LOrient

[Narked1]

L'Orient

Dove on the wreck of Napoleon's flagship, L'Orient, this week. Not much left of it after a couple of hundred years and excavation by the French a few years ago. Only a couple of 16-pounders left, copper plating or metal strips in the area of what would be the armor belt of the ship, bags of nails and musket balls that would have been used for shrapnel (see "Today's Finds" under the title "Nothing Really"), and a couple of fuzed cannon balls that were empty. The only thing left of the wreck that can be see above the seabed is what is left of the main deck which was collapsed onto the second deck. The rest of the ship is buried in the seabed and not accessible. Our guide to the site "found" some buttons that were part of the French officer's uniforms, but we later found out that he had planted them (Don't you just love local dive guides ). Still have 7 more wrecks in the area to explore before the seas get too rough to get out to them.

Will update as I work through them if there is enough interest.

 

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[Narked1]

Re: L'Orient

Ahhh, 'tis the lot of us recreational wreck divers here in Egypt. We get to go through the scraps after the government sponsored professionals get their chance here (as it should be when there are items of a historic nature are involved). The entire north coast of Egypt is full of wrecks dating from many periods of our world history. Eveything from sunken fishing boats, Graeco-Roman items, to a submarine that was scuttled in the harbor at Marsa Matruh (the entrance to the harbor has a lot of torpedoes that were jettiisoned from the sub as it was racing for shelter from the RAF in WWII). Unfortunately there are currently a lot of restrictions on diving here unless there has been a letter issued by the Ministry of Antiquities authorizing anyone to dive on wrecks here.

Not a treasure hunter here per se, nor am I an archealolgist. Just enjoy diving on wrecks and trying to learn the history of them since I live in a part of world where there is so much history to be learned.

Here is a bronze spike that I found at the Graeco-Roman pier located in Montazza Bay while I was checking out a large intact Amphora (it has since been reburied at the dive site).