04 October 2016 : Jorge Russo and August Salgado
History and Archaeology of a Great War Episode
The actions of the U-35, off Sagres and Lagos on 24th of April 1917
The lecture was about a Great War episode not mentioned in the History books that brought the war to continental Portugal, away from the classic view of the Belgium trenches and African territories.
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The imperial German submarine U-35, commanded by Lothar von Arnauld de la Perière (1886-1941), left the naval base of Cattaro (Montenegro) heading for the busy merchantman rout around Cape St. Vincent, Algarve, South of Portugal. On the 24 of April 1917, she sunk 4 ships off Sagres and Lagos: 2 Norwegian steamers, 1 Danish steamer, and 1 Italian sailing vessel. |
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In 2014 CINAV – the Portuguese Navy Research Centre started the U35 Project, a historical and archaeological project on the episode. The U-35 project intends to research for the history of the episode, detect the multicultural and multinational footprint, and identify the wrecks alleged to correspond to the ships sank by the U-35 that day, something never done before.
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During 2014 and 2015, the U-35 Project has looked at various aspects of that episode. With a multibeam echosounder they looked 650 m deep for the Italian brigantine. In addition they have been able to trace relatives from the crews of the U-35 submarine and of one of the Norwegian steamers. They also developed and tested archaeo-graphic methods, 3D analogical models, and applied advanced biometrical recognition algorithms on the identification of a crew member of that Norwegian steamer. |
The U35 project can be viewed further on the website http://projectu35.wixsite.com/projectu35
Pictures used on this page were taken from that site with permission.
Jorge Russo was born in 1969, graduated in History from the Universidade Aberta in Lisbon and is a master's degree student at Faculdade de Letras da Universidade de Lisboa e Escola Naval. He is a researcher at the CINAV-PT Naval Research Centre, National Archaeology Society and the Australasian Institute for Maritime Archaeology, and APAI – Portuguese Industrial Archaeology Association member.
He publishes regularly in Portugal and abroad, primarily on contemporary nautical and underwater archaeological themes, mainly steam navigation. His main interest lies in archaeography and, as a rebreather trimix diver, in methodological approaches to the ship-to-wreck correlation in deep scuba diving environments. He has been involved in maritime and underwater archaeology since 2004 and was the founder and president of GEPS – Grupo de Estudos e Pesquisas Subaquáticas (Research and Underwater Studies Group). He was awarded the Nautical Archaeology Society’s Adopt a Wreck Award in 2013 and 2015 (With Augusto Salgado on the CINAV's U-35 Project) and the Portuguese Navy’s Jornadas do Mar award in 2012 e 2014.
He publishes regularly in Portugal and abroad, primarily on contemporary nautical and underwater archaeological themes, mainly steam navigation. His main interest lies in archaeography and, as a rebreather trimix diver, in methodological approaches to the ship-to-wreck correlation in deep scuba diving environments. He has been involved in maritime and underwater archaeology since 2004 and was the founder and president of GEPS – Grupo de Estudos e Pesquisas Subaquáticas (Research and Underwater Studies Group). He was awarded the Nautical Archaeology Society’s Adopt a Wreck Award in 2013 and 2015 (With Augusto Salgado on the CINAV's U-35 Project) and the Portuguese Navy’s Jornadas do Mar award in 2012 e 2014.
Captain Augusto Salgado was born in 1965 and graduated from the Portuguese Naval Academy in 1983. He has a PhD in Maritime History by the Faculdade de Letras, in Lisbon, since 2011. He is a researcher at CINAV - PT Naval Research Centre, member of the Academia de Marinha and of the Portuguese Military History Commission. His field of study is the Portuguese Naval History, mainly sixteen century onward and has published 3 books on this subject, plus several papers. In 2011 he won the award Prémio do Mar - Rei D. Carlos 2011 (Cascais).
He is also a keen underwater archaeologist enthusiast since 1996 and underwater photographer for over 30 years. Currently he is the co-coordinator of the project “The U-35 operations in the Algarve” that won the National Archaeology Society (UK) award “Adopt a Wreck Award 2015”.
He is also a keen underwater archaeologist enthusiast since 1996 and underwater photographer for over 30 years. Currently he is the co-coordinator of the project “The U-35 operations in the Algarve” that won the National Archaeology Society (UK) award “Adopt a Wreck Award 2015”.
