Short Summary

Our crowd funding campaign has now begun [ Ссылка ]

We are running an Indiegogo campaign to raise funds to find the first shell fired in World War 1

With the centenary of WW1 looming this year and the centenary of Gallipoli in 2015, this project couldn't be more timely

2014 marks the centenary of World War 1 and we are planning a series of missions to find the first Allied shot fired in the Great War. The shell, if it is still intact, lies inside the opening to Port Phillip Bay, Melbourne.

On August 5th 1914, Australian forces attempted to stop the German cargo ship, the SS Pfalz, from leaving Melbourne.

War had just been declared and all German activity in the Commonwealth was now considered hostile.

Despite numerous warnings to cut her engines, Pfalz Captain Kuhiken ordered full steam ahead and a dangerous game of chicken ensued.

From Point Nepean Coastal Fort, the Australians continued to signal to the Pfalz to stop.

When they received an order to either 'stop her of sink her' Australian forces fired the first shot of the Great War across the Pfalz' bow, missing the ship by metres.

The Pfalz eventually surrendered to Australian forces, who boarded her at 1.00pm.

The German crew was interned in Melbourne for the duration of the war.

The ship itself was soon refitted as a troop carrier for the war effort and was used in the Gallipoli landings under the name HMT Boorara.

She had a busy time in the Dardanelles: transporting Australian soldiers onto the battle arena, being twice torpedoed, and housing Turkish prisoners of war.



What We Need

Long Shot will be a difficult mission given the ferocity of the tides in this area and a century of constant dredging, not to mention that locating a six-inch shell in Port Phillip Bay will be a needle-in- a- haystack job.

However, we have sourced specialist sonar equipment; a magnetometer that the US Navy is using in Pearl Harbour to locate unexploded ordinance from the Japanese attack in 1942.

This equipment is capable of finding a .22 shell under six feet of sand.

If the shell is there we will find it.

The cost is $130,000 (& fees). This includes the magnetometer, ancillary equipment (cables, monitor, camera) laboratory data analysis,

Southern Ocean Exploration, Australia's most successful shipwreck discovery team, will volunteer all of its resources to find the shell: divers, boats, fuel and insurances -- but we need to buy this equipment if we are to have any chance of finding the shell.

Whitewater Documentaries will volunteer its time to document the event, with a view to telling the fascinating story of the Pfalz in a one-hour television documentary.

Once we acquire the sonar we can begin our search for the shell.

Indiegogo link [ Ссылка ]

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