Salzburg Map Tourist Attractions
Teetering on the banks of the Hallstattersee, tiny Hallstatt (pop. 960) seems to defy gravity by clinging to the face of a stony slope. It is easily the most striking lakeside village in the Salzkammergut, if not in all of Austria.
Salzburg Map Tourist Attractions Photo Gallery
There are still large lumps of copper pipe and brass rods protruding out of the jumbled mass of iron, and steel and white metal ingots, looking like dirty white chocolate bars, can still be found. A word of warning, though: the shipwreck belongs to Stan Hall of Beadnell, who generally does not mind divers taking small trinkets, but the cargo belongs to someone else. Ocean Diving Services used to own the cargo until it was taken over by Novocastrian Diving Salvage Company who lost a valuable remotely operated vehicle (ROV) from the site in 1991. The present owner of the cargo rights is unknown, and there has been no evidence to support rumours which circulated in 1998 that a large gold ingot had been found on the wreck. The bow section remains a mystery, but there are plenty of reports of divers finding it by chance while on drift dives in the area. It is reputed to lie about 300 m away from the main wrecksite, but whether to the north or south is unclear. Tales of unopened boxes strewn around the seabed are very unlikely to be true. Other reports – that the broken remains of the bow section are draped in steel cables or wires with high numbers of shoaling fish around them – sound more likely. Interestingly, the bow section was said to contain the ship’s safe, either hidden in a secret compartment or in the forecastle, and the fact that it has never been located adds spice to the search for this section of the ship. The tidal run is fairly strong and it is difficult to dive at anything but slack water.
