Contact to this well acknowledged military institution was made by Brian Braidwood, who explains its background as follows:

RMCS has been a centre of expertise on military aspects of all sciences for many years. Their experience includes an enormous number of trials and experiments involving the effects of explosions on metals during the testing of military hardware. In view of this background they were approached to comment on the reports from the German laboratories on the ESTONIA samples. The person in charge is Dr. M. R. Edwards, one of the leading scientist in military explosives in the UK, who submitted the copy of a thesis by Daniel D. R. Lord on the “Effect of Explosives on Materials” from July 2000. This thesis explains the rather complicated subject of the effect of detonations also on steel plates in terms, also understandable to the layman and it is therefore attached as Enclosure No. 8. For example on page 23, photograph no. 10 shows a petalled hole caused by the military PE4 explosive placed at a distance of 12 mm from the steel plate with sand in between. The upper part of the hole, and in particular the left side, looks very similar to the explosion area of the upper starboard front bulkhead of the ESTONIA. The lower part of this almost circular hole, however, looks different, i.e. the cracked off and forward bent steel flap of the front bulkhead was caused by the welded edge structure (front bulkhead/recess) while the RMCS test involved a flat steel plate. See below.

Photograph 10. Plate AP4 on the left with approximate petalled lengths illustrated on paper model. Paper sheets were traced against petal lengths and orientated to match their positions as if they were folded flat. The paper model illustrates the amount of plastic deformation that has occurred during petalling. Some of the petals appear to overlap the shattered region, indicating an increase in original length and therefore reduction in thickness.

The test with the paper model, also shown and explained on page 23, was also done by us with the front bulkhead damage and after folding the various petals and flaps together the hole was almost closed.
On the next page the damage to the starboard upper front bulkhead and, in comparison, also of the port upper front bulkhead are shown.

Dr. Edwards, who speaks and reads German, did not issue a formal report but commented verbally and by letter to Brian Braidwood. Dr. Edwards’ comment was:

»"I looked over the film and the hole in the starboard side is clearly a petalled hole. This is typical of what happens when a thin plate is subjected to an explosive charge. The charge has not been in direct contact with the ship plate (if this had happened the hole would not have been surrounded by the relatively large petals seen in the film).«

Brian Braidwood asked Dr. Edwards whether he would be prepared to endorse the following extract from his report, to which he agreed:

»From the Brandenburg reports, I can now conclude beyond reasonable doubt that:-

1. The structural deformation of Sample 1 was caused by an explosion.

2. The increase in hardness measured in Sample 1 was caused by an explosion.

3. Overall, the findings of these technical reports are further evidence that there was an explosion in the ESTONIA, in the vicinity of the starboard forward bulkhead from which Sample 1 was taken. «

For further details reference is made to the report of Brian Braidwood attached as Enclosure No. 5.