The wreck of the RN Cesare Rossarol

The shipwreck itself is laying in relatively shallow depth (45-50 mtr) and over last year’s we have managed to preserve it from being robbed, like happened with wrecks on the western coast of Istria. Unfortunately the Baron Gautsch is such an example of bad preservation on the western coast.

The wreck parts of the Cesare Rossarol are positioned over one nautical mile of the coast of Lizjan. The more precise distance from the shore to the wreck site is about 2,16 kilometer. The distance between the bow and stern location is 310 meters in a straight line, with an angle of 199º degrees taken from the bow part.

With the current length of the bow and stern together, we are still missing approximately 25 to 30 meters of the Cesare Rossarol. According to our observations the missing part is the complete middle section of the ship that was hit by the mine and is now scattered around the wreck field in between the bow and the stern section.We have found very big and very small parts of the wreck variating from complete deck parts with engine room hatches to the smallest gear wheels. Once in a while some new parts pop up out of the sandy / silty bottom.

Condition

The wreck site of the Cesare Rossarol is still in relatively good shape. We have been visiting the wreck pretty often over the last 7 - 9 years and noticed a big deterioration in quality of the wreck; collapsing by itself due to the ravages of time. But we have to consider that the wreck is exposed to the Adriatic sea for 100 years.

picture by Michael Batey

A few good examples of this deterioration is that we noticed the stern deck is slowly collapsing. And for the bow, which is laying upside down, it is pretty clear that more and more metal sheets are falling from the hull and gather on the sandy bottom. With visiting the wreck and collect pictures and video material we can monitor the condition of the wreck. The current condition is pretty much shown in our 3D model and tour.

Picture by Derk Remmers