Almost a heart attack!!!! Or the importance of a full dive brief!
January 8th, 2009
| Comments from Atlantis Divers:
This is such a great blog post we found. Let this experience be a reminder to us all. These folks were very lucky everyone made it out ok. |
Hi
Just like to share a recent dive i had leading a dive on the zenobia.
I was diving with 5 guests, 2 of which are regular posters on this site. after a great first dive on the zen, exploring the outside of the wreck, we had a decent hour and a half surface interval before the second dive. After descending, we entered the canteen and my plan was to come out through a side window. unfortunately - and totally my fault - i hadn’t briefed the others to follow me through the same window. after exiting the wreck, and realising only 3 others had followed me through, i proceded to poo in my wetsuit. fortunately, i then realised that the other 2 had exited through another door, but only after 10 minutes of searching for them inside. The need for a good briefing is absolutely essential, especially when diving in an overhead environment.
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Old shipwrecks unveiled on Oregon coast
January 6th, 2009
January 5, 2009
http://www.scubanewsvideo.com/index.php/2009/01/05/old-shipwrecks-unveiled-on-oregon-coast/
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HMAS Brisbane dives
January 5th, 2009
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Exploring the Kaiser’s Sunken World War I Fleet | Big Blue Tech News
January 1st, 2009
January 1, 2009
It’s a descent into history. The remains of the German Imperial Fleet still lie on the seabed at Scapa Flow off Scotland’s Orkney Islands where the Germans scuttled their ships in 1919. The ice-cold, deep waters are a paradise for professional wreck divers.
Bulky diving cylinders, decompression equipment and diving suits: the deck of the vessel Loyal Mediator is cluttered with all the things the wreck divers need.
“Dives in Scapa Flow aren’t for beginners,” says Horst Dederichs. “Some of the warships lie fairly deep down, the water temperature is just 9 degrees Celsius (48 degrees Fahrenheit) and you can get dangerous currents at the edge of the bay.”
The 39-year-old historian and diving instructor is one of Europe’s leading experts on exploring underwater wrecks. He was the first German to explore the wreck of the Lusitania at a depth of 93 meters (305 feet) below the surface of the Irish Sea. Dederichs regards Scapa Flow as Europe’s most interesting wreck diving area. There’s no other location where you find so many ships so close together.
The destination for today’s dive is SMS Markgraf, a king class battleship with a length of 175.4 meters (570 feet) that lies upside down on the seabed 45 meters (147 feet) down.
Dederichs lets himself sink slowly into the dark green water down a cable laid from the boat. He has two diving cylinders on his back that contain Trimix, a special gas mixture of oxygen, nitrogen and helium.
The two bottles are connected via a bridge that contains two breathing regulators, a security feature for cold-water dives. In the cold, breathing regulators can freeze up and blow gas out of the cylinder. If that happens, Dederichs can block the connection and transfer his air supply to the other cylinder.
At a depth of 25 meters, the first outlines of the steel giant emerge amid the green murk, and shortly after that Dederichs has reached the hull. The ship once had a crew of 1,100. These days it’s populated mainly by spider crabs bigger than tennis balls. They scuttle off to escape the beams of the underwater lamps.
“Like Ants on a Sleeping Whale”
“Warships usually lie upside down or on their sides due to the heavy superstructures,” says Dederichs. “When you land on their mighty hull you feel like an ant exploring a sleeping whale.” Dederichs glides along the hull looking for suitable entry points.
In the light from the strong lamps, aerials come into view, then the crow’s nest becomes visible and one of the many deck guns. A frightened crab hurriedly scrambles to safety down the barrel. Suddenly the divers come across a hole in the hull. A large cod darts out as the explorers enter gingerly. Details emerge in the beam of Dederich’s lamp: rust-brown walls, bent pipes and small hand-wheels that will never be turned again. And a boot.
It’s only possible to see a few meters ahead, and if the divers make a wrong move and whirl up the fine dust-like sediment that covers the entire ship, they won’t be able to see anything for hours. That’s how long it takes for the sediment to settle again, and this far down, divers don’t have that kind of time.
Dederichs has run a cable from the entrance to the ship to guide him back outside. Too many wreck divers have lost their lives by getting lost in the labyrinth of passages in the submerged steel giants.
On June 21, 1919, SMS Markgraf was interned in the British Royal Navy base at Scapa Flow, together with 73 other ships of the Imperial German High Sea Fleet moored there under the terms of the Armistice that had ended World War I in November 1918.
The internment was to last as long as it took to decide on the fate of the German fleet. But on June 21, it became clear that the British were not prepared to release the ships. To prevent the heavily-armed ships from being seized by the victors of World War I, German Admiral Ludwig von Reuter decided to scuttle the fleet.
At his command, 59 warships sank in front of the Orkney Islands. Many of them were later raised and turned to scrap. Markgraf wasn’t spared — huge steel plates were cut from her hull and her engines were also retrieved. Parts of the wreck are as permeated as Swiss cheese, making it ideal for professional wreck divers like Dederichs.
Panic Lurks in the Confined Darkness
“Entering deep into large wrecks has little in common with normal sports diving,” says Dederichs, who has been on several thousand dives. “These dives demand vast experience and corresponding levels of training. The deep, the cold, the darkness and the confined environment frequently cause anxiety in inexperienced divers, and that often develops into panic.”
Is he ever afraid during his dives? “Down there you work like a machine. It’s good to have respect but you shouldn’t be afraid,” says Dederichs.
He advances ever deeper into the belly of the ship. It’s virtually impossible to orient oneself exactly inside this monster, he says later. He gradually glides towards the stern, past steel shelves covered in rust and sea anemones.
As he passes through the vessel, Dederichs tries to imagine what could have happened in this particular room, or what that particular lever was for. Who sat on the chair, what was his task on board? Wreck dives are a descent into the past, they’re an attempt to lift the veil of time and to enter a long-gone epoch.
One question nags at the historian: how did the reduced German crew manage to prepare the scuttling of the ship so thoroughly under the watchful eyes of the British 89 years ago? He hasn’t found a satisfactory answer. Not yet, at least.
To view the complete article: http://www.bigbluetech.net/big-blue-tech-news/2009/01/01/exploring-kaisers-sunken-world-war-fleet/
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Adirondack shipwreck site makes National Register
December 30th, 2008
LAKE GEORGE, N.Y. - The wreck of one of the first gasoline-powered excursion boats in the Adirondacks has been placed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The Forward lies in 40 feet of water near an island on the southern end of Lake George, 50 miles north of Albany.
The 45-foot-long boat was built in 1906 and featured two 30-horsepower engines. It was intentionally sunk in 1930 and discovered by amateur scuba divers in the 1970s.
Bateaux (ba-TOH’) Below, a group of underwater shipwreck preservationists, made the Forward part of a state-administered underwater diving park in Lake George that includes the wrecks of several French and Indian War vessels.
To view the article: http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/newyork/ny-bc-ny–shipwreck-nationa1230dec30,0,6764142.story
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Scuba diver plans to dive into Bay of Bengal
December 30th, 2008
To explore and study the mysterious details of the sunken ship, Sabir Bux is scheduled to visit Kendrapara on December 30. He holds a rescue diver card issued by the Professional Association of Diving Instructors (PADI) of the UK, besides the professional license, certificate for open water, advance open water, underwater photography and videography, search and recovery and Medic First Aid.
The then collector of Cuttack, John Beames, who served as collector and district magistrate in Balesore from 1869 to 1873 and in Cuttack from 1875 to 1878, in his autobiography, ‘Memories of a Bengal Civilian’ has described about the sunken ship, which is of about 250-feet-long whereas its width is about 50 feet.
As per the description made by John Beames in his autobiography, the French cargo ship, ‘Veleda’ sunk in a cyclone, which occurred in the Bay of Bengal in the year 1875 near Hukitola about 35 km from Kendrapara coast. The ship, which was sunk, was carrying foodgrains, sugar, liquor, wine and other goods from Paris to India. Some crew members of the ship were also drowned due to the storm and their bodies were buried in a cemetery behind the lighthouse.
During the long history of shipping worldwide, most of the countries have lost hundreds of ships and the sea has devoured several ports due to erosion and wrath of nature. According to Bux, the ships and the ports, which have succumbed to the sea, give a vivid picture of history of trade in the past. Each and every sunken ship and port is a treasure trove for the researchers for which the ships and the ports which have found their watery grave should be preserved for posterity through systematic excavation.
According to Bux, the ship which was sunk about 133-years ago should be preserved under the project of Unesco’s ‘Underwater Cultural Heritage’. As Unesco, under its project ‘Underwater Cultural Heritage’ seeks to protect sunken ships which have been lost, jettisoned or abandoned, and are at the bottom of the sea for at least 100 years
The marine records of the National Archives, Delhi and other records in many museums and libraries furnish valuable information on ship lost in storms and naval battles during the 16th- 19th, century. But some of the ships, which were lost, had not been recorded at all, informed Satyaranjan Sahu, the scientist of National Institute of Oceanography (NIO), Goa.
French ship ‘Veleda’ is older than ‘Titanic’. The ‘Titanic’ was built in 1912 in UK and sunk on 14th, April 1912 carrying 2200 passengers, in the most infamous marine disaster. After 73 years a joint US-French team located and photographed the wreckage of ‘Titanic’ in 1985.
But few people know about this sunken ship which can also attract many tourists, if it is conserved for posterity, claimed Bux.
Sabir Bux said that in order to get more information of a sunken ship of Second World War period and to find more details he dived into the sea near Chatrapur of Ganjam district atleast three times in recent past. “Recently I dived on the sea on December 12-16th month to get more information of the sunken ship at Chatrapur”, he said. “I have done underwater surface photography of SYNCROLIFT at Yanbo seaport, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and have been involved in various activities to clean up the Red Sea reefs. I have also conducted underwater photography of Chilika Lake in Orissa for its database, celebrated a birthday underwater in Red Sea off the northern coast of Jeddah, participated in the Aquatic World Awareness, Responsibility and Education (AWARE) programme, and also performed at the Melodic Meet ’98, organised by the Bahrain Disabled Sports Committee, in association with Kerala Arts & Cultural Association (KACA) at Al Andalus Garden”, added Bux.
To view complete article: http://www.merinews.com/catFull.jsp?articleID=154624
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New Year’s Day Dive
December 28th, 2008
Don’t let your first dive of the New Year be in COLD water!!! Come join us in Hatteras on New Years’ Day, 2009 for a two tank Gulf Stream Dive on the Proteus/Dixie Arrow for only $125 per diver.
The buoy temperatures are registering between 68 and 76 degrees! Call today and register!! Spaces are limited.
Atlantis Divers 804/320-7000
“On March 26, 1942, the Dixie Arrow was traveling unarmed and alone, approaching Cape Hatteras, enroute from Texas City, TX to Paulsboro, NJ with 96,000 barrels of crude oil. The U-71 had spent the night waiting near the Diamond Shoals Light Buoy hoping to intercept targets. With the breaking dawn, the u-boat captain, KK Walter Flascheenberg, was about the order his boat to the bottom when he spotted the masts of the approaching tanker on the horizon. He manuevered his boat against the zig-zag course of the Dixie Arrow trying to get the tanker between the U-71 and shore.”
“At 0858 EWT, 3 torpedoes slammed into the starboard side of the Dixie Arrow and in less than 1 minute the tanker was mortally wounded and engulfed in flames. The first torpedo hit at the midship deckhouse, destroying it and killing most of the deck officers. 60 seconds later the 2nd and 3rd torpedoes hit just aft of the deckhouse and cracked the tanker in two.”For more information on the Dixie Arrow, visit: http://www.nc-wreckdiving.com/WRECKS/DIXIE/DIXIE.HTML
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Divers find 1903 shipwreck near Block Island
December 25th, 2008
MYSTIC, Conn.—A group of divers says it has found the wreckage of a schooner that collided with a steamship and sank in 1903 near Block Island, R.I.
Mark Munro of Griswold, Conn., said his Sound Underwater Survey group and the Baccala Wreck Divers began looking for the remains of the Jennie R. Dubois in 2002, searching a few times a year in an area that eventually stretched to 17 square miles.
The group positively identified the shipwreck in September 2007, but kept it a secret until Monday so more research could be done and others interested in the ship couldn’t claim the find, Munro said.
It was discovered about six miles southeast of Block Island in federal waters, he said.
“We were pretty elated,” Munro said Tuesday. “It was one of those projects that you were starting to wonder if you were really going to solve the mystery of what happened.”
The 2,227-ton, five-masted schooner, which was launched only 19 months before the collision, was named after the wife of a Rhode Island Supreme Court justice who owned stock in the company that built the ship, Holmes Shipbuilding Co. of Mystic.
Munro said the vessel, which cost $100,000 to build, was the largest ever built on Connecticut’s Mystic River. Jennie Dubois christened her namesake ship with a bottle of wine on Feb. 11, 1902, in a ceremony that attracted 6,000 people, Munro said.
The Jennie R. Dubois went down on Sept. 5, 1903, after colliding with the steamship Schoenfels in dense fog about seven miles southeast of Block Island. All 11 men aboard were rescued, Munro said.
A lot of people had looked for the wreckage over the years. Munro said it was difficult to find because the Army Corps of Engineers blasted the wreckage with dynamite in 1903 so it wouldn’t be a hazard to other ships.
“They were looking for something that would look like a schooner,” Munro said. “In this case, it was not what you would typically see at the bottom. It was spread out.”
Munro and his fellow divers were able to identify the shipwreck by its anchors, size and location, he said. They researched local newspapers, examined the national archives in Washington, looked at Mystic Seaport records and talked with Block Island residents.
Members of Sound Underwater Survey and the Baccala Wreck Divers plan to present their findings at the Mystic Yachting Center on Feb. 11, the 107th anniversary of the Jennie R. Dubois’ launch.
To view the complete article: http://www.bigbluetech.net/big-blue-tech-news/2008/12/24/divers-find-1903-shipwreck-block-island/
