HMS Hussar

[Boatlode]

On the Doria back in 91, i was in the 2nd class china hallway making a run with my buddy, i was in the lead with him following (200ft ish and 90 degrees on its side), i grabbing everything that looked like a plate or artifact, got to the end of the hallway (the broken chair pile)and turned around, my buddy chris bumped into me, he turned around and led back out, i was grabbing everything my hand touched and stuffing it in my goodies bag since i couldnt see since we muddied it out on the way in, all of a sudden, i was yanked to a stop instantly (my enclosed wreck reel had jammed and the line wrapped around a pipe when i slacked it turning around) i had to feel my way back to the snag by feel. (meanwhile every minute of my bottom time is adding multiple minutes to my deco ) i tried to unsnag it (now a total blackout, couldnt even see a hint of light from my light on my helmet anymore) but couldnt free it, so i had to get my forearm knife (i have 1 on each harness strap and one on my left forearm) cut the line and put my knife back, then stuffed my reel into my goodies bag and turned around ( i knew i could find the line down the hallway where the silt wasnt as badly sturred up) i got about 20ft down the hallway and then i could start seeing the my light again, just then i see another light coming my way right before i collided with chris hard enough to knock my mask hard enough to get a shot of water in it. i made hand contact with him on his mask ( we cant see now with the stirred up mud) and he reached up with his hand, i put my thumbs up hand in his hand so he knew i was ok, he burped a OK thru his mouth and turned around to head out. i still hadnt found my wreck reel line yet, but knew he was following it out, so went after him. a few seconds later, the silt eased up enough to see my line, so i grabbed it. i checked my air gauge and you could literally see the gauge needle twitch when i inhaled, im sure some of that was because my heart rate was like a racing horse in the kentucky derby , pulled the loose slack from behind me and started wrapping it around my left hand since i didnt have a reel to wind it on, we got back thru the hallways and made it to outside of the wreck, where the anchor was tied in, i stuffed my reel line into the goodies bag and we both grabbed our deco bottles, hooked my johnline up and started up the anchor line, i had 26 minutes of bottom time with a max of 215ft and my stops started somewhere around 90ft, i think it was about 2 1/2hrs deco time total. somewhere when the deco stops got long, i opened my small side bag and got out my magnetic checkers set we played when on deco. he clipped his 3ft snap line to my harness d rings so we didnt have to hang on anymore and could play. we played checkers till we got tired . i started digging thru my goodies bag, had a bunch of wood crap pieces and junk but did get a wine bottle, a intact 8 inch saucer, a couple partials of saucers, and a pristine intact wine glass and a partial of the other glass stacked with it including the packing straw still in the intact one. so not a complete bust . it was forever before we got to the surface and bowline, grabbed the chicken line and swam back to the stern and platform and got out. the waves were noticibaly higher (abt 6ft) than when we went in. Me and chris did a quick mission debrief and i told him what happened and then it really started to hit me, that i was "that "close to becomeing a darwin awardee ( i never used another enclosed dive reel again). while on surface interval, cap told us, there was a hurricane heading our way, so we had to pull anchor and run for block island to hide. it was the longest 8hrs i think i have ever spend on a boat, the waves were getting higher. i tried a while to lay in the bunks below, but the through of the wave would toss you in the air for a split second and then slam you into the bunk, so that didnt last long

another one was on the stolt degali,(its just the stern of a tanker that was cut in half by another ship) . i was in the upper engine room swimming along ( wreck is upright but still at a decent angle) next to one of the engines looking in the nooks and crannys for some bugs to take home. i failed to notice a pipe hanging down from the wall where it had broken apart (spoiler alert, my doubles have cave cages on them), the pipe went between the front and back cross brace and i was jerked to a stop ( i was literally a shishkabob) i had swam about 5ft down this pipe before it stopped me . i tried to turn around and couldnt, then started feeling around with my hands, felt the pipe and that it was thru the cave cage, so i started backing off the pipe. i had to arch my back and get my body and the tanks to go up and slack off the pressure of the pipe wedged into my cage. i managed to back off the pipe and lived to tell the tale. never did find any legal size bugs but got a full mess back of mussels from the upper works and pryed a couple black and white tiles off the wheelhouse bathroom on the way back to the anchorline

Holy crap!

 

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[njcommercialdiver]

Damn. Great stories. I was in Vegas and almost bought some rotted cash that was brought up from the Andrea Doria. Bought a colonial note instead.

theres about a dozen ones on ebay right now, both dollars and the really chewed up Liras. man wished i got a few when they used to be cheap

heres a couple
https://www.ebay.com/itm/224817943217?hash=item34583192b1:g:QXcAAOSwl~ph-Juo at 102.50
https://www.ebay.com/itm/144388159162?hash=item219e3476ba:g:24EAAOSwuIlh81A3 at 187.50
https://www.ebay.com/itm/224609995694?hash=item344bcc8bae:g:oZcAAOSwBRphQRWj at 399.00 BIN
https://www.ebay.com/itm/114257291582?hash=item1a9a43e93e:g:eT4AAOSwBi5eA56f Lira at 1500 BIN
and an almost perfect US dollar
https://www.ebay.com/itm/384714731032?hash=item5992c8ee18:g:N6MAAOSwh-1goEMW 2645.00 opening bid

 

[Boatlode]

theres about a dozen ones on ebay right now, both dollars and the really chewed up Liras. man wished i got a few when they used to be cheap

heres a couple
https://www.ebay.com/itm/224817943217?hash=item34583192b1:g:QXcAAOSwl~ph-Juo at 102.50
https://www.ebay.com/itm/144388159162?hash=item219e3476ba:g:24EAAOSwuIlh81A3 at 187.50
https://www.ebay.com/itm/224609995694?hash=item344bcc8bae:g:oZcAAOSwBRphQRWj at 399.00 BIN
https://www.ebay.com/itm/114257291582?hash=item1a9a43e93e:g:eT4AAOSwBi5eA56f Lira at 1500 BIN
and an almost perfect US dollar
https://www.ebay.com/itm/384714731032?hash=item5992c8ee18:g:N6MAAOSwh-1goEMW 2645.00 opening bid

Years ago a guy I knew from Long Island gave me a steak knife from the dining room of the Doria. He grabbed a whole drawer of silverware.
You couldn't pay me enough to dive that wreck. It's a death trap. Although now it's collapsed so you can't get inside anymore. Probably a good thing.

 

[Darren in NC]

Hussar is a waste of time. It was "salvaged" for years shortly after with no results. But they kept at it, as long as another group of suckers would buy into their stock. One investor traveled to UK to research the original records, and found the payroll was transferred prior to the wrecking. That shut the whole operation down shortly after. But the myth lives on...

 

[UnderMiner]

Hussar is a waste of time. It was "salvaged" for years shortly after with no results. But they kept at it, as long as another group of suckers would buy into their stock. One investor traveled to UK to research the original records, and found the payroll was transferred prior to the wrecking. That shut the whole operation down shortly after. But the myth lives on...

I feel that most everyone understands that searching for the Hussar's treasure is a lost cause, but it's fun to look anyway because there are other things down there that you stumble across that history has never made note of. In searching for one thing you find another.

 

[njcommercialdiver]

Hussar is a waste of time. It was "salvaged" for years shortly after with no results. But they kept at it, as long as another group of suckers would buy into their stock. One investor traveled to UK to research the original records, and found the payroll was transferred prior to the wrecking. That shut the whole operation down shortly after. But the myth lives on...

when i was interested in going after the Hussar back in the 90s, i compiled as much info as i could from all different sources. i have a note, the gold was offloaded 2 days before sailing and was sworn to in a report by a petty officer Fletcher Yetts that he helped offload the payroll and handed it off to the army paymaster

 

[BennyV]

when i was interested in going after the Hussar back in the 90s, i compiled as much info as i could from all different sources. i have a note, the gold was offloaded 2 days before sailing and was sworn to in a report by a petty officer Fletcher Yetts that he helped offload the payroll and handed it off to the army paymaster

Interesting. First time hearing about this. I’m going to dig into it a little more and see what I can find.

 

[njcommercialdiver]

back that far (it was prob the mid 80s after i got certified when i got interested in the hussar), i very rarely wrote down where i got a piece of info and the copy machine at the library (there was no internet back then so everything was out of books) was like 10 cents a copy, so i rarely copied a page, just wrote the info i found down in notebooks and transfered it to a master book that had a page for each wreck.

 

[Darren in NC]

Here's the newspaper account... First is basic story. Second has the newspaper details at the top if you want to search and read the entire article.

 

[BennyV]

Here's the newspaper account... First is basic story. Second has the newspaper details at the top if you want to search and read the entire article.

Good read.