The UK's Finest Independent Forum for Shooters and Gun Owners. Est 2010.

Just sitting this morning at breakfast looking at colour photos of what looks very much like a Merlin engine, 27.5 metres below me on the sea bed.
We are 18 km off the Norfolk coast and the sea bed survey is covered with UXOs (thanks to the US airforce shedding on return run I think). Any way, the ones we are going over get ID'd by ROV in case they are near or on the surface .
This one turns out to be an aircraft engine and the side we can see seems to have 6 cylinders, so could be a V12.
Anyway I think it could be a Merlin, what it was attached to is either rotted away or under the sand but there aren't any traces from survey. It could have been from a Lancaster, spitfire or more likely a Hurricane. I googled and even the Mustangs used them made by packard in the US. There is a bit of prop sticking out of the sand.
We don't disturb this as it is classed as an archeological site. We dont disturb the others as they can blow up. We are ploughing a furrow and laying a cable into it at the same time so it is important not to plough through a 1000lb bomb , well it is important for me!
Can't put a photo in (intellectual property or some such)
Still, wonder who was in control of that engine before it went down over 70 yrs ago.

Humph, a picture would have been interesting.

I will ask !

The Norfolk coast is littered with stuff-I can remember back in the 70's the amount of times we watched the bomb disposal folks turning up on the beaches around Mundesley to cart something away-there were always mines washing up! My dad and a few friends dug out the undercarriage struts and wheel from a Lancaster that had been sitting in Blakeney harbour for years. The sands are always shifting there and this chunk of history became exposed,managed to put holes in the hulls of a few sailing boats so had to be removed. Not sure where it went to but I will try and find out.

Finally
all data has been removed to avoid any problems.

Thank you for that, very interesting. Do you know if any previously unknown vessels are ever found in such surveys?

I am sure they are but I have not been on a project when a vessel has been found. We survey a very narrow corridor but I did spend some time off liverpool looking at a big UXO that turned out to be a fridge freezer !!
We put cables in but the turbine installers do wider surveys cos they dont want the spud cans (legs of a jack up vessel) crushing a 100lb bomb - that would be a bad thing!
wooden vessels would not show up probably but cannons would.

That's interesting - pity we can't see more. So what have we got? Pairs of pushrods sticking up? Are those air/exhaust holes? Is it a cylinder block with the head removed? Is that a hint of a supercharger at the back? Is it a 1960's Ford Zodiac?

The Merlin was use in loads of stuff, Mosquitoes, Halifax, Wellingtons, etc. around forty types in all and also the Packard copy used in the MTB's.

Bloody hell, my dad had a zodiac in the 60s when I was a nipper, cant remember the feeling of a supercharger kicking in.....plus it was either the best Thelma and louise suicide jump in history or the worst ferry ride if it is a car !!

1066 wrote:That's interesting - pity we can't see more. So what have we got? Pairs of pushrods sticking up? Are those air/exhaust holes? Is it a cylinder block with the head removed? Is that a hint of a supercharger at the back? Is it a 1960's Ford Zodiac?

The Merlin was use in loads of stuff, Mosquitoes, Halifax, Wellingtons, etc. around forty types in all and also the Packard copy used in the MTB's.

Looks like the alloy head and most of the alloy cylinder block has corroded away, leaving the cylinder liners and cylinder studs sticking out.