What is your favourite wreck....

Philippe GERIN

I have not. I just know a team of 2 ex-military combat divers who told me they have "privately" (secretely?) done it on OC and scoots. They said they are "just" a few hundreds meters apart. They had deco gaz with them and a deco station was rigged on the shot line on Le grec. They also had safety divers waiting for them on Le Grec. I know nothing about their deco parameters. I don't know if anybody else has done it. That's for sure a helluva dive but cave divers do similar dives too, right?
Best
Philippe

CCR-Wrecker

dive2dive2000

That is a tuff question.


I would have to say locally the Oregon. It is a cruise liner that sunk in the late 1800's

it is about 120' deep 2 hr boat ride and it is just Majestic, To this day it still produces quality Artifacts lobsters and scallops, besides it is an abundent source of fish for the hunter.

I have a # of wrecks that take some traveling to that I could easily add to my all time favaorites.
Carolina 240' 10hr boat ride, Coimbra 180' 4hr boat ride Gulf Trade 80' 5hr boat ride.

Martin

Deep Thought

Well now...I stumbled upon this thread at the end of my local dive season (3 months on Lake Superior) having just winterized the boat which translates to hauling out of water, up on blocks, antifreeze engines…and pulled the cork on a nice bottle of red grape antifreeze to winterize my mind until my next wreck dive trip at Truk Lagoon this March of ’06. It takes a lot of red antifreeze to wait out old man winter, thinking about next seasons wreck dives! So I'll keep this short....

I’ve studied wrecks from inland lakes to costal U.S. as well as travel abroad and find that wreck sites can be everything from piles of scrap metal or they can be fully intact hull/cabins, yet local divers have fierce loyalty to either of these states of preservation. Most all natural wrecks have a human drama attached, and in many cases loss of life so they do deserve respect. Artificial wrecks have no drama, aside from a history of service and attachment to some community, and for this reason I tend to be much more critical of the esthetic value of these sites.

There seems to be two classes of shipwrecks; historic wrecks or pretty wrecks and in some rare instances these two coincide. Historical significance can be local such as a passenger/packet ship, or international luxury liner/battleship. I describe pretty wrecks as either a wreck with such structural integrity that it looks mysterious/cool/like a ship or it is covered in spectacular marine life.

One should have a benchmark or case point as an example to compare all other wreck sites, in this case I will choose the Titanic as it is well know yet out of the reach of scuba divers. This wreck is internationally historic and a pretty wreck, from the perspectives that this wreck caused great loss/tragedy for people of many countries who came from all classes of society. The wreck also maintains some amazing integrity that provides fantastic images, coupled with a trove of artifacts; this wreck needs no adornment of marine life to compensate for any deficiencies.


Having swam in many puddles and having the opportunity to enjoy shipwrecks of all manners, I have become an historic artifact snob. This doesn’t mean that I would turn down an opportunity to dive a well know site, but to really hold interest and return visits means that it has to have sustenance. Take a well know site such as Bikini- lots of intact war ships – artificial and no natural artifacts, but still nice wrecks. Ok, give me a few nukes and I’ll make a bunch of great dive sites, of course you won’t be able to live around the area, eat the coconuts or snozberries….but nice wrecks. Now contrast this to Chuuk with its many intact wrecks – yes most all are only merchant “Maru” ships, with anti-aircraft guns, cargo holds full of torpedo, bullets, bombs, and Sake bottles – wow did they drink a lot of hooch! Seriously there is Sake bottles under the bed in every officers cabin, and in every hold of these ships. In all of the wrecks of Truk you will find the mystery, intrigue, and human drama played out in the explosions, torpedo holes, and of course respectfully human remains in the deeper portions of the wrecks.

Operation Hailstorm in Chuuk was considered a small war effort, yet the wrecks can be considered a benchmark for history as well as beautiful wrecks; a world war battle affecting people of all nations, the remains of many virtually intact wrecks that provide scenic appretiation of a wreck as well as an amazing array of artifacts. Now add a bonus dimension of marine life, some wrecks are quite prolific and stunning in their beauty while others are almost totally void of marine life.

Some wrecks such as the Andrea Doria have a regional significance, are written about and glamorized in many books, yet leave me to feel that these are T-shirt wrecks (been there, got the T-shirt to prove it…) this is a case where a once beautiful wreck has been stripped / gutted to the point where it is now an empty shell, does it have any draw beyond proving ones balls to dive a wreck in less than ideal conditions?

One significant impact of rebreathers has been the extension that they provide; extensions for many people to visit wrecks that would have otherwise been beyond a reasonable goal – Yes rebreathers make it easy to go deep – several wrecks that were “Tech Accomplishments” are now today’s adventures. For this very reason I find myself diving deeper and deeper to see shipwrecks and artifacts that have not been gutted.

The following paragraph was omitted due to the controversial content of artifact preservations, and the ability for divers to enjoy seeing artifacts left on shipwrecks.
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Etc, etc, etc, believe me it was full of strong language and lack of empathy for boneheads that argue that artifacts are wasted in the ocean, to them I would say; “Oops I meant to leave this out…” remind self to delete this sentence too.


With the above disclaimer, and to get to Stuart’s point, the wrecks that I enjoy the most are in two distinctly different environments; first is Lake Superior, fresh water very cold (on average few degrees above freezing), and Truk Lagoon -Chuuk- (warm pacific –boil your bum). Both Superior and Chuuk have shipwrecks of historic dramas, almost completely intact wrecks, and an incredible array of artifacts.

Wrecks in Lake Superior include (discovered sites) ships sunk in 1800's to 1970's – almost exclusively natural sites, although a couple artificial sites exist, the wrecks in water depth of 150 ffw are mostly stripped of artifacts, but wrecks beyond this depth hold an amazing variety of artifacts.

There are four primary focal points to dive Lake Superior; Greater body of water including shipping lanes, Isle Royale (Island & National Park out in middle lake), Rossport Ontario, and Whitefish Bay.

Greater Lake: Friant 1924 is a small fishing tug that sits in 300+ ffw with the steam stack still upright, all cabins, windows, bell, binnacle, wheel, all fishing gear intact. It is a little museum, out in the middle of the lake.

Isle Royale: Kamloops 1927 sits in 180 – 270 ffw and is a small packet freighter with an eclectic cargo including leather shoes, tractor seats, wooden wheelbarrows, candy LifeSavers, and yes the remains of crew...human bodies sopanified...This wreck drives a lot of world travelers “nuts” because they swim past perfectly preserved ships wheel, port holes, brass running lights, etc…but to really understand the beauty of a dive like this is to swim up to a wooden crate of candy lifesavers and see each roll of paper and foil wrapper with bright blue and green printing still intact, realizing that it would only take one careless sweep of a fin to destroy these fragile artifacts. http://www.goingunder.net/photogallery.htm

Rossport Ontario – 1911 Gunilda a multimillion dollar steam sailing yacht was run aground when the owner, a robber baron-industrial steel magnet W. L. Harkness refused a $25 fee for a local pilot, then hit a shoal….Considered the Jewel of Lake Superior is sits in 270 ffw with a beautiful inscribed bell at the bow, three sailing stations, hand carved mahogany paneling, running lights, piano in the salon, china cups, upright mast with riggings… http://www.goingunder.net/Gunilda%20uw%20photo/index.htm

Close to Rossport is Judge Hart – another great story as a bulk cargo ship was stranded in ice flows during a winter blizzard, the ship is encapsulated by ice then sinks. Typically a sinking ship blows apart due to the air escaping, the Hart simply sank...melted ice cap away and now sits completely intact…if you want to read the steam whistle signals in the pilot house all you have to do is peak your head inside the doorway…

Whitefish Bay….wow! all I can say is; wooden steamers and sailing ships with masts and riggings still upright in place… http://www.superiortrips.com/Whitefish/Whitefish_Shipwreck_List.htm The Aurania 430 ffw is top of my list.

Close by is the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald 1975 in 530 ffw – the bow is upright and the stern is turned turtle, two o.c. divers have made this dive in ’95, currently mired in politics and million dollar fines for coming within 5000 ft of the wreck. See further regarding diving on grave sites and political correctness…

Things to consider: the water is very cold, no I mean really cold and sterile which preserves the artifacts so nicely but leaves no pretty marine life to distract you during the mind numbing cold decompressions… so if you see a trout swim by –yawee!! Neighboring Lake Michigan also has nice wrecks but they are covered with a parasitic marine muscle “Zebra Muscle” that looks like a swarm of bees covering a hive.

Ok, now let’s get on an airplane and travel a long way to the middle of the Pacific Ocean – Truk Lagoon -Chuuk. Nobody lives there so don’t reply and tell me that it is close to “anything”! This is a slice of island paradise, if you believe in paradise (palm trees, sand, and poverty) smack in the middle of nowhere, however it was convenient as a base for the Japanese to supply the war efforts. The U.S. took it upon itself to drop a lot of bombs on this site in 1944 and create a bunch of really neat dive sites today!

What caught me by surprise on the last visit to Chuuk was sitting in the restaurant of the Blue Lagoon resort with several Japanese visitors present, while our group was diving on their war graves…then to stop over in Pearl Harbor HI for a tour of the “Big Mo” and “Arizona” with Japanese tourist in attendance made me wonder how it would be to have Japanese tourists diving on the war grave of the Arizona? Time passes and it becomes politically acceptable to dive on gravesites...

If you enjoy seeing an abundance of rainbow colored soft corals, schools of fish, pelagics, and of course very intact shipwrecks loaded with history, drama and artifacts then Truk Lagoon is a great place to dive!

Truk Lagoon - Chuuk- Most wrecks in the lagoon are Maru or Merchant vessels carrying war supplies, although there are at least one submarine and a destroyer.

Wow; where to start listing wrecks of Truk? After 3 ccr trips with outrageous bottom times, I’m still amazed at new experiences. I guess memorable times include penetrating several decks to deep engine spaces / holds that contain artifacts that appear to never have been disturbed, or swimming out of the midship section and turning around to see a room full of brass running lights! Too many and too much cool stuff to summarize just say Truk Lagoon

It’s a big world with a lot of nice wrecks to see, and I’ve only scratched the sub surface, besides; “wrecks are like women, I love them all for different reasons”.

silentscuba

A great post Ron, I really enjoyed reading about your views and experiences on wreck diving

I still hope Mel and I will be going on your Truk trip in March.

Curt

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Curt McNamee
rEvo CCR Diver
KISS CCR Diver
www.silentscuba.com

Nad

I really loved and enjoy every wreck I dove. Everyone was special.

However I did a dive today on a really little wreck of a 43 feet sailboat, 38m depth, in a Lake in Switzerland (Lake Maggiore for those who are skilled in Geography ), pretty ehm... hard to go in with Boris and bailout but what the hell... So I swam, no actually I crawled to the bow cabin and I found my first Bell!!! Well it is 8cm high and 5cm diameter...a toy!
Amused about the discovery I crawled back (I didn't have any space to turn ) and went out with the Boris case crying.

It was really a shitty dive but I enjoy it, It is not really important if a wreck is large or deep or whateverelse. Also the most "stupid" one like the one I did visit today could make a dive great.

Nad

__________________
The Impossible is often the Untried

Deep Thought

Hey Curt

That would be great if you and Mel can join me at Truck this March, its going to be a blast! I'm getting ready to ship another bunch of stage and onboard cylinders to the resort so you don't have to lug cylinders. I'll probably toss on some more sorb, and helium while I'm at it just to be safe.

Start planning a trip to Isle Royale this next year too, the season is so short its over before it starts?

ron

Drmike

__________________
Cave diving is a sport
Wreck diving is a sport
Diving in general is a sport

'Rebreather diving' is not a sport
its the delusional obsession with a highly dangerous and often inappropriate piece of equipment

pchanning

Favorite wreck: Zenobia - Cyprus.

Depth: 43m ish

Why: First wreck dive EVER, did the bottom and started my PADI AOWD course the next day


Nicked photo btw.

It left a huge impression on me. Not sure if I really want to go and do it again though, it'll never be as good right..??

__________________
Cheers
Paul

The key to enlightenment... is survival.

Jason Blackwell

1 – USS Aaron Ward

2 – Solomon Islands, Tulagi Dive www.tulagidive.com.sb/

3 – 70m ish to the sand. Top of the Bridge is in the mid 40m mark.

4 – Come on, warm water and a REAL Destroyer, upright, with guns still pointing to the sky……..does it get much better?

www.destroyerhistory.org/benson-gleavesclass/ussaaronward.html

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Jason Blackwell
TDI Instructor Trainer #1358
Optima...Inspiration/Evolution...KISS...and what is next???
www.divedivedive.com.au
OZTeK '09 March 2009 Sydney, Australia www.diveoztek.com.au