The 2009 Magnetometer Search for the Australian Submarine AE1, Rabaul Harbour, East New Britain

Author/s J.N. Green

Year of publication 2009

Report Number: 247

IntroductionThe 2009 search for the AE1 was undertaken between 15 to 19 July and concentrated on a reported sighting of the AE1 in 1971 by George Tyers. Previously, in 2004, this author had conducted a magnetometer and side scan sonar survey in the Duke of York Islands as part of an on-going search by Commander John Foster (retired); this survey was unable to locate the AE1 (Green, 2003). An area to the east been searched in 2007 by HMAS Benalla. The 2009 survey concentrated in a box Lat. -4.250953° Long. 152.165741° and Lat. -4.253298° Long. 152.170138° (Note all position information is in decimal degrees and chart datum WGS84; see Figure ??) in the entrance to Simpson Harbour. The NW corner of the search corresponded to the position of the Keifuku Maru, otherwise known as the ‘Upside Down Wreck’. The original Tyers’ report indicates he was anchored on this site and subsequently drifted off that site, hooking onto something else with his anchor. He subsequently had to dive to about 330–350 feet (101–107 m), to recover the anchor and reported that the anchor was snagged on a deck rail of a vessel. He later reflected that what he saw could have been the AE1. The objective of the magnetometer survey was to confirm the position of the Keifuku Maru and then search the box which extended from that wreck east and south.