MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Graf Spee range finder recovered.

Finally after weeks of frustrated attempts a team of divers with the help of a floating crane from the port of Montevideo, Uruguay, managed this Wednesday evening to recover the range finder of the German battleship Admiral Graf Spee sunk in the River Plate since December 1939.

The salvage team headed by experienced Uruguayan diver Hector Bado had left early morning for the area where the once mighty vessel of the German Navy was scuttled six miles off the Uruguayan coast in the shallow muddy waters of the River Plate.

The ten meters and over 27 tons "state of the art" optical piece gave the feared pocket battleship and its powerful gunnery an all weather precision edge over the other navies of its time.

Previous attempts this summer had failed because of rather strong prevailing winds that impeded the crane from operating and in one instance a broken sling, something which also happened mid afternoon this Wednesday but the salvage team with the help of the Uruguayan Navy this time were prepared for such a surprise.

Once conditioned the range finder will be exhibited in Uruguay and according to Uruguayan entrepreneur Alfredo Etchegaray who has a licence for the recovery of the German Navy vessel, "this is the first leg of a greater project that includes extracting three guns, and if possible the rest of the battleship", which is sunk in waters no deeper than eight to ten meters.

The salvage team includes British Marine Archaeologist Mensum Bound from Oxford University and German Navy archivist Thomas Schmidt.

A symbol of the German Navy the Graf Spee prowled the South Atlantic hunting and sinking allied merchant vessels before she was crippled and surrounded by a British flotilla in the River Plate. The battle of the River Plate actually began December 13, 1939 when the Royal Navy group stationed in the Falkland Islands, light cruisers HMS Exeter and HMS Achilles and HMS Ajax from New Zealand commanded by Admiral Harwood confronted the Graf Spee under Captain Hans Langsdorff.

After taking several hits the German battleship took refuge in Montevideo and Uruguayan authorities extended a 72 hours period for the necessary repairs. Since time was insufficient Captain Langsdorff left Montevideo and decided to scuttle the vessel in the shallow waters of the River Plate December 17, thus avoiding capture.

In 1997 diver Hector Bado and Mensun Bound managed to rescue one of the Graf Spee's guns which is exhibited in the Uruguayan Naval Museum in Montevideo.