Saturday 19 December 2009

Cryptozoologists are useful!

Cryptozoologists don’t just find monsters. They often find unknown species and even things that have been lost that are historically important. The late Robert Rines found several things in Loch Ness from ancient stone circles to this, a fitting memorial in some ways to his own tenacity and determination, like that of the pilots of WW2.

Extract from full article: Just over a year after the battle, R for Robert crashed into Loch Ness while on a training flight from RAF Lossiemouth on Hogmanay 1940 and remained lost until Nessie hunter Robert Rines discovered the wreckage while searching the bed of the loch. "When we found it in 1978, it was intact, but I went back in 1981 and the fuselage had been torn apart," Robin said. People had been trying to grapple for souvenirs, so we had to salvage it or lose it all together. I managed to get the backing of the National Heritage Memorial Fund and huge oil companies like Oceaneering International jumped at the chance to get involved. Had I actually had to pay for their services, it would have been about £20 million to recover her. "An aircraft had never been recovered from 70 metres before and I honestly don't think it could happen again because of cost." After 45 years beneath the loch, R for Robert was finally craned out of the water at Bona Lighthouse on 21st September 1985. "It was almost perfect," Robin added. "The people from Brooklands were astonished at the condition of the aircraft."

Source:http://www.inverness-courier.co.uk/news/fullstory.php/aid/11239/Saved_from_watery_grave,_plane_deserves_place_in_history.html

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