Hand-drawn plotting chart by Curt Newport, who created this navigational aid as team leader of the Liberty Bell 7 Recovery Expedition. The chart is accomplished in pencil on an off-white 11 x 15 sheet of tracing paper and features a rectangular surface area of 40 nautical miles, with an arrow to upper portion pointing in a NNW direction marked “Direction of Capsule Wind-Drift on Main Parachutes.” The area contains three plotting points for “Ship Estimate, USS Randolph CVS-15,” “Sofar Bomb Mix,” and “FPS-16, Estimate (NASA Datum Point), Sofar Corrected,” with two lines pointing to the latter marked “Patrick AFB Radar 261 Miles” and “GBI Radar 148 Miles.” The chart is copyrighted, signed, and dated in the lower left, “1990, C. Newport.” In fine, folded condition, with a few creases to left side. Accompanied by a signed letter of authenticity from Newport, who states: “I certify that I created this original pencil-drawn navigational plotting chart in 1990 while researching the loss of Liberty Bell 7.”
After unsuccessful attempts in 1992 and 1993, Oceaneering International, Inc. and a team led by Curt Newport lifted the Liberty Bell 7 from the Atlantic seabed and onto the deck of the recovery ship Ocean Project on July 20, 1999, the 30th anniversary of the Apollo 11 lunar landing. The spacecraft was found after a 14-year effort by Newport at a depth of nearly 16,000 feet, some 350 miles east-southeast of Cape Canaveral. Among the items found within were parts of the flight gear, several Mercury dimes, and five one-dollar bills, the latter taken to space to be souvenirs of the flight. The spacecraft was transported to The Cosmosphere in Hutchinson, Kansas, where it was disassembled and cleaned and is now on permanent display.
