A photo from open sources
Recently, the U.S. military announced that a rare exhibit was found on the seabed near San Diego. Torpedo 19th century bottlenose dolphins discovered (bottlenose dolphin), specially trained by the US Navy to search for mines. A torpedo covered with brass 2 centuries ago was one of the first torpedoes of this kind – self-propelled torpedoes used by the U.S. Navy in those times. In total, about 50 of these combat units were created. Before of this case, only one copy was found and saved – he is currently in the Marine Underwater Museum in the city Capeport, Washington, not far from Seattle. Found exhibit there are about 130 years, its length is over 11 feet (3.3 meter), there is also a 60 kilogram spinning wheel, which served as a storage of kinetic energy (inertial battery) – thanks to him, the torpedo could have a speed of up to 25 nodes (over 46 km). 45 kg fit into the warhead – this provided a strong explosion with a radius of 400 meters. “Dolphins have the most complex natural sonar – they can find on the seafloor mines and other dangerous objects that are acoustically difficult to detect by technical means, “said Operation Director Braden Duruii. Dolphins using a series clicking sounds bouncing off the target and returning as a boomerang back, can determine the shape and size in front of those items. These marine mammals can be trained in certain way to report on their finding of various objects, among which there can be both technical means and people. After receiving from dolphins certain sound signals a team comes into play divers. In the case of the discovery of a torpedo, it was first an assumption that dolphins found an old part of the tail aircraft mines, however, it soon became clear that this was something else, older and explosive. So dolphins, thanks their natural sonars, were able to find what the explosion could take the lives of hundreds of people.
Sergey Vasilenkov
Dolphins
