DATELINE: United Kingdom – Centuries-old Shipwreck Recreated with 3D Printing

This is the first Dateline we’ve featured from the United Kingdom, and it is worth the wait! Archaeologists in the UK are using 3D printing technology to bring historical shipwrecks to life.

These maritime scientists are using photography and sonar imagery to produce models of 17th century shipwrecks off the coast of Scotland and the UK.  Through the use of computer modeling, they were able to recreate the wrecks and feed the data into 3d printers, which then produce scale models.

John McCarthy, a maritime expert, and his colleagues have been using a technique called photogrammetry, which involves taking overlapping photographs of a site and then feeding them into a computer program that can stitch them together. It allows them to create amazingly accurate models of the wreck sites and to represent them in almost true color, as in the image shown at the top of this post – the Drumbeg shipwreck which lies almost 40 feet underwater in Eddrachillis Bay, off the northwest coast of Scotland.

We look forward to seeing more work from these scientists engaged in bringing historical shipwrecks to life.  In the meantime, you can read more about John McCarthy and his 3d ship wreck recreations in this article from Fox News.