Divers plan to scan wreck of ferry Estonia and create 3D model

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Swedish divers plan to scan the wreck of the ferry Estonia to gather material to create a detailed 3D model.

Ocean Discovery is one of the companies that will be carrying out dives and scans of the wreck of the ferry Estonia in June. All this is due to the Maritime Accident Investigation Committee, which has commissioned a number of works to be carried out underwater. The data collected is to enable a thorough examination of the current state of the wreck and its damage.

We will survey every square metre of Estonia. Our mission is to document the wreck using photogrammetric techniques. We plan to take tens of thousands of overlapping high-resolution photographs. When combined, they will form a highly detailed, three-dimensional model of the entire wreck – said Ingemar Lundgren, CEO of Ocean Discovery.

With a virtual 3D model you can see all the small details of an object. The model can be zoomed and rotated to expose the details of interest. This will allow you to look at the wrecks of the Estonia in a completely new way. The last dives were conducted on this wreck back in the .90s of the 20th century.

Technology has developed enormously since then, and as a result, documentation created with modern tools can reveal details that were previously unseen. Especially since diving on such a large and deep wreck is very demanding and time is very limited. Therefore, the plan was to create a detailed 3D model that would allow the wreck to be explored without any restrictions.

In recent months The wreck of the ferry Estonia is back in the headlines. All after a documentary film revealed that there were previously unknown holes in the side of the ship. After that, the cause of the ferry’s sinking began to be questioned again.

Without a doubt, Sweden is famous for its magnificent wrecks that rest at the bottom of the Baltic Sea. One of them is the magnificent Bodekull warship wreck from the 17th century, which we visited in 2021. You will read more about it in issue 19 the DIVERS24 quarterly magazine! The digital version of the magazine is available free of charge, while you can purchase the printed version in our online shop.