Overview

• Researchers recovered 16 British-made 12-pounder cannons and carronades identifiable by Blomefield rings scattered over an 80 by 70 metre area on the Helgoländer Reede seabed.
• The survey by Submaris plus the Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel’s hydroacoustics team used high-resolution echo-sound mapping with 3D modelling to document each gun’s position and features.
• Historical sources and the absence of wreck remains ruled out the 1807 HMS Explosion origin, since that ship’s armament was previously salvaged ashore.
• Investigators propose the Royal Navy deliberately sank obsolete artillery before Helgoland’s 1890 transfer to the German Reich, a hypothesis under further archival review.
• This discovery builds on 1990s recoveries and deepens understanding of Helgoland’s role as a British naval base during the coalition wars while highlighting the island’s complex sovereignty shifts.