History Lecture Series Featuring Marine Archaeologist Joseph W. Zarzynski

OSWEGO – The H. Lee White Maritime Museum at Oswego is pleased to present “The Remarkable Story of the 1985 Recovery of a WWII Aircraft from Loch Ness, Scotland” by maritime archaeologist Joseph W. Zarzynski on Saturday, September 24 at 1:30 p.m.

For nearly nine decades, since 1933, a loch (lake) in the Highlands of Scotland has been the focus of numerous expeditions trying to solve the mystery of Nessie, the “Loch Ness monsters.” However, another “monster,” a twin-engine Wellington bomber aircraft, ditched at the waterway on New Year’s Eve, 1940.

The airplane, a veteran of 14 British combat missions over enemy territory in Europe, was on a training mission out of Lossiemouth, Scotland, when it lost power in one of its engines. The pilot spotted a large waterway below and he succeeded in ditching the plane at Loch Ness. The warplane then sank into the depths of the peat-stained waters and was nearly forgotten.

In 1976, during the golden age of monster hunting at Loch Ness, Martin Klein and Charles Finkelstein (Klein Associates—Salem, New Hampshire) discovered the rare World War 2 aircraft lying in over 200 feet of water during a Klein side scan sonar survey.

The remote sensing project was part of a state-of-the-art scientific expedition attempting to find the loch’s legendary “Loch Ness monsters.” In 1976, this aircraft, called “‘R’ for Robert,” turned out to be one of only two Wellington bombers to have survived and the only Wellington airplane that saw combat.

Following several deep-water remote sensing investigations to gather information on the aircraft, in 1985, in a noteworthy underwater recovery, the bomber was raised using atmospheric diving suits, a type of one-person submersible. Zarzynski covered the 1985 event as a correspondent for General Aviation News.

Mr. Zarzynski will discuss the history of the remarkable plane and the dramatic recovery of “R’ for Robert.” He is a maritime archaeologist with a B.A. (Ithaca College, History), a M.A.T. (Binghamton University, Social Sciences), and a M.A. (University of Leicester, UK, Archaeology & Heritage).

He serves on two not-for-profit corporation boards: The French & Indian War Society at Lake George, Inc. and the Foundation for the Preservation of Captain Cook’s Ships, Inc. The Saratoga County, NY resident is the author or co-author of seven books: Champ—Beyond the Legend (1984), Monster Wrecks of Loch Ness and Lake Champlain (1986), the young adult book, The Radeau Land Tortoise—North America’s Oldest Intact Warship (1993), Lake George Shipwrecks and Sunken History (2011), Documentary Filmmaking for Archaeologists (2012), Ghost Fleet Awakened—Lake George’s Sunken Bateaux of 1758 (2019), and Lochend—Monster Hunting on the Run (2021). Mr. Zarzynski will have copies of some of his books for sale.

Zarzynski wrote or co-wrote four shipwreck documentaries including “The Lost Radeau: North America’s Oldest Intact Warship” (Pepe Productions, 2005) and his latest video documentary with Pepe Productions is “Iron Sentries: The Mystery Cannons of Fort William Henry” (2016). Zarzynski is author of over 500 articles, book chapters, encyclopedia entries, and professional papers and reports. Further, he co-wrote four National Register of Historic Places nominations with those Lake George, NY shipwrecks being listed and likewise co-authored a National Historic Landmark (NHL) nomination that resulted in the 1758 Land Tortoise radeau shipwreck designated as an NHL, then only the sixth shipwreck in American waters with that designation.

The H. Lee White Maritime Museum’s History Lecture Series is a free program, open to the public. The Maritime Museum and Treasure Chest Gift Shop are open daily, 1 to 5 p.m. (10 a.m. – 5 p.m. in July & August) and are located on the West First Street Pier in Oswego’s Historic Maritime District. For more information regarding this or other Museum programs, contact the Museum at (315) 342-0480, or visit hlwmm.org.

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