Wreck Diving

The Orpheus Disaster

by Lynton Diggle
An orchestrated litany of lies is perhaps what Justice McMahon may have said, had he also presided over the inquest into the sinking of the Orpheus on 7 February 1863. Someone had installed the incorrect co-ordinates ...
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Titanic

by Nicholas McIndoe  - images Emory Kristof, National Geographic
 
Interest in the sinking of the RMS Titanic on 15 April 1912 has endured for 100 years.  The accident remains one of peacetime's worst maritime disasters, capturing the imagination of generations like no other. The tragic events of that fateful April night continue to affect our lives today and will generate interest for another 100 years.

The Olympic-class Royal Mail Ship Titanic was owned by the White Star Line and built at the Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast, Ireland, using some of the most advanced technologies of the time and featuring extensive safety measures ...  more

In search of Antarctic shipwrecks

In search of Antarctic shipwrecks

Editor Dave Moran while at the DEMA Expo in Orlando USA 2009 caught up with National Geographic deep water photographer
Dave Moran (DM): Emery what projects do you have on the horizon?
Emory Kristof (EK): We’re planning to look for two historic wrecks from the age of exploration in Antarctica. Shackleton’s ship the Endurance and a Swedish ship the Antarctic. Her story is similar to Endurance being crushed by ice. The Antarctic sunk in about 500 metres (1640 ft) in 1903 and Endurance in 3050 metres (10,000 feet) in 1915. more

World War One wreck discovered

By Dave Moran

Bombs on the back deck

Do you own one of the cylinders listed?

By Keith Cardwell

I'm no expert on bombs. The closest I'm aware of coming to one was about 30 years ago when we hauled up what looked like an unexploded aerial bomb...

AE 1 - The search for Australias first submarine

By Mark Spencer

I led the first Australian expeditions to Turkey in 1997 and again in 1998 to examine the Turkish discovery of AE2 by diver and museum director Selcuk Kolay. The AE2 was sitting upright on a soft silty sea floor more exposed and in better condition than we could have hoped. E-class submarines are not big (176 ft or 53m long). She sat at a depth of 72 metres.

The ghost fleet of Truk Lagoon

For most divers Truk Lagoon is near the top of their wish list of places to dive and many would rate it the finest wreck diving anywhere in the world. The destruction of so many ships and aircraft, by the planes of US Carrier Force 50 on 17/18 February 1944, has left a memorable record on the ocean floor. more

Prince of Whales - Diving with Royalty

It may be small and it may be shallow but don’t let that put you off exploring, it’s a great opportunity for photos and a taste of history. Strangely enough one of the most significant vessels in New Zealand’s history lies on the bottom of the Marlborough Sounds in just four metres of water. The Prince of Wales was relegated to history in about 1941 and for some reason little is written about this vessel, in fact you can dredge the web for hours and only find a passing comment about the original immigrants who travelled on her.

Vodka on the Rocks (Lermontov)

In February of 1986 a harbour pilot made a fatal and un-explainable error taking the Russian passenger liner Mikhail Lermontov to the seabed. The events that unfolded became the makings of a classic modern day shipwreck story, a story of intrigue, espionage, conspiracy and speculation. more

From Wreck to Reef in 200 Days

In a flash of pyrotechnics on 3 November 2007, the ex-HMNZS Canterbury slipped swiftly below the sea, taking up residence in Deep Water Cove in the Bay of Islands on the North Island of New Zealand. She was destined to take on a new life as a designated divers’ playground and artificial reef for marine life. Six months have passed since the sinking, so how has she fared? more

Diving the 36

The fertile waters between Slipper Island and the Aldermen Island group yield many a trophy catch to fishermen who know their business. However, no-one has ever laid eyes on just what’s down there – the deep reefs that hold the giant snapper, the big terakihi, the hapuka. The depth sounder tells one story – a reef that rises from 55-60m to a broad plateau at 36, but this is nothing when compared to the reef’s secrets revealed by your own eyes. more

Lust for Rust, Truk Lagoon

Dan glances at the daily itinerary, scratches his fine curly hair and shifts a wad of Copenhagen chewing tobacco in his cheek. He digs out a diagram of the Yamagiri Maru from a fat file, shifts the Copenhagen to the other cheek and starts the briefing.

‘The Yamagiri Maru was a transport ship. It sank from a torpedo hit and is resting on her port side.

Thai Virgins

Thailand is known for its pretty corals and tourist hot-spots, but we were there to find a bit of history, WW II history.
During the last war, the gulf of Thailand was a favourite haunt of US submarines. Waiting in the deep water (60-80m) south of Bangkok, they attacked supply lines to Japan, and were responsible for the sinking of dozens of freighter ships or ‘Maru’s’.
Some of these wrecks had been discovered, but others remain hidden by the waves, revealing their location only to fishermen who accidentally snag their nets. We were there specifically to find undived wrecks or ‘virgins’ in wreck diver speak, with the aid of some of the best guys in the business – Jamie MacLeod and Stewart Oewel, owners of the MV Trident.
When the guys told us they had hundreds of unknown GPS marks from Thai fishermen, we just had to get there!

Carpathia 2007 Dive Expedition

In 1999 the news that author Clive Cussler’s marine research organisation, National Underwater Marine Agency (NUMA) had located the wreck of RMS Carpathia in 150m of water, 200 miles off the coast of the British Isles in the North Atlantic was very exciting news for a number of divers in the UK.

The Honorable laid to rest, HMNZS Canterbury

Whack!
In just under four minutes the image we had all been looking at for four hours was gone - vanished - only the haze of black gunpowder hung over the hundreds of spectator craft and the whiteness of the water where she once floated indicated that something very significant has just happened.

Diving the Rubis

If a panel of judges had to choose the Seven underwater Wonders of the French coasts, there is no doubt that the famous RUBIS would be one of them. Thousands of divers have already visited her. The ones of the old brigade know her well, or think they do, while the young dream to meet her.

Gold – 70 fathoms deep

The Union Steamship liner RMS Niagara sank off Bream Head, Whangarei, New Zealand in June 1940, loaded with gold ingots worth over NZD$100 million at today’s rates. Immediately after the sinking an incredible salvage operation began and a large part of the treasure was recovered. Now an international deep-diving team has dived and photographed the wreck, which lies at 121m depth.

Shadow Divers dive New Zealand’s Mikhail Lermontov Russian cruiseliner

John Chatterton and Richie Kohler are a couple of the world’s most accomplished and well known wreck divers. Their world recognised status resulted in the publication of the book Shadow Divers by Robert Kurson. It details their diving adventures in discovering the identity of a German WWII sub off New Jersey on the east coast of the USA nick-named the U-Who. It is currently published in 21 languages! Keep an eye out for Hitler’s Lost Sub on the Discovery Channel.

WWII Japanese Midget Submarine discovered

The finding of M24, the missing third midget submarine which attacked shipping in Sydney Harbour on the night of 31 May 1942, has stirred a lot of memories of those wartime days and how close Japan’s war came to Australia and New Zealand.

The lost wrecks of World War IIHMAS Sydney Lost In Time

The HMAS Sydney forever rewrote the history of Australia’s naval losses. And like so many ships lost in battle, the legend lives on until the sea shall give up her dead. But unlike many lost ships, the history of the Sydney might be rewritten as new clues may lead to her final resting place. So little is certain about the final hours and last throes of the Sydney that locating her remains could lay to rest the 65-year-old mystery of what really happened to the HMAS Sydney.

Mikhail Lermontov celebrates her 20th birthday

I slowly turned and glanced back to where we had come from - utter blackness! A blackness that you rarely see - there is normally always some light coming from somewhere - this blanket of complete darkness could smother you.

New Zealand’s Virgin Wreck

An untouched wreck is hard to find these days. But this week we found one. Although, to be honest, the guys found it on the sounder a few months ago, but the visibility hadn't been good enough since to go down and check it out. Sitting in a heavily overfished area just five miles off the coast of Tasman Bay our little wreck was so far untouched and unplundered.

HMNZS Wellington

The champagne corks were popping at 3.25 pm on Sunday 13 November as the HMNZ Wellington’s hull sprayed salt water high above the waves for the last time. In just one minute 50 seconds after an explosive thud resounded through the waters off Island and Houghton Bays on Wellington’s South Coast, the F69 Charitable Trust had good reason to pop the Champagne to celebrate the successful conclusion of six years of dreaming and hard work.

HMNZS Canterbury up for grabs

And begin it has. At least 10 groups have shown an interest in acquiring the last of the New Zealand Navy’s Leander class frigates, HMNZS Canterbury, for a range of purposes, including cutting her up for scrap, a floating restaurant, a museum, an international sale, or sinking her as an artificial reef for a tourist attraction.

The world wrecks tour visits Palau

Palau, for all its twenty-first century tranquillity, was the scene of some of the most intense fighting in the second world war.

U-390 At Hell’s Door in 50 metres

We had been aborting trials to dive the wreck of U 390 for several years due to weather, visibility, breakages, gear failure, currents - well if it wasn’t one thing it was the next! Exaggeration? May the passionate diver who has never met one of these annoyances cast me the first stone.

Rainbow Warrior

French Government secret service agents illegally entered the country and carried out a deliberate and carefully planned underwater terrorist attack on the Greenpeace ship Rainbow Warrior as she lay tied to the dock at Marsden Wharf. Minutes before there had been many people onboard. Had the explosion occurred then there would have been more than the one fatality - photographer Fernando Periera.

Taioma Transformation (Tauranga)

The Tui Turns Two

Sinking of the Waikato

Diving the Mikhail Lermontov (New Zealand)

All adventures begin with drama and this was no different. While Wellington is well known for a lot of things this weekend it was famous for five metre swells and 40 knot winds.

The World Wrecks Tour visits New Zealand’s POOR KNIGHTS’ wrecks

It was a slightly odd sensation to taxi slowly towards the terminal in Auckland Airport and watch the rain lash against the perspex window of the aircraft. Rain has become something of an alien concept to us, and we all looked slightly incongruous in our Hawaiian shirt wearing, skinny legged splendour. We huddled together like juvenile penguins and shuffled through the departure lounge to the waiting bus.

World Wrecks Tour – Scapa Flow

As the little aircraft containing our group rattled towards the islands of Orkney from the Scottish mainland to the south, a spiralling low pressure system charged in simultaneously from the wild waters to the north. We arrived at the tiny island together, meaning that day one of our expedition was spent wincing and staggering in icy northern winds...

Niagara revisited!

This was my second expedition (first dive refer to O/N 2001 issue #66) to the HMS Niagara which sank off the east coast of New Zealand’s North Island near the Hen and Chicken Islands after striking a German mine in 1940. Her bullion room held over 7.5 tons of gold bullion! more

NIAGARA 2003

Titanic of the Pacific more

Lermontov 99

The Mikhail Lermontov, a steel passenger liner weighing in at 10,742 tonnes was built in East Germany in 1972. She came to her demise in early February 1986 finally laying to rest in Port Gore. more

Sinking the Waikato

by Dave Moran more

Dive Into History: a 1914 E-class submarine

This is the story of a little-known and unrecognised hero of the Gallipoli campaign. Lost since April 1915, the submarine AE2 is now the focus of a research project by a joint Australian and Turkish diving team. more

The wreck of the USS John Penn

The tepid sea was welcome as we descended down the mooring line. We scanned our depth gauges carefully. Ten metres, 15, 20, then suddenly near 26 metres, the huge intact wreck materialised out of the gloom. more

Finding the SS Tasman

The Tasman was an iron screw steamer built in Glasgow by Blackwood and Gordon in February 1873. She was 210 feet long, 27 feet wide and 19 feet deep more

Sydney Project

The Sydney wreck diving scene revolves mostly around wrecks in the 50 metre range, with four known wrecks in the 60 to 80 metre range, which allow the use of mixed gas diving for appropriately trained divers. Diving on wrecks off Sydney can vary due to the unpredictable weather conditions, as well as strong currents, it can be easy diving or hardcore. more

The loss of the SS Penguin

The Penguin referred to by some today as New Zealand’s Titanic was a loss with one of the highest costs in human life both in number dead and percentage of those on board of twentieth century New Zealand shipwrecks. Only a fraction of the size of the Titanic at 67 metres and a mere 824 tonnes gross. The impact of her loss on New Zealand was every bit as great as the loss of the Titanic was on Europe and the USA. more

Diving the President Coolidge in Vanuatu

The President Coolidge was one hell of a ship. When you descend onto a 199 metre long, 24.7 metre wide and 10.4 metre deep oceanliner you really are spoilt for choice. Thanks be to the brilliance of the captain who drove 14 thousand tonnes into their own minefield.

Diving the Atlanta wreck

We stayed on gas until the 6 metres/20 feet deco stop and then flushed the rebreathers with oxygen so the final stops were done on almost pure oxygen...

THE LUSITANIA CHALLENGE

‘Let’s go’, I signalled to Hal Watts, and we pressed our dump valves and headed down the shot line. This was the culmination of preparations to dive on my very own private property, owned for the past 35 years. Every summer for the previous eight years, I have been helping other tech divers to visit the famous wreck of the Lusitania.

MIKHAIL LERMONTOV

In a continuance of the theme of espionage and intrigue that seems to run through our New Zealand wrecks, the sinking of the Lermontov is wrapped in mystery.

NORTHERN WRECKS TOUR - SIX OF THE BEST

I was enjoying the sensation of drifting through the bowels of a ship in a place ships weren't designed to be - at the bottom of the sea!

AE2

Discovery of a World War 1 Submarine

Niagara on Trimix

Niagara on Trimix

Niagara by ROV

The sweep of the sonar cycled slowly across the screen, painting a narrow red target in midwater ahead. Our concentration switched to the video monitors as images from the ROV camera transported us into the depths below. I flew the ROV slowly ahead, the camera searching the twilight blue. Suddenly, fish appeared, golden snapper; their bodies shone in the reflection of our lights, their numbers signalling the proximity of a shipwreck. A dark shadow materialised on the screen, transforming into the upper section of a ship’s mast as we approached.

Diving the Tui

My First Dive on the Tui

Niagara 2000

Tim Cashman and Dave Apperley make their second dive on this wreck to 115m.

SS Taioma sunk

New Zealand’s newest wreck dive! Angie Belcher takes us on the Taioma’s last journey through the streets of Tauranga to her final resting place on the seabed near Motiti Island.

South China Sea treasure

Dave Moran joins the team salvaging millions of dollars worth of porcelain from the 178 year old wreck of the Tek Sing .

The sinking of the Waikato

New Zealand's newest wreck!

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