pcolaboy
Hero Member
First of all...I must eat crow a bit for promising a "Flood of Side Scan Images" in my post last week. I did get my new Humminbird 987c SI unit installed with the side imaging feature last week as expected. However, my initial attempts at imaging were not very good to be honest mostly due to lack of experience with the proper settings, techniques, etc. Thankfully, forum member RGECY also uses this same unit and gave me some great advice.
Therefore, this evening I went out to give his advice a try. Lo and behold I was able to get much better images of the objects I previously attempted and I even obtained one that was most unexpected. While checking on some areas of interest that I found years ago with a convential fish finder, I stumbled on the wreck below.
The above image 'clearly' shows the outline of a large ship with the stern being at the lower left and bow towards the upper right. As you will notice, the range setting for the side imaging was at 280 feet out from the right side of my boat which barely captures the entire image. The vessel appears to be sunken in the mud with the starboard edge being down deeper. The true dimensions of the ship is most likely smaller due to the nature of the sonar reflectivity at this range. This image was actually on my second pass. The image below was actually what first alerted me to something very large and was imaged from the opposite side and direction.
The image above was made at a range setting of only 110 feet out from the right of my boat and is a bit distorted due to the wake of a passing boat as the sonar returns were being received. I believe this to be the bow area.
There are no indications of a wreck on any nautical charts for this area going as far back as 1857. However, this location is not in an area that modern deep-draft vessels should venture either.
My buddy and I will be diving on this wreck later in the week and we are probably going to be taking out the u/w video camera tomorrow night to drop over the side and see what kind of vessel it is.
I setup a gallery on this website for all to see. There are some other items that I imaged as well.
Pcolaboy
Therefore, this evening I went out to give his advice a try. Lo and behold I was able to get much better images of the objects I previously attempted and I even obtained one that was most unexpected. While checking on some areas of interest that I found years ago with a convential fish finder, I stumbled on the wreck below.
The above image 'clearly' shows the outline of a large ship with the stern being at the lower left and bow towards the upper right. As you will notice, the range setting for the side imaging was at 280 feet out from the right side of my boat which barely captures the entire image. The vessel appears to be sunken in the mud with the starboard edge being down deeper. The true dimensions of the ship is most likely smaller due to the nature of the sonar reflectivity at this range. This image was actually on my second pass. The image below was actually what first alerted me to something very large and was imaged from the opposite side and direction.
The image above was made at a range setting of only 110 feet out from the right of my boat and is a bit distorted due to the wake of a passing boat as the sonar returns were being received. I believe this to be the bow area.
There are no indications of a wreck on any nautical charts for this area going as far back as 1857. However, this location is not in an area that modern deep-draft vessels should venture either.
My buddy and I will be diving on this wreck later in the week and we are probably going to be taking out the u/w video camera tomorrow night to drop over the side and see what kind of vessel it is.
I setup a gallery on this website for all to see. There are some other items that I imaged as well.
Pcolaboy
-Ben
