First Meg´s on the "Elisabeth Bornhofen"

vbsandvik · 3rd November 2007, 22:48

The steamship Elisabeth Bornhofen sank on October 4th 1944 after an attack by British bombers right outside Bergen harbour. The Royal Air Force were making an attack on the German submarine pens in Bergen, called "Bruno."

During the attack the British pilots spotted the cargo freighter Elisabeth Bornhofen. The vessel was hit with bombs and was soon on fire.
The wreck of Elisabeth Bornhofen is in a depth of sixty five to eighty meters right outside the harbour, standing on her keel in a relatively good condition. The impressive ships wheel is in place at the stern.

I´ve been diving wreck for ten years now, and since I moved to Bergen four years ago, I´ve had wet dreams of this wreck. But in Bergen there is few diving this wreck, due to diving restriction may -> sept beacuse of the ship lane, depth etc...

Last week I was in contact with one of the local dive clubs in Bergen that dives the wreck, and were invited to dive with them today, saturday 3rd of november.

Immideately I sent out a invitation on my mailing-list of VIP-buddies, most of them on Meg´s, and some on other CCR´s and one OC...
But it was poor feedback from those guys....

Yesterday it was only Fred from Oslo that showed up, he drove about 500km to dive...

But yesterday the weather was crappy, rainshowers all over, windy, to bad for diving there... #1 Dive aborted....

But the weather-forecast showed it should be only between 4 - 7 m/s wind and some small rainshowers, but all that know the west coast of Norway, knows that the weather forecast is not a exact sciense here....

We went to bed late with rain and lots of wind outside, bad feelings for the dive, we had a bailout-plan to dive the "Oldenburg" if we had to cancell the "E.B"

This morning I wake up, saw out on the fiord from my bedroom window, and got HAPPY,

, no wind, and small clouds.

We met up on the quay and loaded up the boat, 2 x MEG, 2 sets of 3x stages etc etc...

On the way out to the divesite, we rigged up, at the divesite we shot the wreck, and got out the deco-station...

The local guys on OC went in the water first, after some fumbeling with equipment we got out, down on 21m we met the OC-guys, got only thumbs up, abort the dive, and empty down there signals....
The line had missed the wreck and nothing found...
#2 Dive aborted....

We went up again, my shortest wreck dive, 21m and 5mins....
Got up in the boat, got the rig of,but my buddy weren´t so disappointed I´d feared, he was smiling and said; "We´d atleast tried.."

After a while we made ready to back ashore, then the OC-guys were finished with their deco, came up and ordered; "Then we shoots it again, you guys on those boxes surely have enough gas to try again??"

Sure we had, but we didn´t feel that it was so popular that they should have to wait for us all that time, but it wasn´t a problem for them, so we made ready for a new try!

Down it went, after 3 min we were at 60ish, and out of the fog the wreck appeared, they´d put the line outside of the starboard rail, just in front of the bridge, what a luck!

Fred installed a flash´er on the line, to easier find back to it.

We swam against the stern, followed the starboard side, rounded the stern, down watching the propeller, and forward on the port side.
"E.B" is a beautifull wreck, mostly intact, lots of details, plenty of huge fishes, wolf-fish/cod/ lange og brøsme(sorry for putting only the Norwegian names on the last).

On the superstructure we did some small penetrations, and enjoyed ourself..

We decided that 25min bottomtime wass enough and started our acsent.
On the decostops I only lay thinking how lucky we´d been, finally got to dive that wreck, long waiting, but it was worth it!

Back up on the boat again, we´re happy as a boy on Christmas Eve..

My Dive-facts:
Depths 65m-69m
Bottomtime: 25min
Runtime: 92min
PPO2: 1,3 - 6m and up: Oxygen
Diluent: Tx 11/45
Bailouts: Tx 15/53
Nx 70
Oxygen

Fred´s Dive-facts:
Depths 65m-69m
Bottomtime: 25min
Runtime: 92min
PPO2: 1,3 - 6m and up: Oxygen
Diluent: Tx 10/60
Bailouts: Tx 12/60
Tx 30/30
Nx 80

This evening have we been watching the pics from today and planning tomorrow dive on "Oldenburg"

We will thank our friends in Octopus Diveclub, giving us opportunity to have a such amazing day with diving, wreck, good mood and helpful as few;
Gunnar, Terje, Trond, Raymond and Wendy - Thanks a lot!

Vegard and Fred

decoweenie · 4th November 2007, 04:07

Thanks for the nice report, the pictures bring back a lot of memory for me (used to live in Stavanger)...

We would have killed to have access to a nice large dive boat like that back then. Glad that you made it to the wreck...

3rd November 2007, 22:48	#1 (permalink)
vbsandvik New Member Current Rebreather/s: Megalodon Other Rebreather/s: Inspiration Classic Megalodon Join Date: May 2006 Location: Bergen Posts: 42	First Meg´s on the "Elisabeth Bornhofen" The steamship Elisabeth Bornhofen sank on October 4th 1944 after an attack by British bombers right outside Bergen harbour. The Royal Air Force were making an attack on the German submarine pens in Bergen, called "Bruno." During the attack the British pilots spotted the cargo freighter Elisabeth Bornhofen. The vessel was hit with bombs and was soon on fire. The wreck of Elisabeth Bornhofen is in a depth of sixty five to eighty meters right outside the harbour, standing on her keel in a relatively good condition. The impressive ships wheel is in place at the stern. I´ve been diving wreck for ten years now, and since I moved to Bergen four years ago, I´ve had wet dreams of this wreck. But in Bergen there is few diving this wreck, due to diving restriction may -> sept beacuse of the ship lane, depth etc... Last week I was in contact with one of the local dive clubs in Bergen that dives the wreck, and were invited to dive with them today, saturday 3rd of november. Immideately I sent out a invitation on my mailing-list of VIP-buddies, most of them on Meg´s, and some on other CCR´s and one OC... But it was poor feedback from those guys.... Yesterday it was only Fred from Oslo that showed up, he drove about 500km to dive... But yesterday the weather was crappy, rainshowers all over, windy, to bad for diving there... #1 Dive aborted.... But the weather-forecast showed it should be only between 4 - 7 m/s wind and some small rainshowers, but all that know the west coast of Norway, knows that the weather forecast is not a exact sciense here.... We went to bed late with rain and lots of wind outside, bad feelings for the dive, we had a bailout-plan to dive the "Oldenburg" if we had to cancell the "E.B" This morning I wake up, saw out on the fiord from my bedroom window, and got HAPPY, , no wind, and small clouds. We met up on the quay and loaded up the boat, 2 x MEG, 2 sets of 3x stages etc etc... On the way out to the divesite, we rigged up, at the divesite we shot the wreck, and got out the deco-station... The local guys on OC went in the water first, after some fumbeling with equipment we got out, down on 21m we met the OC-guys, got only thumbs up, abort the dive, and empty down there signals.... The line had missed the wreck and nothing found... #2 Dive aborted.... We went up again, my shortest wreck dive, 21m and 5mins.... Got up in the boat, got the rig of,but my buddy weren´t so disappointed I´d feared, he was smiling and said; "We´d atleast tried.." After a while we made ready to back ashore, then the OC-guys were finished with their deco, came up and ordered; "Then we shoots it again, you guys on those boxes surely have enough gas to try again??" Sure we had, but we didn´t feel that it was so popular that they should have to wait for us all that time, but it wasn´t a problem for them, so we made ready for a new try! Down it went, after 3 min we were at 60ish, and out of the fog the wreck appeared, they´d put the line outside of the starboard rail, just in front of the bridge, what a luck! Fred installed a flash´er on the line, to easier find back to it. We swam against the stern, followed the starboard side, rounded the stern, down watching the propeller, and forward on the port side. "E.B" is a beautifull wreck, mostly intact, lots of details, plenty of huge fishes, wolf-fish/cod/ lange og brøsme(sorry for putting only the Norwegian names on the last). On the superstructure we did some small penetrations, and enjoyed ourself.. We decided that 25min bottomtime wass enough and started our acsent. On the decostops I only lay thinking how lucky we´d been, finally got to dive that wreck, long waiting, but it was worth it! Back up on the boat again, we´re happy as a boy on Christmas Eve.. My Dive-facts: Depths 65m-69m Bottomtime: 25min Runtime: 92min PPO2: 1,3 - 6m and up: Oxygen Diluent: Tx 11/45 Bailouts: Tx 15/53 Nx 70 Oxygen Fred´s Dive-facts: Depths 65m-69m Bottomtime: 25min Runtime: 92min PPO2: 1,3 - 6m and up: Oxygen Diluent: Tx 10/60 Bailouts: Tx 12/60 Tx 30/30 Nx 80 This evening have we been watching the pics from today and planning tomorrow dive on "Oldenburg" We will thank our friends in Octopus Diveclub, giving us opportunity to have a such amazing day with diving, wreck, good mood and helpful as few; Gunnar, Terje, Trond, Raymond and Wendy - Thanks a lot! Vegard and Fred __________________ Deep down, there it's deep.... Leave no bubbles - dive CCR!
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4th November 2007, 04:07	#2 (permalink)
decoweenie Crash Test Dummy Current Rebreather/s: Other CCR Other Rebreather/s: Other CCR Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: Cairo Posts: 5,510	Re: First Meg´s on the "Elisabeth Bornhofen" Thanks for the nice report, the pictures bring back a lot of memory for me (used to live in Stavanger)... We would have killed to have access to a nice large dive boat like that back then. Glad that you made it to the wreck...
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