped one – is a part that has been there in some way. There were a lot of disturbances when we passed that.

DO I UNDERSTAND THAT AS YOU WERE APPROACHING THE SECOND OBJECT THAT’S NOT ROUND, BUT HAS STRUCTURE TO IT, THAT YOU HAD SOME KIND OF MAGNETIC DISTURBANCE IN YOUR EFFORT TO PHOTOGRAPH IT?

Yes. I don’t know if it was magnetic disturbances, but there was quite a lot of disturbances and it is because of the waves. But when we passed the second object, there were lots of disturbances.

PETER, IF THESE OBJECTS WERE MADE OUT OF METAL, WOULD YOU KNOW THAT FROM STUDYING THE SIDE SCAN SONAR?

No, we can’t tell if they are of metal or not. What we can say is they are hard because we have an echo on the other side of the side scan sonar. That is because when the sonar waves or pulses hit this object,  the sound waves or pulses are bouncing back very hard so you get the echo on the other sound. So it might be a hard gravel or sand or rock – maybe even metal – but we can’t tell what it is.

DO YOU HAVE A SPECULATION ABOUT WHAT THE TWO OBJECTS ARE MADE OF AND WHAT THEY MIGHT BE?

(laughs) Well, I never seen something like this. The only thing I have to rely on is are the sonar images. So I don’t know more than anyone else.

The second thing is that I’m not a UFO believer, so I have a very hard time to believe that this is something that is coming from outer space. It might be an asteroid or comet or a natural thing. I don’t know.

BUT YOU SAID THAT YOUR VERY FIRST REACTION WAS, ‘THIS LOOKS LIKE A UFO.’

Yeah, it did. But I don’t believe in UFOs. (laughs)

CAN YOU TALK MORE ABOUT WHY YOU THINK IT’S ARTIFICIAL?

Because when you look at the structure, the sides are not completely straight. When we take the disturbances away (with computer enhancement), they are completely straight lines. It looks like some kind of buildings or squared boxes. Then we have these thinner lines going through the circle. These are also straight when we take disturbances away. It’s very, very strange!

DO THE OBJECTS BOTH APPEAR TO BE INTELLIGENTLY CONSTRUCTED – NOT NATURE?

I have to put it like this: It is nothing as I have natural things before. It looks like because of all  the straight lines and very circular shape of the circle, I would say that, Yeah, if it is natural, it is very, very strange. It would fit more if it is made by someone. I have difficulties to see that we have found something that is fallen down from space, which is not manmade, but  made by someone else (extraterrestrial). So I’m trying to find natural explanations regarding this as well.

 

Mid-May 2012 Return Expedition
to Perhaps Solve the Mystery

WHAT ARE THE NEXT STEPS TO GET DOWN THERE CLOSE AND TO DO IT WITH CAMERAS AND GETTING UP CLOSE ENOUGH TO DO SOME TESTING WHERE YOU MIGHT BE ABLE TO FIGURE OUT WHAT THESE ARE MADE OF AND WHAT THEY ARE?

Yeah, the next step is we are preparing an expedition to go out in mid-May. We will bring quite sophisticated equipment with us so we can get 3-dimensional images of the bottom. We will have something called a sub bottom profiler that will penetrate through the layer of clay down to bedrock so we can see if it is something natural – if it is something that has gone through the bedrock like a gas well or something like that?

We will have more sophisticated sonar with the cameras and we will take bottom water samples to find out if there is anything poisonous down there. Maybe we will dive on it if  we think it’s necessary. The thing is it is very bad visibility in the Baltic Sea. A diver can’t see much more than two feet or something in front of him.

WHY IS THAT?

Lots of sediment in the water. We have to find out first if it is something poisonous. It might be left over from the World Wars – maybe mustard gas or something more horrible down there. So, it is a very difficult and technical kind of diving and it is very risky. The risk is visibility, the darkness, the coldness and going down there not knowing what the diver will find. That might lead to a diver’s death and we don’t want that.”

To contact Peter Lundberg and Dennis Asberg at Sweden Ocean Explorer, Stockholm, if you are interested in contributing to their expedition expenses or participating as a paying passenger in a 12-seat submarine if economically feasible:

– Website:  www.oceanexplorer.se

– Email:   [email protected]


More Information:

For further reports about underwater mysteries, please see reports below from Earthfiles Archive.

• 10/05/2003 — Part 2 – Cuban Megaliths and the Atlantis Question
• 09/24/2003 — Part 1 – Update On Deep Water Megalithic Stones and Structures Near Western Cuba
• 07/10/2002 — Update About Cuba Underwater Megalithic Research
• 12/28/2001 — Images from Cuban Deep Water Megalithic Site
• 12/15/2001 — Are Carolina Bay Craters Linked to Atlantic Ocean Impact and Sinking of Atlantis?
• 12/01/2001 — 1200 B. C. – What Caused Earthquake Storms, Global Drought and End of Bronze Age?
• 11/19/2001 — Update on Underwater Megalithic Structures near Western Cuba
• 06/13/2001 — Update on Mysterious Deep Water Sonar Images Off Western Cuba
• 05/18/2001 — Underwater City Reported Off Western Cuba


Websites:

Ocean Explorer X-Team Sweden:  http://oceanexplorer.se/

Baltic Sea:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baltic_Sea

Imperial Russian Warships:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_monitor_Novgorod

CNN:  “Shipwreck hunters stumble across mysterious find”:
http://www.cnn.com/2012/01/28/world/europe/swedish-shipwreck-hunters/index.html

“Divers find large, unexplained object at bottom of Baltic Sea,” Jan. 26, 2012:
http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow/video-divers-large-unexplained-object-bottom-baltic-sea-161749619.html

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