Navy Commander unveils ancient propeller salvaged from iron wreck

Commander of the Navy, Vice Admiral Piyal De Silva on 10^th September 2019 unveiled an ancient propeller at the Naval Headquarters premises.

This propeller belongs to an iron wreck located near the Little Basses Lighthouse and its ship is believed to have sunk in year 1913. Upon being salvaged and carried out repair work on its blades, the propeller was installed at the entrance of Naval Headquarters.

This ancient artifact lay on the sea bed without connecting to the wreckage hull and it was spotted by the Navy Commander during a diving expedition. Having understood the value of this object he directed a team of Navy divers to salvage the propeller, without leaving it to be further ruined by treasure hunters.

Accordingly, Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) diving tender A521 attached with a team of SLN divers, was tasked to salvage the above propeller and the team was able to salvage it safely. The diving tender A521 was successful at her first diving mission where as other pioneer diving institutions had failed in their several efforts of salvaging this propeller. However, SL Navy who used modern technology blended with current know-how of diving field was able to achieve the success in salvaging the propeller at the end of a strenuous process of committed team work . This remained to be the biggest propeller SLN divers have ever salvaged.