Virtual Reality Project Documents World War II–Era Ship

NOTTINGHAM, ENGLAND—Live Science reports that a 3-D model of the British freighter SS Thistlegorm has been created by divers and archaeologists from the University of Nottingham and Alexandria University. The merchant ship was sunk in 1941 by German bombers while carrying Allied war supplies, such as tanks, train engines, trucks, and motorcycles to Alexandria, Egypt. The wreckage has since become a popular dive spot in the Red Sea, and has been damaged by dive-boat anchors and looters. “What we hope this website will do is help to monitor what is going on,” said marine archaeologist Jon Henderson of the University of Nottingham. “One of the basic things for finding out how sites have been damaged is to carry out a baseline survey such as this, and then we can start to chart changes over time.” The Thistlegorm Project will also allow non-divers to explore the wreckage. To read about exploration of another shipwreck, go to “All Hands on Deck.”