After the ROV had inspected the area above and/or below the fender bar – as can be seen on the images on the previous page – for several metres, the seabed suddenly raised and now covered the fender bar completely. When the ROV moved over the elevation, a cave was detected in the seabed. Here the fender bar was sky blue and at the bottom of the cave there was an opening visible between the fender bar and seabed – see arrow 1.
Arrow 2 points to the edge of the cave.

This contour of the seabed leads to the assumption that there might be a hole below the fender bar in the hull plating behind which the car deck was positioned – see the drawing on page 112. This assumption is based on the following observations:

• The sand – apparently piled up in this particular area – sank down evidently into some opening as a result of which the cave was formed.
  
  
• The fender bar in the region of the cave is not covered by sediment but sky blue – the original colour – which indicates that there must be a more or less constant flow of water in and out of an opening below the cave preventing sediment from settling down on this part of the fender bar as it had done on all the other visible parts thereby creating a dark grey appearance of those other parts of the fender bar (See the image on page 113 above).

The edge of the fender bar visible at the bottom of the cave looks indented, almost jagged, and below there is obviously some hollow space. Unfortunately it was not been possible for the divers to go down again and check this suspicious cave  and take samples from the seabed. The divers took the view that it had been attempted to cover a hole here with sand since a broad strip of sand was noted across the wreck at this area. Presumably the sand did penetrate into the hole, thereby the cave was created and the upper part of the hole became visible again.

The apparent fact that substantial quantities of sand had been piled up in the forward part of the wreck is also confirmed by the image on the following page which shows the upper part of the bow thruster openings – arrow 1 – while arrow 2 points to the sand piled up.