Navy dolphins discover rare 19th-century Howell torpedo off San Diego coast
Video at link: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/navy-dolphins-find-rare-torpedo-article-1.1349515
The 11-foot-long weapon, one of only 50, was the first such device to be able to follow a track and not leave a wake in the water.
By David Knowles / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Monday, May 20, 2013, 7:06 PM
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U.S. Navy
The only other existing Howell torpedo is on display at the Naval Undersea Museum in Keyport, Wash.
Two bottlenose dolphins trained by the U.S. Navy’s marine mammal program have discovered a rare 19th-century Howell torpedo off the coast of San Diego.
In all, 50 Howell torpedoes were made between 1870 and 1889, and the only other known example is on display at the Naval Undersea Museum in Keyport, Wash., the Los Angeles Times reported.
Made of brass, the 11-foot-long elegant torpedo was the first such device to be able to follow a track and not leave a wake in the water.
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As for the bottlenose dolphins, using their highly developed sonar to help the Navy is all in a day’s work.
The Navy’s marine mammal program has bred and trained 80 dolphins and 40 sea lions for search missions such as mine recovery, but the discovery of the Howell torpedo came as a surprise.
"Considering it was made before electricity was provided to U.S. households, it was pretty sophisticated for its time," Christian Harris, operations supervisor for the biosciences division at the Systems Center Pacific, told the Times.
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The dolphins were trained to search for a variety of shapes on the ocean floor. Upon surfacing not far from San Diego’s Del Coronado Hotel, one dolphin signaled by touching its nose to the bow of a boat that it had spotted something. A week later, a second dolphin confirmed a target in the same location and was given a marker to place next to it.
Navy divers and explosive-ordnance technicians then went down and examined the object, which was later identified as the Howell torpedo.
"We've never found anything like this," Mike Rothe, who heads the marine mammal program, told the Times. "Never."
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