1. Alphabetic catalogue wherein all the objects are named in alphabetic order with indica-tion of their specifications, circumstances of wreckage, value, etc.
2. Chronological catalogue wherein wreckage events are given according to days, months, years and centuries. The supposed or known degree of their preservation and data on their search and examination are also included.
3. Maps on scale 1:100,000 showing points of wrecked or lost objects. Owing to a great body of wrecks, maps are compiled according to centuries. Summary maps for objects con-centrated at sea-floor are compiled for every century in order to discern areas with highest concentrations of the remains. Moreover, maps on scale 1:25,000 are compiled for areas with highest concentrations.
The Catalogue and Atlas are compiled for the whole of the Baltic Sea offshore zone. But its eastern part, including the coast formerly belonged to the Russian Empire from Kenigs-berg (Kaliningrad) on the south up to Tornea (Kemi) on the north of the Gulf of Bothnia is presented in more detail.
In view of the fact that the Atlas and Catalogue are not only of scientific but also of practical value, particular attention is concentrated on offshore zones under the Russian jurisdiction and those subjected to experimental works performed by Russian scientists to search for wrecked ships and aircrafts.
In particular, the data bank for the Russian sector in the Gulf of Finland as of the late 1996 in-volves more than 5,000 objects: 2500 ships and vessels, about 1500 aircrafts and various small objects such as anchors, boats, through-ice fallen on land vehicles and military equip-ment (tanks, tractors, motor vehicles, guns etc.) and subaqueous cables.
Wrecked ships in the Russian sector of the Gulf of Finland belong to fleets of Russia (25%), Germany (19%), England (17%), Sweden (15%), Holland (8%) and Finland (7%). The rest 9% belong to fleets of Norway, Denmark, France, USA, Italia, Estonia and Latvia. The chronological catalogue shows the time span from 1128 up to 1947 inspite of the fact that vessels and aircrafts had been wrecked throughout the offshore zone of the Russian sector in the Gulf of Finland, 37 areas of constant wreckage were discerned to be restricted to conven-tional fairways which remained constant for 400 years minimum despite shoreline variations. It seems that wreckages also occurred earlier. Therefore, it is highly probable to find here remains of wrecks of XVIII - XX centuries and older ones with no evidence for their wreck-age and being of particular interest.
In order to review and refine the data obtained, many expeditions to search and map objects at sea-floor were performed by the Marine Technologies Company from 1989 up to 1996 in the Russian sector of the Gulf of Finland. The works were mainly conducted by side-scan sonar and confirmed very high concentration of objects at sea-floor and probability to find old ships with no evidence for their wreckage.
In course of field investigations aimed at mapping sea-floor in some areas with more concen-tration of remains, more than 200 objects were found including 62 bodies of sunken ships, 5 aircrafts, 54 large accumulations of fragments, 47 unidentified objects, and also boats, launches, anchors, torpedoes and mines, cables. As expected, concentration of fragments at sea-floor is very high. Moreover, the continuous mapping of sea-floor showed the constant presence of wrecks with no evidence for their wreckage.
For example, during the search for the Russian surveying sloop Svir wrecked in 1824, which is of particular memorial value being the precise copy of sleep Mirny - the discoverer of the Antarctic continent (both ships were built one after the other to a common design, at a common shipyard and by a common master), bodies of 7 ships and of I large boat, 2 aircrafts and 8 yet unidentified objects were found at the sea-floor area of 18 sq.km, i.e. I object per I sq.km on the average. Of particular interest is the fact that one of the ships with the compara-tive degree of wreckage indicating its old age is the absolute analogue of Hansa coggs of XIV century by its parameters.
Even more concentration of objects at sea-floor had been found in an area of the Vyborg-skoye Sea Battle taken place on 5-7 July 1790 between fleets of Russia and Sweden. More than 450 units and about 60,000 men participated in this battle which was the largest in the history of the Baltic Sea and resulted in the wreckage of about 90 units. Since the history of the battle has yet to be studied, the experts from Marine Technologies Company spent 3 years to reconstruct all the movements of Russian ships from their record books that allowed to discern in theory 9 sites with wreck fragments at sea-floor. Moreover, about 250 ships and aircrafts more wrecked at different times within the sites discerned, as evidenced from the Catalogue.
The reconnaissance mapping of sea-floor at 20% of the area of 4 sites allowed to find 22 bodies of large ships, 2 small-size ships, 25 large accumulations of fragments, 40 yet uniden-tified objects, 2 aircrafts and 5 anchors. Identified ships belong to Sweden: 64-gun battle ship Heduig-Elisabeth-Charlotta (built in 1781), 74-gun battle ship Enigheten (1732), 44-gun frigate Zemire (1785), frigate Postiljon (1754), 74-gun battle ship Louisa-Ulrika (1745), 52-gun frigate Uppland (1749), 8-gun yacht Aurora, and to Russia: 8-gun schooner Slon, etc. The bodies of several ships often lie 150-300 m apart, thereby ships wrecked in the Vyborgskoye Battle lie closely to transport ships of XVIII and XIX centuries, a ship esti-mated to be of 800 years old, a German transport Esborn drowned on 18 July 1944, a Ger-man landing ship AF-35 (wrecked on 28 August 1944) and a Russian battle ship Hangut (wrecked 12 June 1897). Judging from the finds obtained, the Vyborgskoye Battle area is the unique place in terms of the presence of material culture objects at sea-floor, which reflect the European history for 8 centuries minimum.
Therewith, owing to the fact that water in the Gulf of Finland is of low temperature and in-significant salinity and show no organisms providing destruction of ship remains, all the ob-jects found are expected to be very well preserved. Low sedimentation velocity and shallow-ness (commonly from 15 up to 40m deep) make the remains easy to access. Therefore, the Russian sector of the Gulf of Finland is planned to be in the near future the area of intense development of under-water researches, operations to elevate valuable goods and of the ad-venture under-water tourism which imply the stable demand for implements and equip-ment for under-water operations.