Twenty-five years ago, as the international SuperDARN collaboration was taking shape, the University of Saskatchewan team was tasked with building the transmitters for each country’s new radar sites. A batch of these was set on a ship bound for Iceland, where the French research team was building its radar.
“And so what happens? The engines quit on the ship. It’s just floating with no power,” recalls George Sofko, professor emeritus of physics and engineering physics in the U of S College of Arts and Science.
The ship was boarded by salvagers (something closer to rescuers than pirates, but we are free to picture them with parrots and peg-legs) and its cargo was saved.
There was one catch. Under maritime law, the salvagers of a ship are entitled to a portion of its value.
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Image via University of Saskatchewan.