Images from the Cuban Site

What next? For now, nothing

ADC operates from the Ulisses, a 260-foot trawler that was converted to a research
vessel for the Cuban government by the late French oceanographer Jacques Cousteau.

The company made headlines a year ago with its discovery in nearby waters of the U.S.
Navy battleship Maine, which was sunk under mysterious circumstances in 1898, touch-
ing off the Spanish-American War. (The ship had been sunk in Havana Harbor. In 1911 it
was taken offshore and sunk again, honorably, with a U.S. flag flying from its bow.

Its exact location was unknown until it was found by Weinzweig and Zelitsky.)

In finding the Maine and the Mega site, Advanced Digital has made use of two major impro-
vements in underwater exploration. One is side-scan sonar, which allows a wider sweep of
ocean bottom than earlier sonar equipment, and the other is the satellite-based Global Posi-
tioning System, or GPS.

GPS allows a surface vessel to fix its position to within a few feet and then to follow a pre-
cise, reliable search trackline. Connected by cable to the vessel, side-scanning sonar sweeps
the ocean floor with pulses of sound, providing a strikingly clear picture of objects on the
bottom.

When a promising object is detected, an ROV can be dispatched to investigate. Searches
can be performed in 20,000 feet of water.

For now, though, Weinzweig and Zelitsky say they have their hands full keeping up with the
terms of the contract with the Cuban government.

"We have signed a long-term exclusive contract with the Cuban government for the natural
resources of the Cuban Gulf of Mexico," Weinzweig said. "Our money is private and comes
from family and friends who have purchased shares in our offshore company. We have spent
$4-million over the last three years and we will require an additional $8-million or $9-million.

"This kind of work is very expensive and we require investment financing. However, our own-
ership in the final product, whether oil or treasure, would more than handsomely reward the
investment required for conduct of deep and ultra deep work on the ocean bottom.

"For now we are busy with our other work," Zelitsky said. "As soon as we have done enough
to help finance an archaeological expedition (to the Mega site) then maybe we can do that.
But right now it's oil and gas."

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"The St. Petersburg Times" is my hometown newspaper.

They are very keen on Archaeology, especially underwater.

Bianca