Boaty McBoatface Makes 'Remarkable' Find in Loch Ness

Robot submarine Boaty McBoatface has made a surprise discovery in Scotland's Loch Ness—and though it's not Nessie herself, it is related to the rumored monster hiding in the loch's depths. The sub was recently undergoing testing for deep sea research expeditions in Loch Ness when its propeller snagged. It turned out to be caught on the mooring for a 55-year-old camera system, which sat nearly 600 feet below the surface of the loch, per the BBC. Protected inside a glass container, the system was one of six installed by the Loch Ness Investigation Bureau, a group set up in the 1960s to investigate the existence of the Loch Ness Monster dubbed Nessie. Three were ultimately lost in strong winds.

"It was an ingenious camera trap consisting of a clockwork Instamatic camera with an inbuilt flash cube, enabling four pictures to be taken when a bait line was taken," says Adrian Shine of the Loch Ness Project, per USA Today. Unfortunately, the camera does not appear to have recorded Nessie. A submarine engineer developed a few images showing only murky waters, per the BBC. Still, "it is remarkable that the housing has kept the camera dry for the past 55 years," says Shine. "This wasn't a find we expected to make, but we're happy that this piece of Nessie hunting history can be shared," adds Matt Kingsland of the National Oceanography Centre. The camera now resides with the Loch Ness Centre in Drumnadrochit. (More Boaty McBoatface stories.)