oceancorpD59
Tenderfoot
- #1
Thread Owner
First something I want to explain about commercial diving in the early 90's. When I tell someone that I was a commercial diver the response is either "how deep did you go ?" (All the way to the bottom !) Or "wow you made a lot of money". We'll... that's not really true. When I was green my first job paid $7.25/hr. Even years later I knew some full divers that only made $14/hr. At the time it was customary to get a raise every 3-4 months, generally 25 cents an hour. Also understand that the oil fields don't shut down, they run 24-7. A well run company has 2-12 hour shifts so you worked 84 hours a week ! Overtime is where you made money. Divers made extra cash for depth pay, occasionally there was penetration pay for entering a pipe or something. When resources we're slim we worked 18 hrs a day. This was a job with slim resources and we were on deck from 6am to midnight (126 hrs/week) for $50-$100/day !
This company did promise to give proper dive, depth and penetration pay retroactively should we be successful. Now, back to the hunt.
The plan was a 30 day operation with a scheduled resupply in port after 2 weeks. If we found anything of value or historic significance we would be funded for another 30 days.
Looking back it was pretty amazing how quickly we found the site, we were in the middle of nowhere, only one oil platform and that was 6-7 miles away on the horizon. On the first dive we found the man made tunnel and established our down line. The diver described the hole as about 5 feet round and 20 feet deep getting narrower further in. He could clearly see it was a tunnel and the bottom was littered with fist size pieces of broken coral. At the back of the tunnel he could see the top went further and hadn't been filled completely. Everyone on board was excited, this is exactly as it was described !
We set up our airlift (basically an underwater vacuum) which was a 10-12 inch heavy flexible rubber pipe about 50 feet long that we could add to. The working end had a steel fitting with a bar welded across the middle to avoid sucking up anything that may clog the airlift. When we started airlifting the loose end wanted to go up and that was causing the debris to fall right at the tunnel entrance so we tied that down to a makeshift anchor. Everything was going as planned...
The weather was perfect, the visibility underwater was absolutely unbelievable, up to 1000 feet ! From the bottom you could clearly see the ship and follow the port bow anchor cable all the way to the anchor sitting in the sand 650 feet away ! We planned to get as many dives as possible in every day using tenders when necessary. When the sun started to set we came upon our first problem, sharks !
The diving supervisor made the call to stop the dives at sunset everyday. We also only had 2 decompression chambers on board and one of those was always on standby in case of emergency. At 165 feet the dives were pretty short, 25-30 minutes, so a good day was only about 5 hours of actual work.
Everything was going great for the first 2 weeks, we were making significant progress and no one wanted to leave for our scheduled resupply trip. We removed about 25 feet of loose coral and hadn't hit anything to indicate a dead end. Now we've got a 45 foot long tunnel, the treasure was said to be 55-60 feet into the wreck.We needed O2 for the chambers, diesel for the compressors, potable water and groceries. We also tried to line up an additional decompression chamber so we could get more dive time. 2 more divers were scheduled to join when we got to port. One diver had enough and quit when we got in. The third decompression chamber wasn't ready when it was time to leave so we went without it.
When we got back to the site setting up the gear went quickly and we went back to work. Again operations were going as good or better than expected, in 3 days we cleared 5 more feet !
And then... The storm ! Alarm bells went off and everyone was called to the galley. The captain told us a fast moving storm was headed our way and there was no chance to make it back to port, we had to ride it out.
Diving operations stopped and everything was being double or triple lashed to the deck some equipment was even being further secured with additional welding to the deck. The weather was still pretty clear and we actually had a little time to do some fishing. The wall of the storm was approching and everyone headed to the galley for the last comfortable meal.
This was a bad storm, it really kicked in the next morning. At one point the general alarm rang again and everyone was musterd to the galley. The engineer went to the wheelhouse and the captain came down to address the crew. He was a man of few words and what he said will stay with me forever. Standing at the bottom of the stairs he said " If anyone wants to make a call come to the wheelhouse one at a time." That's it ! Ship to shore radio at the time was about $18 per minute and no one ever used it. What he was really saying is there's a pretty good chance we weren't going to make it. The only one I could call was my mother but I didn't want her to worry so I didn't call. Later the engineer told me waves were 50-60 feet, from the deck they looked like a hundred feet tall.
We had to tie ourselves into our bunks to sleep otherwise you'd be tossed around like a ragdoll. I was in my rack on the 6 man side of one of the elder buildings. The floor was metal and the metal bunks were welded to the floor. They had heat/AC units in a closet which needs ventilation in the form of an exterior grill about 2' x 4'. I was across from the closet in the top bunk and the grill was facing the outboard side of the ship. Suddenly we were hit by a huge wave. The heating/cooling unit broke through the closet door taking out a good portion of the wall as well and slammed into my bunk, I was the only person in the building. Instantly there was a foot of water inside. The lights were flickering and the power wire for the AC pulled out of the unit. It was sending sparks into the water and up the steel bed frames. It looked like something from Dracula's laboratory and it wasn't stopping. I had to get to the main power switch and shut it off without touching the water or any of the metal fixtures. I jumped from my bunk to the one at the foot of mine. The power switch was on the other side of the door so I had to jump from that bunk and hit the switch before touching the water. Total blackness, I did it, I'm alive !
The storm lasted 3+ full days when it was calm enough to go outside it was clear but we still had 20-30 foot rollers so we couldn't dive. The call came in that our third decompression chamber was at the dock and ready to go. Everyone was about as beat up as could be short of needing a hospital. We decided to head back to port, lick our wounds and patch up the gear as best we could. It was an extremely humbling experience.
Day 22 and we're heading back to the dock, time is running out and we decide on an 8 hr turn around. Some of the crew lived close enough to go home. About half the crew left, I didn't. Unknown to me at the time a large number of those that left came back with guns !
These guys knew that if we were to find anything it may become dangerous. We wouldn't be able to leave the site and the open air, ship to shore radio would surely be heard by others. We would need to call in another boat and crew. There were rumors at the docks and some people on shore knew what we were doing.
When we got back to the site we got set up and went back to work. After about 2 days our tunnel started taking a turn downward. We definitely thought this was it, we're so close ! When diving times are only 25-30 minutes you really have to focus on the job, there wasn't much time to look around. However one observant diver noticed something on the walls and ceiling of the tunnel. Red dots on the ceiling in a consistent pattern bleeding through the coral. On the walls long red streaks. We figured these were rust from the nails that once held the wreck together. Now we're all but certain this is the inside of the ship !
By now we're at 55 feet into the tunnel and it starts getting smaller, much smaller. We were expecting this but it proved difficult to get the airlift where it was needed. It turned into shutting off the airlift and moving material by hand to where the airlift could get it. This slowed us down significantly.
Work went on and the weather was good but our progress was just to slow. We ran out of time and the only thing we took were rusty pieces of coral. We headed back to port to de mobilize the ship.
I've never heard anything else about this site it seems that it would be public knowledge if it were a treasure ship. Maybe it was worked on again and everything was stolen. Maybe it wasn't a treasure ship at all. Obviously the investors thought something was there and the site definitely showed signs of human intervention. None of the divers had been to the site before so how were they able to describe it with such accuracy ?
I hope you enjoyed my real life experience of diving on an ancient shipwreck !
This company did promise to give proper dive, depth and penetration pay retroactively should we be successful. Now, back to the hunt.
The plan was a 30 day operation with a scheduled resupply in port after 2 weeks. If we found anything of value or historic significance we would be funded for another 30 days.
Looking back it was pretty amazing how quickly we found the site, we were in the middle of nowhere, only one oil platform and that was 6-7 miles away on the horizon. On the first dive we found the man made tunnel and established our down line. The diver described the hole as about 5 feet round and 20 feet deep getting narrower further in. He could clearly see it was a tunnel and the bottom was littered with fist size pieces of broken coral. At the back of the tunnel he could see the top went further and hadn't been filled completely. Everyone on board was excited, this is exactly as it was described !
We set up our airlift (basically an underwater vacuum) which was a 10-12 inch heavy flexible rubber pipe about 50 feet long that we could add to. The working end had a steel fitting with a bar welded across the middle to avoid sucking up anything that may clog the airlift. When we started airlifting the loose end wanted to go up and that was causing the debris to fall right at the tunnel entrance so we tied that down to a makeshift anchor. Everything was going as planned...
The weather was perfect, the visibility underwater was absolutely unbelievable, up to 1000 feet ! From the bottom you could clearly see the ship and follow the port bow anchor cable all the way to the anchor sitting in the sand 650 feet away ! We planned to get as many dives as possible in every day using tenders when necessary. When the sun started to set we came upon our first problem, sharks !
The diving supervisor made the call to stop the dives at sunset everyday. We also only had 2 decompression chambers on board and one of those was always on standby in case of emergency. At 165 feet the dives were pretty short, 25-30 minutes, so a good day was only about 5 hours of actual work.
Everything was going great for the first 2 weeks, we were making significant progress and no one wanted to leave for our scheduled resupply trip. We removed about 25 feet of loose coral and hadn't hit anything to indicate a dead end. Now we've got a 45 foot long tunnel, the treasure was said to be 55-60 feet into the wreck.We needed O2 for the chambers, diesel for the compressors, potable water and groceries. We also tried to line up an additional decompression chamber so we could get more dive time. 2 more divers were scheduled to join when we got to port. One diver had enough and quit when we got in. The third decompression chamber wasn't ready when it was time to leave so we went without it.
When we got back to the site setting up the gear went quickly and we went back to work. Again operations were going as good or better than expected, in 3 days we cleared 5 more feet !
And then... The storm ! Alarm bells went off and everyone was called to the galley. The captain told us a fast moving storm was headed our way and there was no chance to make it back to port, we had to ride it out.
Diving operations stopped and everything was being double or triple lashed to the deck some equipment was even being further secured with additional welding to the deck. The weather was still pretty clear and we actually had a little time to do some fishing. The wall of the storm was approching and everyone headed to the galley for the last comfortable meal.
This was a bad storm, it really kicked in the next morning. At one point the general alarm rang again and everyone was musterd to the galley. The engineer went to the wheelhouse and the captain came down to address the crew. He was a man of few words and what he said will stay with me forever. Standing at the bottom of the stairs he said " If anyone wants to make a call come to the wheelhouse one at a time." That's it ! Ship to shore radio at the time was about $18 per minute and no one ever used it. What he was really saying is there's a pretty good chance we weren't going to make it. The only one I could call was my mother but I didn't want her to worry so I didn't call. Later the engineer told me waves were 50-60 feet, from the deck they looked like a hundred feet tall.
We had to tie ourselves into our bunks to sleep otherwise you'd be tossed around like a ragdoll. I was in my rack on the 6 man side of one of the elder buildings. The floor was metal and the metal bunks were welded to the floor. They had heat/AC units in a closet which needs ventilation in the form of an exterior grill about 2' x 4'. I was across from the closet in the top bunk and the grill was facing the outboard side of the ship. Suddenly we were hit by a huge wave. The heating/cooling unit broke through the closet door taking out a good portion of the wall as well and slammed into my bunk, I was the only person in the building. Instantly there was a foot of water inside. The lights were flickering and the power wire for the AC pulled out of the unit. It was sending sparks into the water and up the steel bed frames. It looked like something from Dracula's laboratory and it wasn't stopping. I had to get to the main power switch and shut it off without touching the water or any of the metal fixtures. I jumped from my bunk to the one at the foot of mine. The power switch was on the other side of the door so I had to jump from that bunk and hit the switch before touching the water. Total blackness, I did it, I'm alive !
The storm lasted 3+ full days when it was calm enough to go outside it was clear but we still had 20-30 foot rollers so we couldn't dive. The call came in that our third decompression chamber was at the dock and ready to go. Everyone was about as beat up as could be short of needing a hospital. We decided to head back to port, lick our wounds and patch up the gear as best we could. It was an extremely humbling experience.
Day 22 and we're heading back to the dock, time is running out and we decide on an 8 hr turn around. Some of the crew lived close enough to go home. About half the crew left, I didn't. Unknown to me at the time a large number of those that left came back with guns !
These guys knew that if we were to find anything it may become dangerous. We wouldn't be able to leave the site and the open air, ship to shore radio would surely be heard by others. We would need to call in another boat and crew. There were rumors at the docks and some people on shore knew what we were doing.
When we got back to the site we got set up and went back to work. After about 2 days our tunnel started taking a turn downward. We definitely thought this was it, we're so close ! When diving times are only 25-30 minutes you really have to focus on the job, there wasn't much time to look around. However one observant diver noticed something on the walls and ceiling of the tunnel. Red dots on the ceiling in a consistent pattern bleeding through the coral. On the walls long red streaks. We figured these were rust from the nails that once held the wreck together. Now we're all but certain this is the inside of the ship !
By now we're at 55 feet into the tunnel and it starts getting smaller, much smaller. We were expecting this but it proved difficult to get the airlift where it was needed. It turned into shutting off the airlift and moving material by hand to where the airlift could get it. This slowed us down significantly.
Work went on and the weather was good but our progress was just to slow. We ran out of time and the only thing we took were rusty pieces of coral. We headed back to port to de mobilize the ship.
I've never heard anything else about this site it seems that it would be public knowledge if it were a treasure ship. Maybe it was worked on again and everything was stolen. Maybe it wasn't a treasure ship at all. Obviously the investors thought something was there and the site definitely showed signs of human intervention. None of the divers had been to the site before so how were they able to describe it with such accuracy ?
I hope you enjoyed my real life experience of diving on an ancient shipwreck !
