Tell us a tale!

[grossmusic]

What is your best shipwreck/treasure-diving story?

Post a short summary of your greatest adventure (1-3 paragraphs). Embellishments welcome.

I'll start, setting the bar very low (not even a shipwreck involved):

In Hawaii I tried pearl diving and learned why a novice shouldn't go past the reef. As the tide went down, the waves raked me over the coral & tore me up. Blood in the water on the wrong side of the reef in shark-infested waters was scary, but fortunately the only large sea creature I encountered was a friendly sea turtle who led me back to shore before disappearing back in the deep. I later found a black pearl in an oyster I bought in town. So the day wasn't a total loss.

 

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[SADS 669]

Story from my little web site......(www.scuba hermit.com)

It's a very simple question?

After reading this would you dive with me??


There I was at 100 ft ( 30 meters) deep really annoyed with myself because we were " in the area" of the wreck or " Mystery site diving" for those of you who may have been to a resort where the dive master screwed up and anchored in the wrong place, so, "you stupid diver" was at the forefront of my mind.
Anyway back to the story, I had a student with me and we were looking for HMS Elk a tiny trawler from the Second World War ( see above) that was sunk about a mile in front of the breakwater in Plymouth Sound in the UK. The visibility was OK the water fairly cold but apart from that a decent dive, if you like looking at sand that is, but I would crawl over half a mile of broken glass to see a woman naked, oops, sorry wrong web site, I mean..... Broken glass to do a dive, any dive but we digress.
So picture the scene, I am mega hacked off because I can't find the wreck I have been on a hundred times before, I am responsible for a student that now thinks I am dumb ( I know we've already established this) and there is nothing but sand to look at. Lo and behold things start to improve, I found a 5 inch brass military shell case, probably from a warship signaling with a blank or something, it was huge and very shiny.
Now we're talking I thought, I can imagine this thing made into an ashtray for my desk or a door stop but how the heck am I going to get a 150 lb shell back on the boat, the thing weighs a ton and of course it's also full of water. Anyway, the annoyed diver ( that's me by the way) drags this thing across the seabed burning unbelievable amounts of air while doing so.
My student was continuously motioning towards the shell and pointing at himself, there was no way this beginner was getting my shell case., absolutely no chance. When we got to the anchor line I spent a considerable amount of time signaling in the scuba diving equivalent of purple crayon what we were going to do between us to get it to the boat somehow.
You can imagine my surprise when this cheeky blighter snatched control of the shell case from me. I considered fighting for my find but thought because I was the instructor and the boss I could just pull diving rank when we get on the boat, I also decided if you want it you can lug it all the way to the boat, see how you like those onions, pears, apples or however the saying goes.
Imagine my horror when "newbie diver" flips the thing upside down, fills it with air from his regulator and slowly and carefully gets it to the boat and willing hands retrieve it from us. If you think from this story, I was annoyed at myself before, imagine my demeanor now I have been, shamed into insignificance and it was explained to me in the "newbie diver" equivalent of purple crayon that there was no plan to steal my find at all. When I started lugging this thing across the universe my dive buddy was simply offering to save me the trouble by putting air into it and floating it to the anchor line and then onto the boat.
So not finding the wreck was stupid because I had been there many times before, lugging the thing across the seabed at 100 ft depth was very stupid, but not listening to a dive buddy just because I was the expert was stratospherically dumb.

 

[agflit]

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Shakes head..thinks..."Add Helium"

 

[releventchair]

Watching pearl divers and their method of decent was put into to practice when snorkeling... in time.
Efficient movement, focus on target area before dropping ,depth reached smoothly...
Fish held with more grace employed for closer encounters.(Freshwater and nothing big enough to inhale me.)

Once in cold early spring on a trestle above a river the nut holding the reel handle on decided to take a plunge without my consent.
Figured between the cold and current I'd get one try at recovery.
Entered water(whoo-hoo cold!) From bank , and recovered the nut.

Years later a similar recovery of a stringer of fish with a large specimen (belonging to an unimpressed with the dropping of stringer with boat underway female partner) was retrieved from a weed bed after turning the boat around.
Spotting the couple inches of stringer showing was fortunate and the first dive needed to be a oneshot deal too due to sediment stirring and the likely hood of fish spooking.
A score! And note to remove wallet before diving.

Seeing pearl divers work was of greater benefit to this kid than was considered at the time.

 

[grossmusic]

After reading this would you dive with me??

Emphatic yes. Talk about newbies! I'm still just a wannabe. 2017 will be my year to get SCUBA certificate.

 

[ivan salis]

well while working as a crew member on a merchant marine cargo ship ...our ship got diverted by the coast guard to assist a sailing vessel "the spinning jenny of lune" was its name ---it seems that it had sprung a leak in its stuffing box area ( it had a motor and the area where the engine shaft leaves out of the vessel's hulll is called the stuffing box --seems the vessel had been laid up for some time out of the water ( dry docked) and its packing had basically dry rotted --the vessel had been sold and put in the water again and a transit crew of 5 German men had boarded it to take it from America to Germany ) ==after being underway for awhile --the packing gave out and water started coming in the vessel--it was rapidly taking in water (sinking) ...we arrived on the scene to find the 5 men floating in a life raft ..with the vessel rocking back and forth wildly ==shortly after launching a lifeboat and recovering them --the vessel went down nose first --with a horrible hissing and moaning noise then a loud boom as the transom blew out from the trapped air within it ...---so I helped to save 5 men form the sea --being the chief steward on the vessel I made sure that they got a warm meal , a place to sleep and fresh clothing to wear..... the real treasure of this story was being able to help --the sea can be like a hungry wolf waiting to gobble you up...... .....since I had a camera I had photoographed the vessel going down from my ship ==the capt of the now sunk "spinning jenny of lune" begged me for the film as he was going to need proof of the facts of how the vessel sank and that it did indeed sink for the insurance folks --I of course gave him the film ..he and the other men later on wrote me ..my vessel was awarded a citation from the coast guard for our actions in helping them..--- sadly I recently lost several friends when the EL Faro sank=== Ivan Salis

 

[SADS 669]

Great Story Ivan, I was shocked the transom blew out, real pressure........get back out to sea.. I might need rescuing?

 

[Darren in NC]

Awesome story, Ivan. Gives a whole new meaning of SADS' phrase, "Get stuffed!"

 

[Boatlode]

Emphatic yes. Talk about newbies! I'm still just a wannabe. 2017 will be my year to get SCUBA certificate.

Do it. I'll take you diving.

 

[ivan salis]

never forget the fact that for every treasure wreck we find ===people died in those wrecks

 

[old man]

The day I wished I was diving somewhere else.

When I was working as a commercial diver off the coast of Borneo, our company got a call from one of the oil rigs that they had an oil well blow out and that they needed someone to inspect the well head in about 110 feet of water. They also told the Boss that a Great White Shark was hanging around the oil well. Being young and dumb at the time, I thought the Shark bit was just a story to scare whatever diver was dumb enough to take the assignment.

Well yours truly was given the job and was choppered out to the oil rig for the inspection dive. Instead of using surface supplied air for the dive, young and dumb decided that throwing on a set of double tanks would handle the job. So off the boat goes the young diver. The water was warm, no wet suit needed. The visibility was only about 15 feet because of well head blowing. Just as I got to the bottom and reached the well head with all the pipes sticking out. Along comes this Great White Shark about 12 feet long.
Needless to say I was not happy. I got in between the pipes ( as that would do much good ) I thought, now you're in a fine mess you idiot. You only have a limited air supply and you have to not only inspect the well head, but you also have to ascend 110 feet in open water with a Great White swimming around down there.

Well young and dumb wasn't a happy camper. He couldn't stay down forever and If the Shark circled him again, I'm sure his swim trunks would have gotten wetter then they already were. I guess the Dive Gods were watching over me that day, because the Great White got out of my eye sight and I slowly, but not calmly headed back to the surface.

 

[grossmusic]

never forget the fact that for every treasure wreck we find ===people died in those wrecks

Not every wreck, but yes - most. No one died on at least one of the 1715 wrecks (Popa). Regardless, our modern stories can be fun while not being disrespectful to those gone before. Am I wrong? (I guess I don't get the point of your post.)

 

[ivan salis]

my point is what anyone who has actually gone to sea would understand -- under the right conditions --I could have been upon the vessel that sank many years ago as a passenger or crew member --and likely could have died during the wrecking -- so remember to treat it with respect due it --- treasure is cool but often comes at a cost ,,,both then and now ..treasure salvaging can be a dangerous undertaking ..that's my only point..

 

[SADS 669]

There I was bombing ( English for going fast for any West Atlantic readers) past the Pilgrims steps in Plymouth not a care in the world trying to see how fast I could make the rubber boat go. The little rubber duck had a wooden floor that took two lifetimes to fit and the teeny weeniest engine you could imagine, a 40 hp Army green "thrashed to death" Johnson.

Anyway, back to the story, because I felt guilty about not paying the proper respects to the steps that so many immigrants to the States used all those years ago I decided to go back and walk up them and then back down to the boat just to say "I had". Great idea in principle but not so smart for the "rushed" dive instructor.

I tied the boat up and shot up the steps and back down again only to see the boat drifting off towards the open sea, so in true fashion I jumped in and chased it. This would have been ok if I had thought, decided or even went ahead and put my dry suit on first, but no I was fully clothed in my regular " before the dive" gear. When I eventually caught the boat and got in, I was not a very happy or warm Individual to say the least.

However, after arriving at the dive centre ( we used to keep the boat at the accommodation barracks.) and a couple of cups of tea I was warm and dry again and off we went to the James Egan Lane. This wreck is a Liberty ship that was struck by torpedoes and even though it was sinking and the crew abandoned it, the old girl refused to sink and motored around a bit wrecking the lifeboats which were full of crew as it did so. It was towed to shore in an effort to salvage it but this is where it did eventually sink and is now a great wreck dive in 22 meters.

"Down we go" ( sounds like a submarine movie........) sorry back to the story, I had a great dive, mainly because I always do, and of course there are no bad ones. On my return to the wubber boat I had the brain wave at the anchor line to use my knife to reset the little wire thingy on my depth gauge that shows how deep you have been. Now, for a clever, calm, sort of normal person this would be easy, set the gauge, put the knife away. Oh no, not me, I promptly decided that it would be a great idea to slip while doing it and put the tip of my knife through my dry suit and into my leg.

For anyone who has done something similar you will know that at 20 ft depth blood looks green, which is cool. unless of course unless it's your blood. Also I hasten to add my right side is now icy cold ( for the second time today) because "idiot boy" is now wearing a dry suit with a hole in it. I ask you, would you dive with me? I do however break off the tips of every single, solitary, stinking, stupid one of my dive knives now. I shake my head every time it reminds me how dumb I WAS, note the emphasis on was, yeah right

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[Darren in NC]

I guess I would dive with you...but only because you break the tips off your dive knives. Great story!

Ed, I'll bet you were greatly white, too, when you reached the surface.

 

[old man]

Darren, I hate to be crude, but let's just say it probably took me a week to have another bowel movement.

 

[Boatlode]

at 20 ft depth blood looks green, which is cool. unless of course unless it's your blood.

Yes, it turns green somewhere between 20 and 30 feet. Which means that after the divemaster does pre-dive surgery on the boat to remove seven sea urchin spines from your heel and then you gear up, your boot quickly fills up with blood, which leaves a green trail behind you as it leaks out the top of your boot while you swim along at 40 ft.

 

[SADS 669]

Told ya......Darren, we getting a story??

 

[grossmusic]

I'm guessing sharks are color blind. Yikes!

 

[Darren in NC]

Okays, SADS - much less tantalizing than your stories on here, but my earliest memory of diving was before I was certified. I was skin diving off Snake Island in the Philippines, and I had no concept of clear water affecting depth perception. I grew up near the muddy Mississippi, so this was a whole new world for me. I saw a shell at the bottom I wanted so I took a deep breath, and dove. And dove. And dove. I remember thinking to myself, "Why can't I seem to get down to the bottom?" I normally sink easily. I happened to look up and saw the boat was quite a ways up. This was my first lesson in calculating depth. This wasn't the time nor the place I had hoped to learn such a lesson. Needless to say, the shell project was abandoned. By now I was sinking much faster. I frantically began to reverse my direction. I barely made it to the surface, as ascent is much more difficult for my body type and its lack of buoyancy. I enjoyed the rest of the trip, and decided it was time to learn how to dive. Haven't looked back since.