THE BISMARCK ENCOUNTER

The authors of this paper have been fortunate to have had the opportun ity to assist Dr. Robert Ballard of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute and the Quest Group in the discovery and analysis of the Bismarck wre ck in June 1989. Although we did not participate in Dr. Ballard's expe dition aboard the Star Hercules, we gave advice and counsel to his per sonnel and did much of the photo interpretation. We were greatly aided by two of the Bismarck survivors, former German Ambassador Baron von Mullenheim-Rechberg (former LCDR, German Navy), the senior surviving o fficer, whom we assisted in the republishing of his book, and Mr. Jose f Statz, who was the sole survivor from the Damage Control Central on the Bismarck [1].3 These two men worked tirelessly with the authors an d assisted in the preparation of drawings by Mr. Thomas Webb of variou s views of the damaged Bismarck, which shows her just before her capsi zing. These views of the damaged Bismarck were prepared after many hou rs of intensive study of the videotapes and still photography brought back by Dr. Ballard's team from the wreck site some 15 317 ft below th e water surface, 600 miles west of Brest, France. A number of these vi ews have been published in various magazine articles and books [2-5].