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Dinosaurs in the deep: The sinking of the SS Mount Temple and related military histories Darren H. Tanke Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology * INTRODUCTION Merchant ships in wartime are vulnerable targets. On December 6, 1916, the large Canadian merchant ship SS Mount Temple (figures 1a,b, 3a,b) was attacked and sunk by the heavily armed German surface raider SMS Möwe (figure 2). German raider captains carried out their actions under the rules of naval warfare, which included firing warning shots and providing opportunities for the target ship to surrender without bloodshed. Mount Temple was duly intercepted, ordered to stop and surrender, but someone on board unwisely loaded and directed her single small defensive gun towards the German ship. She was instantly fired upon and three of her crew (William “Gilbert” Oddy, age 38; George Baker and F. Janssen, age 61 [German records list him as John Janson]) were killed in the brief skirmish and several others wounded. The German captain was outraged that such a poorly armed ship would foolishly try to resist Möwe.

Figure 1a. The 8,790-ton SS Mount Temple, Liverpool, England, circa 1903–1904. The checkered red and white Canadian Pacific house flag flies from the second mast. She was the third largest victim of Möwe. Original in collection of the author.

The survivors were taken prisoner and sent to Germany on another subsequently captured ship, the SS Yarrowdale. Scuttled by German demolition charges placed near the waterline, the holed Mount Temple rolled over and sank in waters about 14,440 feet (4,375 metres) deep. A review of scientific (technical/popular) or palaeontological literature (1917–present) showed 10 of 14 citations variably stating Mount Temple was sunk by a U-boat [German submarine] and/or torpedo. These accounts are all in error. The ship carried a general cargo including 3,000 tons of wheat, crates of eggs and 700+ horses destined for war service in France. Also on board were 75 million year old dinosaur skeletons (still * While the author is employed by the Royal Tyrrell Museum, the military, historical archaeology and recovery aspects discussed herein are of a personal interest and are conducted in his free time. Interested parties should contact him at his personal email address: [email protected]

Alberta Palaeontological Society

Seventh Annual Symposium

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Figure 1b. The SS Mount Temple, stuck on West Ironbound, near Bridgewater, NS. Off course in a blinding snowstorm, she ran aground on the night of December 2, 1907. The crew and passengers, totaling some 730 souls survived the harrowing incident. She remained stranded for 4.5 months while extensive underwater repair work was carried out. This picture was probably taken on or about April 16, 1908 when the tugs F.W. Roebling, Shannon and Samson finally succeeded in pushing her off (Anonymous, 1908). Courtesy of Paul Harmon, Petite Riviere, NS.

encased in rock and wrapped in their thick plaster/burlap field jackets) as well as other vertebrate fossils collected from what is now Dinosaur Provincial Park (DPP) in southern Alberta, Canada. This wartime sinking occurred several hundred miles N.W. of the western Azores. The ship was to have stopped in Brest, France, then England where the fossils were to be off-loaded and sent to the British Museum (Natural History) (BM(NH)); now The Natural History Museum) in London. For historical purposes, use of the BM(NH) acronym is continued here. Editorial comments are contained within square brackets. The German Surface Raider Möwe The attacking ship, Möwe, had a complex history. Launched on May 9, 1914 in Germany as Pungo, a fruit transport ship, she was designed primarily to haul bananas to Hamburg from the Cameroon in Africa, then a German protectorate (Meise, 2002; Rohrbach et al., 1957). However a much more interesting career was in store for her. Soon after she was launched, WW I broke out. After early and serious defeats at sea, the German Navy modified its strategic plans. In addition to building more submarines (U-boats), they sortied a series of solitary, normal-appearing but militarized passenger and merchant ships with cleverly disguised heavy armaments. Some smaller German capital warships (i.e. cruisers SMS Emden, Dresden, Karlsruhe and Leipzig), also acting alone, prowled the seas in search of victims (Walter, 1994; Yates, 1995). These ships and their sinister intentions were collectively known as “surface raiders”. Raiders cruised the world’s shipping lanes where they ran amok, laying mines Alberta Palaeontological Society


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Figure 2. SMS Möwe, Kiel Canal, Germany, about 1916. The ship is heavily armed, yet none of her disguised or hidden armaments are visible here. Heavy guns and torpedo tubes were hidden behind folding steel plates. These could be lowered or swung away at a moment’s notice, providing clear arcs of fire. From Internet.

and/or capturing and sinking British or Allied ships of all types (Brennert, 1917; Liersemann, 1916; Hoyt, 1969; Langsdorff, 1942; Meise, 2002; Tanke et al., 2002). Primary targets were merchant ships, which were mostly encountered by chance in the busy shipping lanes. The German’s rightly believed that by choking off her vital oceanic supply line of fuel and food, Britain would ultimately be forced to capitulate. Of all surface raiders sent out, Möwe (German for “Seagull”) was the most successful, capturing or sinking about 50 vessels. During most of her raiding career, she was ably commanded by Korvettekapitän Nikolaus Burgraff und Graf zu Dohna-Schlodien (April 5, 1879–August 21, 1956), a politically connected Silesian count. He was a sea cadet in 1896 and before WWI was a navigation officer aboard the dreadnaught SMS Posen. He has been variously described as “…urbane, serious-minded, even-tempered and chivalrous” (Walter, 1994:140) to having a “…talent for self-aggrandisement, [and] was persona non grata with the [German Navy] Fleet…” (Görlitz, 1961, p. 353). Highly Figure 3a. December 6, 1916. The Mount Temple as seen from Möwe just prior to her destruction. One of the two port decorated for his wartime exploits, Dohna15 cm cannon can be seen here. A potent adversary, Möwe Schlodien went on to become a naval Aide de carried four of these guns, one 10.5 cm gun, four 50 cm torpedo tubes, 500 mines and various small arms weapons. camp to Kaiser Wilhelm II in late May 1918. The white structures on the foredeck of Mount Temple are He retired with the rank of Konteradmiral pens for horses that were destined for war service in France. [Rear Admiral] on August 19, 1939. Over 700 horses went down with the ship. Alberta Palaeontological Society


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Figure 3b. The stern of the Mount Temple as seen on the day she was captured. Parts of the ship’s railings have been shored up with wood planks to make pens for horses. The silhouette of the small defensive gun on a post mounting is visible to the left. Tanke et al., 2002 reported Mount Temple carried a 75 mm gun. This subsequently acquired photograph shows a much smaller gun was carried, possibly 20 or 37 mm. Research on this gun continues. Modified from Brennert, 1917.

to Germany and renamed Oldenburg. She served as a merchant ship in the North Sea and Baltic region, but in WW II was again pressed into military service, not as a raider, but as a transport in support of the Norwegian campaign. Her violent end came on April 7, 1945, in Vadheim, Norway (pop. ~500) when she was sunk at her moorings in an attack by Allied Bristol Beaufighter aircraft from 144 (British), 455 (Australian) and 489 (New Zealand) Squadrons (figure 4; Søgnen, 1994a,b; Stedje, 1987, 2000; Tanke et al., 2002; Sperbund, in prep.; Tanke, in prep.). The German merchant ship Wolfgang L.M. Russ, a tug (Herington, 1963:383) and two heavily armed escorting flak ships (auxiliary whalers V-5301 and V-5302) were also attacked. The planes took turns diving low into the mountain-ringed harbor

Compared to German U-boats, the numbers of ships sunk by surface raiders was comparatively small. However they were most successful in harassing merchant shipping, causing panic and increasing insurance rates. Their strategic value was in forcing the Allies to commit excessive manpower and war materiel to try and hunt them down, often, as in the case of the Möwe, without success. Germany used surface raiders to good effect again in WWII, but Möwe was still the most successful in both conflicts. Her success formed the basis of German surface raider thinking in WWII. Möwe had a few close scrapes in combat, but she survived WWI and was handed over to England under war reparations. There, she was refitted and renamed Greenbrier and finally became the merchant ship she was originally designed for. In 1933 she was sold

Figure 4. April 7, 1945. The end of the Oldenburg (ex Möwe) in Vadheim, Norway as seen in this gun camera footage still from an attacking plane. Several armor-piercing rockets trailing white smoke (lower right), fired from an Allied plane can be seen heading towards two moored merchant ships; the Wolfgang L.M. Russ (3750 tons) and Oldenburg, 4798 tons (lowermost). The white puff and dots on the right side of the picture is intense ship and shore-based German antiaircraft fire. From Søgnen (1994b).



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and strafed the ships with concentrated 20 mm cannon fire (fired at 40 rounds per second) and launching solid armor-piercing rockets. A German battle report states the ships were also bombed, though this probably in error. Oldenburg, the largest ship there, received the brunt of the attack. She caught fire and took several rocket hits below the waterline. Uncontrollable flooding ensued and she soon rolled onto her starboard side and sank to the harbor bottom, taking a valuable cargo of several thousand tons of fish destined for the hungry civilian population back home. Several people were killed and others injured in the attack. One antiaircraft gunner on Wolfgang L.M. Russ was killed with two others badly wounded and one slightly so. Seven antiaircraft gunners and one crewmember on Oldenburg were badly wounded. An air battle ensued soon after the attack. From the Royal Airforce, two Beaufighters were damaged and one escorting Mustang IV (P-51D) fighter from 65 Squadron (British) was lost and the pilot killed. The Germans lost two Fw 190 fighter planes from Jagdgeschwader 5, with both pilots killed. No civilians were killed or injured, although red-hot shrapnel and unexploded ordnance from German guns rained onto the town and surrounding area, starting a forest fire and damaging buildings. Remarkably, an elderly woman in a rocking chair had a slipper snatched off her foot by an unexploded German antiaircraft round which pierced the wall of her home (Stedje, 1987, 2000). Another unexploded round was found embedded in a building wall as recently as 1987. The Oldenburg wreck still exists in excellent condition and is popular with experienced sport divers (Skjold and Hall, 1989; Mellingen, 2002). Guided dive tours to the wreck now help support the local economy. 1916 Fieldwork in Alberta and the Fossil Specimens Lost The Sternberg family has a long tradition of dinosaur collecting in Alberta. Most of their expeditions are documented in varying degrees by fieldnotes and photographs, but there are no known fieldnotes and only a few confirmed photographs for the Charles H. Sternberg lead DPP fieldwork in 1916 and 1917. Therefore, the activities and results of these two summers are poorly known, although for 1916 there is a series of letters penned in the field from Sternberg to Dr. A. Smith-Woodward at the BM(NH). In the spring of 1916, C.H. Sternberg and his youngest son Levi broke away from their employ with the Geological Survey of Canada in Ottawa. They worked in what is now DPP in southern Alberta under contract to the BM(NH), collecting numerous dinosaur and other fossil specimens that were shipped back to London. Charles envisioned public dinosaur exhibits there of a caliber rivaling those in New York and Ottawa. The SS Milwaukee successfully transported the first shipment, but the second lot, consisting of at least 22 wooden crates, was aboard the ill-fated Mount Temple (Sternberg, 1917). Their destruction caused Sternberg a serious personal financial crisis until insurance issues were finally sorted out (Spalding, 2001). There is one box list (Sternberg, 1916; Table 1a,b), archived at the BM(NH) of fossils collected by the 1916 expedition, but it appears to be incomplete. It is titled: “List of Fossil Vertebrates Collected by Charles H. Sternberg for Dr A. Smith-Woodward for the British Museum of Natural History [sic] London From the Belly River Series Below Steveville about 2 miles”. While not identified anywhere on the document as such, it is probably an incomplete listing of the second and lost shipment. These suggestions are made for several reasons:



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Box [crate] number

Section [plaster block]

Bones inside box

1

--

2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

1 1 3 4 5, 6 4 7 -8 --

No specific mention of this box in original list; possibly contains extreme end of tail Part of neck, right foot and ischium Part of neck, right foot and ischium Part of tail and sacrum Sacrum and femur Trunk, distal end femur, skull, ribs, etc unstated Ribs, scapula, etc Left ischium, etc Neck vertebrae Two tibiae and femur

Table 1a. Box list of fossils lost on SS Mount Temple. Due to an incomplete entry and differing interpretations, there is some confusion as to the actual contents of boxes 1–3. These crates are all from one skeleton, a crested hadrosaur (field number 9) found by Levi Sternberg “Near head of canyon 2 miles east of Steveville Alberta 100 ft below the prairie.” Sternberg (1916).

Box [crate] number

Section [plaster block]

Bones inside box

12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22

2 --

Tail near pelvis Right tibia and femur Left front foot and a front limb unstated unstated Right ribs and 2 humeri unstated Section 11 and left scapula Femora and right hind foot Pelvic arch ribs

7 6 -3 11 -5 --

Table 1b. Box list of fossils lost on SS Mount Temple. These crates are all from one skeleton, a crested hadrosaur (field number 13) found by Levi Sternberg “Half a mile from No 9 and a quarter of a mile from No 1 in the Steveville badlands.” Sternberg (1916).



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1. The first shipment included extensive material from a ceratopsian bonebed and this material is not mentioned in the list. These fossils are known to have made their way to the BM(NH) and at least some were prepared and seen by Philip Currie during a visit there in 1981, although their precise whereabouts today in BM(NH) collections is uncertain. 2. There is no record that a third and final shipment was made, only two. The Sternberg field letters penned after the first shipment was sent, describe the discovery and collection of other, new specimens. Those specimens do not appear on this list, suggesting it is incomplete. In the present absence of evidence to the contrary, it is assumed here that those specimens were therefore contained in the second and lost shipment on Mount Temple. Also, it was standard Sternberg family practice to give each major specimen a consecutive field number in order of discovery each field season, i.e. 1913-1, 1913-2, etc. Only “No 9” and “No 13” are described in the list. What became of field numbers 1–8 and 10–12? Were there any numbers assigned after number 13 that we also don’t know about? Some of the lower numbers were probably part of the first shipment, but uncertainties still exist. Is there another list filed away in London? Could some of the smaller, loose specimens collected in the second half of the field season have been tucked away inside the crates containing the larger specimens and thereby not listed on the relocated list? Could a more complete box list have been part of the ships manifest, which was seized by the German boarding party (standard practice) and now are filed away in German military archives? These uncertainties leave us with more questions than answers. A comparison of the following list with Tables 1a,b quickly shows the discrepancies. For the time being, other lines of evidence have been consulted to compile the following, revised list. Data gleaned from C.H. Sternberg’s field letters (Sternberg, 1916), his publications (Sternberg, 1916, 1917, 1918a,b), a few field photographs, DPP quarry map (C.M. Sternberg, 1950), and by process of elimination indicate the following fossils were probably lost on Mount Temple. It is, sadly, a rather substantial list: Dinosaurs—Although often reported in the popular literature that two hadrosaurs (duck-billed dinosaurs) were lost, new information indicates the shipment actually included articulated skeletal portions of four hadrosaurs. Some may have had skin impressions preserved. 1. Nearly complete adult hadrosaur skeleton (probably from Quarry 18, DPP). Sternberg (letter dated August 21, 1916) considered it as “…equal in value to the whole collection made during the first two months.” The Sternberg letters indicate that the bulk of this skeleton left in the first shipment. The skull material was sent in the lost shipment. Cranial elements of this animal include: mandibles, predentary, left maxilla, occiput (= Sternberg’s “back of skull”), part of crest, nasals, and possibly part of frontal not in place (Sternberg, 1917:178; Sternberg field letters to Smith-Woodward). Sternbergs comment about “part of the crest” would suggest this specimen is referable to the common taxa Corythosaurus or Lambeosaurus. 2. Hadrosaur skull and neck (Quarry 17?, DPP); cf. Prosaurolophus; a common genus in the DPP dinosaur fauna. This specimen has been difficult to correlate to the Sternberg letters. Several specimens match the description. It is unclear whether these represent different specimens or are both the same. The crude field letter descriptions suggest the latter. The following descriptions in the 1916 letters might correlate: Alberta Palaeontological Society


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• “very fine” hadrosaur skull, mandibles and badly damaged front limbs. New type of hadrosaur (June 26th letter). A December 28th letter mentions that specimen “No. 3” which was of a new type has just been described from another specimen by Barnum Brown as the new genus Prosaurolophus, but that the BM(NH) specimen is “much finer”. • “…another trachodont, a crested one.” 2/3rds of the skull, the neck and part of the trunk with most of one front limb (letter, July 22nd). 3. Hadrosaur, slightly disarticulated (at least in the pelvic/hind limb region), of uncertain completeness and lying on right side (Quarry 196, DPP; see Tanke et al., 2002). A field photograph, believed to have been taken in Quarry 196, shows a loosely articulated pubis, ?proximal ischium (rest still buried), femur, tibia, another femur or tibia, fibula and several metatarsals. In this photograph the diagnostic pubis is fully exposed. By comparison, this appears referable to cf. Parasaurolophus (Figure 5; Brett-Surman, pers. comm., 2002). If true, this would have been the first associated specimen of this rarely documented DPP hadrosaur. 4. Hadrosaur, a large portion of the distal caudal vertebrae series. Sternberg letter (dated August 21, 1916) described as “I have found the large part of a caudal series at the end of the tail of a third, rather fourth, crested dinosaur”. Given the later date, this specimen must also have been on board the Mount Temple. Sternberg’s comment “rather fourth” indicates at least four hadrosaurs were collected for the BM(NH) that summer. Other fossils— 1. “…many bones of the skeleton of a Campsorarus [sic]…”; this probably means the partial skeleton of the small aquatic reptile Champsosaurus, figure 5. While Champsosaurus vertebrae, limb bones and ribs are among the most common isolated fossils found in DPP, associated skeletons are rare. 2. Many taxonomically diverse isolated surface-collected specimens found alone or in mono- or multigeneric bonebeds (i.e. dinosaur skull fragments, teeth, limb bones, vertebrae, phalanges; osteoderms, a variety of non-dinosaurian microvertebrate (fish, turtle, crocodile, salamander, champsosaur, etc) bones; petrified wood and geological samples). In Alberta, the Sternbergs had a tradition of also collecting nearly all fossils exposed on the surface. For example, of a lot of 562 specimens collected by Charles and Levi in 1917 from DPP and sold in 1921 to the San Diego Museum of Natural History (SDMNH), 549 were isolated surface finds (P.J. Currie, historical file). It is known that many hundreds of surface dinosaur and other vertebrate fossils collected for the BM(NH) were lost. Writing from the field on June 26, 1916, to Smith-Woodward, C.H. Sternberg states: “I am very thankful to know that from our present discoveries I am sure you never made a better bargain with me in all the dealings we have had together. You will get everything we collect to the smallest mammal tooth and largest dinosaur. I am thoroughly resolved to get you such a collection as you have not dreamed of, I believe it is here, but I also believe that when we have finished the beds here they will be entirely exhausted for many years.” “I am making a clean sweep [=extensive surface collecting] and you will get thousands Alberta Palaeontological Society


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of good bones representing the whole Belly River Serries [sic], you will be able to restore limbs and feet of many species without the trouble of digging them out of the rock.” “We have hundreds of bones already collected and many more located…” While providing the first comprehensive comparative collection of Albertan Late Cretaceous dinosaur and microvertebrate fossils in Europe, some of this material would also have proved invaluable to fill in the “missing parts” of the hadrosaur skeletons Charles hoped to prepare and mount for the London exhibit. 3. Complete carapace of the trionychid turtle “Aspideretes foveatus,” figure 5. Sternberg believed the plastron to be missing. A trionychid shell with a plastron, collected from DPP was relocated in BM(NH) collections, but records there show that freelance collector William Cutler secured it after the Mount Temple sinking. Trionychids are among the most common turtles collected in DPP. 4. Small baenid turtle shell, ?Boremys. In the correspondence, Sternberg considered this a new type of turtle. The closest match in the Sternberg letters (July 9, 1916) is “…. a nearly complete turtle carapace 11 inches [28 cm] long and 9 inches [23 cm] wide with a scalloped margin. It shows the marks of the dermal horny plates. This too is new as far as I have seen …..”. The relatively small size of the shell and the presence of “marks of the dermal horny plates” indicate this is probably a baenid. The terse description sounds like Boremys, a common form that has a diagnostic scalloped posterior carapace edge. The date of the letter would imply this specimen was part of the first shipment, yet it was not found in BM(NH) collections. Perhaps it was collected at a later date and/or put in with the second shipment. 5. Rare macrobaenid turtle shell, figure 5. Of all the specimens lost, this is one of the most intriguing. From the specimen description (Tanke et al., 2002), this fossil would likely have been a type specimen. The experienced C.H. Sternberg recognized it as being new to science. The closest match in the Sternberg correspondence is on September 4, 1916 where he writes: “I have also found another turtle some 13 in[ches] (33 cm) in diameter with most of the carapace and plastron, different from the other 3 [turtles]”. Sternberg, 1918b:91 further states: “The other [turtle] is evidently new, and is the only one I have found in the Belly River Series [= todays Dinosaur Park Formation in Alberta], either in Montana or Canada, where the ribs are not coosified to the margin. It resembles somewhat the sea tortoises of the Niobrara Chalk of Kansas.” It is believed by some researchers that freshwater macrobaenids were ancestral to some modern sea turtles. It is ironic then that the first fossil example of its kind from Alberta should join its kin, ending up on the ocean bottom this way. Several other major specimens are mentioned in Sternberg correspondence dated September 4, 1916, (Sternberg, 1916) but it is unclear as to whether or not they were collected for the BM(NH). Charles and Levi returned to DPP in 1917, again as independent collectors. It was Charles’s last field season in Alberta. The following two specimens could have been collected that summer. They are: 6. Two-thirds of a Chasmosaurus skull, Sand [Little Sandhill] Creek. One complete squamosal, orbit, frontal, nasal (with horncore) and other bones from one side of the head with more likely in situ. Alberta Palaeontological Society


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7. Unspeciated hadrosaur skull, Sand [Little Sandhill] Creek. As mentioned previously, no detailed 1917 C.H. Sternberg expedition fieldnotes are known to exist. It is known that most of the 1917 field season fossils were sent to the SDMNH and smaller amounts of material going to the United States National Museum (USNM) and the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH). A manifest of 1917 Albertan specimens collected by Sternberg and currently in the SDMNH collections, failed to match the above two specimens or any of the other problematic 1916 material. A search of the online AMNH dinosaur specimen catalog [http://paleo.amnh. org/field/dinosaur.html] also drew a blank, as did a review of USNM records (Brett-Surman, pers. comm. to DHT, 2002). Either these two specimens were subsequently traded/sold or disposed by any of the above three institutions, were never collected, or also found their way aboard Mount Temple, although there is greater room for skepticism on the last point. However, it seems from the rather detailed description of the Chasmosaurus skull (#6 above) that it was unlikely found eroding out of the rock that way, but was at least partially uncovered (and collected?) by Charles and Levi in 1916.

Figure 5. A bestiary of some of the extinct Dinosaur Provincial Park fauna lost on the SS Mount Temple. Shown are the rare hadrosaur Parasaurolophus (right), and two aquatic Champsosaurus (lower left). Two of the three types of turtles also lost are shown on the prone log: macrobaenid (right) and trionychid (left). Drawing by Mr. Tracy Ford, Poway, California. © 2003.



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Future Project Considerations and Opportunities There has been some thought given of trying to relocate Mount Temple and salvage some of the lost fossils if present. This daunting challenge might not be as impossible as it first seems. The logbook from Möwe gives the latitude and longitude coordinates for her place of sinking to the nearest mile— providing a good starting point. German accounts relate all portholes, hatch covers and doorways were opened prior to her sinking, so when she rolled over, the loose cargo and crated fossils would probably have dropped out and sunk straight to the bottom, with Mount Temple soon following. The ship itself is probably sitting upright on the ocean floor because virtually all metal ships sinking in deeper waters have a curious trait of righting themselves before reaching the bottom (Ballard and Archbold, 1993). Parts of the mid-Atlantic Ridge close to the Azores where she went down have been photographed (Ballard and Moore, 1977) and show a hard bottom with exposed lava fields. However Mount Temple is far enough away on the western flanks of the ridge so that she probably rests on a soft muddy bottom. The heavy field crates would have dropped straight down, becoming partially embedded in the soft bottom. It is doubtful the crates plowed so deep into the mud as to become completely covered. When the sinking Titanic broke in two near the surface, loose coal and other heavy ship infrastructure rained down onto the seafloor from over a distance of over 12,000 feet and can be found scattered in abundance on the seafloor around the wrecksite. Today, continental rocks of all sizes are rafted into the high latitude oceans by icebergs. As the ice melts, the rocks escape the icy grip and rain down onto the bottom far below. Despite traveling thousands of metres, the rocks can readily be seen sitting exposed on the ocean bottom (Heezen and Hollister, 1971:256–264). It is possible that microorganisms have eaten the wood crates away, leaving the more durable and better-preserved loose fossils sitting in a pile(s?) on the bottom (Tanke, in prep.). This suggestion is made because vertebrate fossils found eroded out and laying on the surface in DPP are typically harder and more durable than those still fully in situ. This curious and frequently observed dichotomy appears related to an as yet unexplored “case hardening” process; worthy of future study. In essence, some of the fossils are further hardened (sometimes to a significant degree) and small cracks sealed as they are exposed at the surface. It is suggested here that because of this hardening process, Sternberg’s “clean sweep” fossils could still be preserved on the ocean bottom. The abundant smaller fossils such as dinosaur teeth and microvertebrate remains may have been stored in sealed bottles— these would probably still be in perfect condition. A bottle ideally suited for this purpose, with a wide-open mouth and neck (probably a candy jar) was recovered from quarry 18, one of the 1916 Sternberg hadrosaur quarries. Well-preserved dinosaur bone can survive in shallow seawater. In 1979, skin divers retrieved dinosaur bones off the Isle of Wight. They were assisting in efforts to relocate additional portions of an Early Cretaceous Polacanthus skeleton located in an intertidal zone. The divers did not find parts of that skeleton, but did find 27 other dinosaur bones in waters averaging about four metres in depth. Those bones that were not damaged (abraded) by wave action were in excellent condition due to their thorough permineralization (Blows, pers. comm., 2003). The long-term survivability of the 1916 plaster field jackets aboard Mount Temple remains unknown. Common sense would suggest they dissolved away long ago. The thick (up to 7” or 18 cm) layered plaster of Paris and burlap field jackets would repel water for an unknown period, with the water finding its way inside via cracks in the Alberta Palaeontological Society


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sediment and bones themselves. The matrix in the each of the 1916 quarries was a siltstone with high clay content, the latter of which swells on contact with water, not boding well for these fossils. Yet on Titanic, artifacts even more fragile (i.e. paper, leather) survived intact, thus raising hopes. A complex interplay of water, darkness, chemistry, near freezing temperature, biology (i.e., iron-eating bacteria) and extreme pressure are all factors affecting the fossils. The bones were unlikely as heavily permineralized as the Isle of Wight examples, but they would have been hardened in the field with repeated applications of shellac whose reaction with saltwater is another unknown. If the smaller jacketed specimens (such as the turtles) have turned into piles of sludge, perhaps they could be scooped up or vacuumed off the bottom, individual pieces recovered and patiently reassembled. Could the fossils have been buried by subsequent sedimentation? The deposition rate of pelagic deposits is typically very slow in the deep ocean basins. A map in Heezen and Hollister (1971:274) suggests an accumulation of bottom sediments in the area of the Mount Temple wreck on the order of 2-5 cm/1000 years. Similarly, Ballard considered that smaller manmade artifacts on Titanic would remain exposed on the bottom for “…less than a thousand years for the smaller pieces …” (Ballard, 1987:209). Some of these artifacts were of the same size as the smaller DPP dinosaur material, so any fossils should still be visible in plain sight. Shipwrecks are often found by following the debris field they create (Ballard, 1987, 1989). As the ship speeds in an angled path towards the bottom, loose fittings, masts, light superstructure, machinery, deck cargo and other infrastructure are torn away by the slipstream. This creates an elongate debris field, with the ship found at one end. With Mount Temple, it might be prudent work in reverse, finding the ship first and then working backwards, searching the debris field to its proximal terminus. For merchant ships of the time, Mount Temple was fairly large (nearly 9,000 tons) and built of steel, so she should be locatable by deep tow magnetometer (Spiess and Maxwell, 1964; Church and Warren, 2002; Church et al., 2002), side scan sonar or a suitably equipped autonomous underwater vehicle (Clarke, 2003). Recently, using the former technology, a survey for a new underwater natural gas pipeline in the Gulf of Mexico lead to the co-discovery of a WW II German U-boat and her victim (Church and Warren, 2002; Church et al., 2002). Similarly, the Mount Temple historical research also innocently began as part of a survey project looking for old and improperly documented dinosaur quarries (Tanke, 1999, 2001; Tanke et al., 2002). Mount Temple rests on the bottom at a seemingly impossible depth of 14,440 feet (4,375 metres). The pressure at that depth is about 6600 pounds per square inch (psi) or 3.3 tons psi. To put the wreck’s depth into perspective, consider the landmark Calgary Tower, which stands 191 meters tall. One would have to stack nearly 30 Calgary Towers (or 8 Toronto CN Towers) to equal the depth of the Mount Temple! However, she is not beyond the reach of current deepwater exploration technologies. In 1960, Man visited the deepest reaches of the abyss; the 36,200 feet (10,973 metres) Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench near Guam. In recent years, other large vessels lost in the abyss have been relocated and some extensively studied or salvaged (Table 2). We currently live in a period enjoying a massive growth in the search for, discovery and study of historical shipwrecks. We are regularly entertained with television programming or popular magazine articles relating the search for, discovery and exploration of historical shipwrecks. This is made possible Alberta Palaeontological Society


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Type/Name of vessel

Date lost

Depth (feet/metres)

British passenger liner RMS Titanic

1912

12,460/3,800

German WWII battleship Bismarck

1941

15,617/4,760

British WW II battleship HMS Hood

1941

9,187/2,800

American WWII aircraft carrier USS Yorktown

1942

16,650/5,074

Japanese WWII aircraft carrier Kaga

1942

17,500/5,300

Japanese WW II submarine I-52

1944

17,190/5,182

American nuclear-powered submarine USS Thresher

1963

8,530/2,600

Table 2. Selected list of discovered historical shipwrecks and their great depths. All have been examined by remote deep-sea cameras and/or directly by manned submersibles. Numerous artifacts from Titanic have been recovered, but the WWII ships are considered war graves and are left undisturbed. By comparison, the Mount Temple lies at a depth of about 14,440 feet (4,375 metres).

by huge advancements in deep-sea exploration technologies and refined search methodologies. Since the rediscovery of Titanic in 1985, a surprising number of seemingly lost commercial ships and warships have been rediscovered, resulting in a resurgence of interest in naval history at the scientific and especially in the public arenas (Ballard, 1987, 1989, 2002; Ballard and Archbold, 1993, 1999; Ballard and Dunmore, 1995; Church and Warren, 2002; Church et al., 2002; Cussler and Dirgo, 1996, 2002; Dunmore, 2002; Mystic Aquarium, 2003), to name but a few. Some of these efforts have been supplemented with exhibits and popular television and IMAX documentaries. The latter, with their breath-taking underwater high-definition television footage leave us with a sense of awe and wonderment. Could we consider hunting for dinosaurs on the bottom of the Atlantic? Relocation of the Mount Temple, filming her and possible salvaging of fossils (if exposed on bottom) is a technological possibility; it is simply a matter of manpower and money. Doing so and similarly visiting her assailant, Oldenburg (ex Möwe) in Norway would make for an even more fascinating story. An educational and historical television documentary bringing the ships and their intriguing stories together again nearly a century later would be another consideration. Given the dinosaur connection, any expedition searching for the ship would be of great interest to the public, especially children. No other ships have ever been sunk with a dinosaur cargo on board. The Mount Temple debacle presents us with a unique adventure and challenging opportunities, combining two unlikely disciplines—deep-sea archaeology and vertebrate palaeontology. Alberta Palaeontological Society


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In the meantime, a “Dinosaurs in the Deep” website (www.ssmounttemple.com), lectures, articles and book on the sinking of the Mount Temple and related histories are currently active projects. In-depth research on these rarely reported events is still ongoing. Historical data presented herein is considered generally accurate, but subject to change in light of new findings. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Many people worldwide have kindly helped in various capacities with this ongoing project. From Norway, the author thanks Dr. Jørn Hurum, Nicolai Hernes and Tom Guldberg (Paleontologisk Museum, Oslo); Kjell Ragnar Berge (Førde); Arvid Mellingen (Leikanger); Sverre Søgnen (Gol); Olav H. Ylvisåker (Sogndal); Erling Skjold (Nannestad) and Halvor Sperbund (Bergen). From Germany: Wilfried Roschwig (Monheim); Oliver Meise (Marburg) and Dorothea Bräutigam (Dresden). From Canada and the United States: Patty Ralrick (University of Nebraska at Lincoln); Dr. Michael BrettSurman (Smithsonian, Washington, DC); Robert A. Church (C & C Technologies, Lafayette, LA); Gary Selig (DesBrisay Museum, Bridgewater, NS); Michael Ryan (University of Calgary, AB); Dr. Philip J. Currie, Kevin Kruger, Natalie Schroeder (Royal Tyrrell Museum, Drumheller), Dave Evans (University of British Columbia, Vancouver) and Bill Spencer (BP Canada Energy Company, Calgary). Translations of German military and Norwegian historical documents were kindly provided by Gerry Katterhagen (Rockyford, AB), Dr. Eva Koppelhus (Royal Tyrrell Museum, Drumheller), Rene and Kristine Hedegård Koppelhus (Genarp, Sweden) and Dr. Jørn Hurum (Paleontologisk Museum, Oslo, Norway). Polly Tucker (The Natural History Museum, London) provided the 1916 Sternberg expedition box list. Dr. William T. Blows (City University, London) provided details of the skin diving for dinosaur bones efforts. A special thanks to Mr. Tracy Ford (Poway, CA) who drew figure 5. PJ Enright (Seattle, WA) has not only demonstrated his excellence as a research assistant, but also expertly created the “Dinosaurs in the Deep” website (www.ssmounttemple.com), which was launched on January 11, 2003. The website had 6880 visits in the first month, 2100 the first week alone.

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____ 2000. Minneboka—Angrepet på “Oldenburg”…og Luftkampen Etterpå. [Memory book—The attack on Oldenburg and the air battle afterwards]. Published in Norwegian newspaper: Ytre Sogn on April 14, 2000, p. 14. (In Norwegian; author Tanke has English translation). Sternberg, C.M. 1950. Steveville west of the 4th Meridian, with notes on fossil localities. Geological Survey of Canada, Map 969A. Scale 1:31,680 (1 inch to one quarter mile). Sternberg, C.H. 1916. “List of fossil vertebrates collected by Charles H. Sternberg for Dr. A. Smith Woodward for the British Museum of Natural History [sic] London from the Belly River Series below Steveville” and various field letters (Steveville, Alberta) from Sternberg to Dr. A. Smith-Woodward; British Museum (Natural History). DF100/205, The Natural History Museum Official Archives. By permission of the Trustees of The Natural History Museum. ____ 1917. Hunting dinosaurs in the bad lands of the Red Deer River, Alberta, Canada. Privately published. ____ 1918a. Five years explorations in the fossil beds of Alberta. Transactions of the Kansas Academy of Science, v. 28, p. 205–211. ____ 1918b. Sternberg’s expedition to the Red Deer River, Alberta, 1917. Transactions of the Kansas Academy of Science, v. 29, p. 88–91. Tanke, D.H. 1999. Relocating the lost dinosaur quarries of Dinosaur Provincial Park, Alberta, Canada. (abstract). Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, v. 19, no. 3, p. 80A. ____ 2001. Historical archaeology: Solving the mystery quarries of Drumheller and Dinosaur Provincial Park, Alberta, Canada. In: Allen, H. (ed.). Alberta Palaeontological Society, Fifth Annual Symposium, Abstracts Volume. Mount Royal College, Calgary, Alberta. January 20, 2001, p. 70–76. ____ in prep. Dinosaur bones in the Deep Six: Speculations on survivability of fossils lost in the Atlantic in 1916. ____, Hernes, N.L. and Guldberg, T.E. 2002. The 1916 sinking of the SS Mount Temple: Historical perspectives on a unique aspect of Alberta’s paleontological heritage. Canadian Paleobiology, v. 7, p. 5–26. Walter, J. 1994. The Kaiser’s pirates: German surface raiders in World War One. London: Arms & Armour Press. Yates, K. 1995. Graf Spee’s raiders: Challenge to the Royal Navy, 1914–1915. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press.



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