Sunken Gallery

Project Azorian, 1970s

Project Azorian. Artwork showing the secret US operation carried out by the CIA to recover a sunken Soviet submarine in the 1970s. The Soviets had failed to find the submarine, which had sunk in 1968. The US then located it at a depth of nearly 5 kilometres in the north-western Pacific Ocean. The surface ship, the Hughes Glomar Explorer (HGE), is using a metal claw (called Clementine, yellow) to attempt to raise the Soviet submarine K-129 from the seabed into the berth underneath the ship. This was attempted in the period 1972 to 1975, but the claw failed and only the forward part of the submarine was recovered

© This illustration is protected by laws and international treaties, as well as other intellectual property la

Purton Hulks, near Sharpness, Gloucestershire

The remains of one of the Purton Hulks. The old boats were deliberately sunk in 1950s to protect the banks of the Sharpness and Gloucester Canal at Purton, near Sharpness Docks. It is the largest ship graveyard in mainland Britain. They include Severn Trows and wooden colliers. First published The Sunday Times Date: 1988

© Philip Dunn / Mary Evans Picture Library

Shop window with model of German blockade, WWI

A shop window of Messrs Bassett-Lowke, a model-makers in High Holborn showing a diorama of the results from Germany's blockade policy. While on the surface are models of British ships such as the Iron Duke, Dreadnought, on the bottom of the sea - Davy Jones's Locker - are German war-ships put out of action by the British including the Blucher, the Emden and Scharnhorst. Date: 1915

© Illustrated London News Ltd/Mary Evans