HMS Falmouth: 3D Visualization of a First World War Shipwreck

Abstract

This chapter outlines an opportunistic yet innovative approach to developing a 3D visualization of HMS Falmouth, a Town Class light cruiser sunk during the First World War on the Yorkshire coast, England. The results of a multibeam echosounder survey of the seabed were combined with photogrammetry and laser scanning of the original builder’s model of HMS Falmouth, which is in store in the collections of the Imperial War Museums (IWM). The visualization, made available via Sketchfab, helped to generate considerable public and media interest in an important heritage asset. This chapter also comments on the role of visualizations in engaging people for whom underwater archaeology is otherwise inaccessible, and considers the potential for visualizations to integrate research and prompt further investigation.