Big Blue Tech has been busy again with the completion of a PADI Enriched Air and Deep Diver Specialty Course. Although this course is not specifically technical diving it is a great introduction to it and is a prerequisite for further more challenging diving.

Because of the amount it was also a pleasure to be able to take a boat to ourselves and park at South West Pinnacle for the duration of the morning for 2 back to back dives on nitrox. Later diving was completed again Chumphon pinnacle.

With another great group completed some progressed on to technical diving while others went back to their divemaster internship or fun diving on nitrox.

Below are some pictures from the event.

Today the technical team embarked on a PADI/SSI Deep and NItrox combined Specialty course on the Full Day trip which saw a boat accomodate 51 people diving at Sail Rock, one of koh taos most beautiful dive sites.

The boat departed at 7 am with divers from all over the world and different activities from Advanced Open Water Course to Dive Master Course. Although the boat was quite full there was plenty of space on the 3 floor boat Banzai.

After a full hot breakfast began theory for the deep dive to 40m. This included hazards, benefits and planning of deep diving.

As teh group decended we were met by large schools of pelagic fish including Barracuda and Trevalli. With up to 30m visibility you could see quite soon the 40m point for conducting the skills. A package of potatoe chips with a red bag and a water bottle were taken along to show light and pressure changes. The group did very well with the narcosis, remarking that they did feel it but it wasn’t uncomfortable.

Back on the boat there was a light snack and time for nitrox theory including partial pressure knowledge and gas analysis. As we descended we were met by a 5m whale shark at 15m. We were able to stay with the majestic beast for over 30 minutes because of the nitrox. After the whaleshark left we went through the chimney which is a vertical swim through.

Back on the boat, we enjoyed lunch, swapped on to our next mix of 36% nitrox and headed off to South West Pinnacle. Here we would conduct the surface consuption swim and simulated decompression stop and out of air drills.

Upon returning to the dive shop everyone enjoyed a cold beer and watched the sunset reflecting on the day of seeing one of the rarest marine animals in the world and completing 2 specialty courses.

Congratulations for Dyland, Paul, Andy and Fiona

Two new books, heavy on diving hit the shelves shortly. Diving in to Darkness (A True Story of Death and Survival) by Philip Finch, release date 30th September and Titanic’s Last Secrets: The Further Adventures of Shadow Divers John Chatterton and Richie Kohle by Brad Matsen, release date October…

Diving in to Darkness

On New Year’s Day, 2005, David Shaw traveled halfway around the world on a journey that took him to a steep crater in the Kalahari Desert of South Africa, a site known as Bushman’s Hole. His destination was nearly 900 feet below the surface.

On January 8th he descended into the water. About fifteen feet below the surface was a fissure in the bottom of the basin, barely wide enough to admit him. He slipped through the opening and disappeared from sight, leaving behind the world of light and life.

Then, a second diver descended through the same crack in the stone. This was Don Shirley, Shaw’s friend, and one of the few people in the world qualified to follow where Shaw was about to go. In the community of extreme diving, Don Shirley was a master among masters.

Twenty-five minutes later, one of the men was dead. The other was in mortal peril, and would spend the next 10 hours struggling to survive, existing literally from breath to breath.

What happened that day is the stuff of nightmarish drama, but it’s also a compelling human story of friendship, heroism, ambition, and of coming to terms with loss and tragedy.

Titanic’s Last Secret

After rewriting history with their discovery of a Nazi U-boat off the coast of New Jersey, legendary divers John Chatterton and Richie Kohler decided to investigate the great enduring mystery of history’s most notorious shipwreck: Why did Titanic sink as quickly as it did?

To answer the question, Chatterton and Kohler assemble a team of experts to explore Titanic, study its engineering, and dive to the wreck of its sister ship, Brittanic, where Titanic’s last secrets may be revealed.

Titanic’s Last Secrets is a rollercoaster ride through the shipbuilding history, the transatlantic luxury liner business, and shipwreck forensics. Chatterton and Kohler weave their way through a labyrinth of clues to discover that Titanic was not the strong, heroic ship the world thought she was and that the men who built her covered up her flaws when disaster struck. If Titanic had remained afloat for just two hours longer than she did, more than two thousand people would have lived instead of died, and the myth of the great ship would be one of rescue instead of tragedy.

Titanic’s Last Secrets is the never-before-told story of the Ship of Dreams, a contemporary adventure that solves a historical mystery

European Shark Week, for which the public are asked to run all manner of activities in support of shark conservation, takes place from 11-19 October.  
In the UK, the event is being promoted by The Shark Trust, which describes it as “a unique opportunity for people across Europe to demonstrate their support for shark conservation in a way that can really effect change”.

Materials including banners, badges, posters, leaflets and stickers are available from the Trust, for those willing to promote the campaign to change European law for more effective shark conservation measures in EU waters.

A key element is the collection of campaign petition signatures. “During European Shark Week 2007, aquariums, dive clubs and other organisations helped host more than 100 events and collected more than 20,000 signatures,” says The Shark Trust. “This year is truly pivotal for European shark policy.”

To find out more about European Shark Week, obtain publicity materials or sign the petition online, go to www.sharktrust.org

Participants who get hold of the event’s big-fin posters are asked also to contribute digital photographs of people with them, for a campaigning online picture wall at www.sharkalliance.org, website of the European shark conservation umbrella group of which The Shark Trust is a member.
 
Source: Divenet

A three-week operation is under way to raise items from a wreck judged to be Blackbeard’s Queen Anne’s Revenge.

The 1718 wreck was found in 1996, in shallow water near Fishtown in North Carolina. Over the past 11 years, numerous surveys and recoveries have taken place at the site.

This time, the QAR Shipwreck Project team are excavating and recovering items from the wreck’s forward hold and midships areas. Among other things, an 8ft, 1-ton cannon is being raised to join eleven other cannon already ashore.

Dives began on 15 September and are due to continue until 7 November. Recovered artefacts are being taken to the project’s lab at East Carolina University for treatment and storage.
 
Source: Divenet

Wreck diving skills Houdini would love

It was a calm, clear day when we descended 100 feet to the deck of the USCG Duane off Key Largo, Fla. The water was clear, the current was slow, and fish were so thick that they formed a living shroud over the intact hull. You couldn’t ask for better conditions for an easy, trouble-free dive.

Our dive was nearly complete and I was straggling behind my buddy as we swam along the portside rail. I turned my head to admire a school of huge barracuda when my forward motion stopped. It felt like an invisible hand had reached out from the wreck and grabbed my tank valve.

In fact, that’s about what had happened, only the hand was a tangle of monofilament fishing line. I didn’t know it yet, but another loop from the same snare of discarded line had also wedged between my tank and the BC. My hands and feet were free, but I was tethered to the wreck. I signaled my buddy for help, even grunted at him through my regulator, but he was already at the ascent line with his back to me. The barracuda just stared.

Learn from the Techies

Wrecks attract fish. Fish attract fishermen. Fishermen accidentally hook their fishing line, heavy tackle, nets and assorted ropes on the wrecks, creating entanglement hazards for divers.

In fact, getting caught in a web of monofilament is the major wreck-diving hazard facing open-water divers. Modern fishing line is not only strong, it’s designed to be invisible in water. The only time you can see it is when it’s been down so long it becomes encrusted. And when an angler hooks a wreck by mistake, he’s often forced to cut the line at the end of his pole, leaving long strands of the stuff to drift and weave itself into intricate patterns on the wreck’s exterior.

The danger of entanglement increases inside the wreck, where wires and loose wreckage also have a tendency to reach out and grab you when you least expect it. Wreck penetration divers are trained to recognize and deal with these hazards. Unfortunately, most open-water divers aren’t, and when confronted with an invisible snare of monofilament, they often make things worse. Take a page from the technical diver’s handbook, and you can learn to deal with entanglement hazards quickly, safely and effectively.

Get Streamlined

Dangling hoses, flapping straps and loose tank bands all create an increased risk of entanglement. To eliminate these potential snags:

• SECURE YOUR GAUGES. To keep gauges from dangling, place a bolt snap or other securing device on your console or SPG and connect it to a chest D-ring on your BC. When you need to check your gauges, the console is easy to locate and unsnap. Clip it back when you’re done. Another option: Use a retractor that automatically pulls the gauge console back to your BC when you let go.
• SECURE YOUR OCTOPUS. Place your alternate second stage in an octopus holder or attach it with a band of surgical tubing.
• ADJUST YOUR BC’S FIT. A loose-fitting BC can shift or flip at crucial moments, sending you right into a hazard you’re trying to avoid.
• TIGHTEN TANK BANDS. Make sure the loose ends of your tank bands–especially Velcro ones–are secured. It’s amazing how well Velcro can grab stuff that’s not Velcro.
• REVERSE YOUR FIN STRAPS. The loose ends will stay tucked inside the strap instead of dangling outside.
• THINK IN 3-D. As land-dwelling creatures, we tend to think of things in just two dimensions (what’s in front and behind us; what’s to either side), but divers should also be aware of depth–what’s above and below us.

Most divers swim along, focusing their vision down and slightly ahead. Unfortunately, some of the most common entanglements involve snags on the diver’s tank valve. Make it a point to look up and ahead frequently, watching for entanglements.

Don’t Fight It

When the Duane reached out and grabbed me, my first reaction was to freeze. Kicking, pulling, twisting–almost any movement–only make the problem worse. If you’re diving with a buddy, signal him for assistance (he is nearby, right?). Your buddy can see the problem better than you can and has the freedom of movement to deal with it effectively.

If there’s no one to help out, your first step is to determine where the entanglement is and, if possible, what it is. Gently move each part of your body and carefully feel for any restriction of movement. If you can’t locate a particular restriction, odds are the entanglement is on your BC or tank. Once you’ve located the restriction, hold it away from your body and slip away from it.

If you can’t find it, or if you can’t reach it, the best option is to back up. You most likely swam into the restriction, and if you haven’t made the problem worse, simply backing up may allow you to swim out of it.

What should you do if you can’t back up and you can’t find the entanglement? Look again. It’s there. Sweep your arms down and back along each side, then do an overhead sweep that begins behind the tank valve and goes forward.

The overhead sweep is how I discovered the first of the two tangles that had me anchored to the wreck. Working by feel I was able to remove the loop wedged between my tank and the BC. I was also able to feel the more complicated knot wrapped tightly around my tank valve. One problem down, one to go.

Cut and Run

Now for the hard part: Cutting myself free. Whenever cutting tools are involved, you’ve got to think before you act. Accidentally cutting a hose or your hand will only make matters worse. You’ll still be trapped, of course, only now with a rapidly dwindling gas supply or a bleeding appendage.

Once you’ve located the entanglement, position your body so that you can secure the object with one hand while you use the other hand to cut it away. Before you unsheathe your blade, get a good look at what you’re cutting. Figure out the best to approach the problem and determine whether you have the right tool for the job.

Blame the old Sea Hunt series and countless James Bond scuba battles for the propensity of divers–especially male divers–to buy the biggest machete they can find and strap it to their lower leg. Only in movies is this a good idea.

For starters, a knife that large serves no useful purpose unless you really are trying to vanquish underwater villains. Worse, strapping anything that large on your leg only invites entanglements while putting the knife out of reach should you really need it.

Your dive knife is a tool for cutting monofilament and trawl netting–not a weapon for cutting hoses and throats. A good 4-inch dive knife, a recessed Z-knife or shears are much more practical options. When diving wrecks, you should carry all three.

Mount your cutting instruments where you can reach them in any situation. For dive knives, try the BC chest strap or waistband, the forearm and even the low-pressure inflator hose. For shears, a BC pocket is the only location available unless the shears come with their own mounting sheath. Small Z-knives can be mounted on the side of a mask strap or on the strap of a wrist-mounted gauge.

Ditch It

If all else fails, you may have to resort to removing your BC, a skill we all learned in open-water class and promptly forgot. Removing your gear is always a last resort, particularly at depth. Removing a traditional BC, for example, leaves the diver wearing a weight belt while his source of buoyancy (and his air supply) attempts to float upward. Weight-integrated BCs have the opposite problem. They can leave the diver floating toward the surface while the BC heads toward the bottom.

That’s why the first critical step is to ensure that all of the air is dumped from the BC. If possible, settle onto a solid surface before beginning the removal. Make sure you have a secure grip on the regulator in your mouth before unbuckling the chest and waist straps and removing your left arm first. This allows you to rotate the BC toward your right side without jerking the regulator out of your mouth.

If possible, keep one arm hooked underneath or through the BC at all times. Once the BC is off, you should be able to easily cut or remove the entanglement. Before replacing your BC, swim away from the entangling object to ensure that you don’t have to repeat the process.

The Right Tool for the Job

THE TOOL: Standard dive knife

Look for a blade with a line-cutting notch, a sharp smooth edge and a serrated edge. Line-cutting notches and smooth blades make short work of monofilament, while a serrated edge is best for sawing through thicker rope and nylon lines.

The Technique: With one hand, form a tight loop of monofilament and snap it using the cutting notch or cut away from your body with the smooth blade. Serrated edges work like a saw on heavier lines.

THE TOOL: Z-knife

Developed to cut parachute shroud lines, the Z-knife blade is recessed inside a hook that ensures you cut only what you intend to cut–a good idea because the blade is razor-sharp. Z-knives slice through monofilament and small lines with ease and virtually eliminate the chance of accidentally cutting a hose, your fingers or your BC bladder.

The Technique: Loop the line tight, hook it with the Z-knife and pull.

THE TOOL: Shears

A quality pair of shears can take on darn near anything from monofilament to steel leaders and tackle. Put yours to the test: if it can cut through a penny, it’ll handle anything you encounter under water.

The Technique: Just cut. An advantage of shears is that you can use them effectively one-handed.

Source: Scuba Diving Magazine

by LUKE SALKELD

It is a mystery that has perplexed treasure-hunters for centuries: how to find the wreck of a ship that sank carrying not only the world’s most famous actress, but her fantastic riches.

Now two British divers claim to have found the Nancy, which was smashed on rocks off Cornwall in a storm in 1784.

Among those on board the ill-fated voyage from Bombay to London was Ann Cargill, a beautiful opera singer as renowned for her scandalous love-life as her talents.

The 24-year-old took her fortune on board the ship after she was expelled from India for bringing shame to the country’s ‘pure shores’.

For as well as achieving huge fame and riches, she was also linked to a string of lovers and there were rumours she had given birth to an illegitimate child.

But she never made it home.

Instead the ship on which the young star was travelling sank off the Isles of Scilly, and after her unidentified body was found, she was buried in a pauper’s grave.

The former child star was adored by theatre audiences and charged ‘astonishing’ fees to play in the top theatres of London in the late 1700s.

The daughter of a coal merchant, she also embarked on numerous affairs - the first aged just 15 - and became the target of gossip and scandal.

As a teenager she eloped, ran away from theatres and her family, and eventually travelled to India where she had yet another lover and performed in packed theatres, often taking a share of the profits on top of her payment.

To the bosses of the East India Company, however, she was seen as immoral and she drowned en route to London from Bombay, carrying an estimated £200,000 fortune after they ordered her to leave.

Divers Todd Stevens and Ed Cummings say they have discovered the long-lost wreck of ‘The Nancy’, the ten-gun ship which smashed on rocks in February 1784, killing all 49 passengers.

Tragic accounts of Cargill’s death and her ‘floating in her shift’ with an infant at her bosom were published in English newspapers, and local legend has it that her lonely spirit still haunts the island spot where she died, singing a ghostly lullaby to her lost child.

As the discovery of the ship wreck was revealed yesterday, Mrs Cargill, was compared by one historian to a more modern star of the stage.

Marcus Risdell, librarian and archivist at London’s Garrick Club, said: ‘The records show that she was incredibly famous and enjoyed being in the limelight.

‘Actresses were plagued by scandal in those days - whether it was true or not - and Mrs Cargill seems to have encouraged it.

‘She once played the part of a young run away in a London theatre - and then ran away from it.’

He added: ‘But like an 18th Century version of Britney Spears, it is clear that she was also quite vulnerable - and often ended up with apparently unsuitable men.’

For over 200 years divers have been trying to find the wreck of the The Nancy, but may have simply been looking in the wrong place.

Mr Cummings, 62, said: ‘This has always been one of the most intriguing wrecks to go after. It has everything - a beautiful actress, a tragic shipwreck and a lost fortune.

‘The Nancy was bound from Bombay to London when she ran into a dreadful storm near the treacherous rocks west of Scilly.’

‘It would have been an almost hopeless position,’ said Mr Cumming.

‘Up until then it has been a good passage, but then they hit the storm. There was no lighthouse to guide them as Bishops Rock had not been built.

‘They would not have been able to see the lighthouse at St Agnes either.’

He added: ‘We are still trying to piece together the human stories around the wreck but we are sure we have found her.’

The Nancy sank off the coast of the Isles of Scilly and official papers referred to the passengers being ‘driven’ into a small island.

But Mr Cummings and Mr Stevens realised the descriptions referred to the lifeboat - and not the Nancy itself.

Ed said: ‘We realised that after the ship had hit the rocks, the passengers had got into a smaller boat and that was the one that was ‘driven’ on to Rosevear.

‘So people were looking in the wrong place for the Nancy, they should have been looking further out.’

The ship sank in 1784 and the first thing the islanders knew about it was when paperwork began washing ashore and onto beaches.

It took seven full days for the storm to subside, but when it did a rescue boat was sent out in the vain hope there may be a survivor clinging to the rocks.

Bodies were found including a woman clutching her dead baby - who rescuers were unaware was Ann Cargill, then aged 24, whose fortune at the time was described as being ‘beyond the dreams of avarice’.

She had caused outrage aged 15 by running off with the playwright Miles Peter Andrews while starring in a production of the Fairy Prince.

She was later ejected from India on the orders of Prime Minister William Pitt The Younger who told Parliament: ‘An actress should not be defiling the pure shores of India’.

Following the crash she was buried in a pauper’s grave and her paperwork sent to London where officials realised who she was and her body was exhumed and reburied in the Scilly capital, St Mary’s.

Official logs in India showed she had been carrying all of her possessions including jewels and gifts from her various scandalous lovers and a £200,000 fortune.

Mr Stevens said the jewels on her body were used to fund a neat memorial although he has not yet managed to locate the grave.

Mr Stevens moved to Scilly a decade ago to pursue his passion for diving and has since discovered a number of shipwrecks.

After being put on the right track by his friend, he was able to locate the Nancy within the first few dives.

Mr Stevens said: ‘It has been a real thrill. This kind of discovery is what you go diving for.

‘We are still searching for the gold and jewels but if we find them we will hand them all over to the Isles of Scilly Museum.’

The wreck was actually found last year, but the two men have only just revealed their discovery because they were keen that the site should not be disturbed.

The pair have now written a book called the The Ghosts Of Rosevear.

Source: CDNN

BY BILL BLEYER

Jennifer Choi bobbed to the surface of a Pennsylvania lake, dropped the scuba regulator from her mouth and addressed instructor Martha Katz.

“I’m done?” she asked expectantly.

“You’re done,” Katz responded with a big smile.

What Choi, a 26-year-old New York University doctoral student from Westbury, had done at the Dutch Springs quarry was complete her 13th dive and her advanced open-water scuba diving certification.

Thousands of people every year do that. What made Choi’s accomplishment more unusual is that she is paraplegic. Born with spina bifida, she has been unable to walk since age 9. But she didn’t let that stop her from learning to dive.

Katz, a Glen Cove resident who owns the scuba Network shop in Carle Place, was able to help Choi accomplish her goal because she and three of her instructors have received training and certification from the Handicapped Scuba Association. They have trained more than a dozen disabled divers in the past five years.

Katz added the specialty because “I love teaching, and I love teaching disabled people. It gives me a very good feeling to see people enjoying the water and see them smile from ear to ear and accomplish something different.” She hopes eventually to include disabled veterans coming back from Iraq as students.

To be certified as an instructor by the 27-year-old California-based Handicapped Scuba Association, Katz said, regular instructors must take the association’s course, which already has been completed by 2,000 people in 45 countries.

“They teach you not only to teach people who are paralyzed from the waist down but also totally paralyzed from the head down, blind people, people with any kind of disability, deaf, blind,” she said. Those paralyzed from the head down are towed by instructors. “You have to practice with different people until you are able to control everybody.”

Learning how to dive can be complicated even without a disability. With the handicapped, Katz said, “it takes a lot of time, a lot of patience. You have to do things slower. Some of the handicapped are very independent and don’t want any help, and you have to be very close to them to make sure that they can achieve buoyancy and are not going to drop to the bottom.”

Katz said divers like Choi who cannot use their legs need different weight configurations. “Because their legs have no movement, they tend to float up, so we give them ankle weights,” she said. Paraplegic divers wear special webbed gloves that serve as paddles rather than wearing fins on their feet.

After becoming comfortable in the water, a disabled diver is usually accompanied by one or two instructors. But some of the divers can function on their own once they are in the water.

Choi is Katz’s star pupil, having gone on to complete her dive-master certification, a step in her plan to become an instructor herself. “It’s definitely something that’s on my to-do list,” Choi said.

“I tend to be one of those people that once I start something, I want to get really, really good at it,” said Choi, a Stony Brook University graduate studying neuroscience and physiology with the goal of becoming a college professor.

After she could no longer walk, Choi said, “I had a list starting in middle school of all the extreme sports I wanted to do with my friends, and scuba diving happened to be on that list. I’ve always been an adrenaline-addict kind of person.”

The first sport on her list was downhill skiing, and she began that in college. Scuba diving was number two, and she began that two years ago. “I decided to pick it up when one of my closest friends decided to get married in Belize, so I decided I might as well pick up scuba diving.” She wanted to dive on the coral reefs there. She said she wasn’t nervous about trying diving “because I was really into swimming. I did a little bit of competitive swimming in high school. The first day, I realized this is one thing I’m going to enjoy.”

Choi said she had always been fascinated by aquatic creatures, but the main attraction for diving was “not being burdened by gravity.”

“It’s the weightlessness,” she said. “It’s unique.”

After her initial open-water certification, Choi began the advanced open-water class that brought her to the flooded Dutch Springs quarry. Choi donned her wet suit, and then Scuba Network instructor Larry Mack rolled her wheelchair down a path to the water’s edge, lifted her and lowered her into the water and then checked her buoyancy.

Then, Katz and Choi dove to 60 feet to a downed helicopter for her required deep dive. Choi was required to write on a slate what the water depth was, how much air she had used and how long she had been in the water. She repeated the assignment at 50 feet before Katz led her into the helicopter to see if Choi could maintain her buoyancy.

“She did very good,” Katz said afterward. “She was completely neutrally buoyant, and she was very comfortable in her swimming. She was able to go in and out of the wreck without touching the top or the bottom.”

They ascended slowly to 20 feet to avoid decompression sickness, also known as the bends, and swam to a World War II fighter plane. Katz had Choi check her compass for the navigation requirement. This was followed by Katz and Choi doing an underwater chicken dance signifying the completion of the advanced open-water training before surfacing.

Choi spent the next three months becoming certified as a dive master, completing another seven dives and classroom training. The next step toward becoming an instructor would be a rescue-diver class. Rescuing another diver in trouble would mean swimming with only one hand while using the other to hold the second diver. “I think that will be the biggest challenge,” Choi said.

But Katz said, “I’m sure she will be able to manage it because of the drive she has.” Choi would then have to learn CPR and first aid and pass the training assistant, assistant instructor and finally the instructor courses. “I think she will be a very good instructor,” Katz said.

“It’s the freedom”

While Choi knew she wanted to learn how to dive, another of Katz’s students, Roger Tribelhorn of Bayville, backed into it two years ago.

A 53-year-old manager for an Oyster Bay electronic components firm, Tribelhorn ended up in a wheelchair after he was diagnosed with transverse myelitis eight years ago. The neurological disorder cost him the use of his legs.

His son and daughter wanted to learn how to dive because they were planning a trip to Australia. His daughter, Patricia, made a list of local dive shops and asked her dad to check them out with her.

When they got to Katz’s store, “Martha explained everything, and she told me, ‘You can do it, too,’ ” Tribelhorn said. “That’s all I needed to know, because I always was very active - skiing, swimming - so I needed something.”

Tribelhorn constructed his own PVC-pipe wheelchair with large wheels so he could get down to Long Island Sound to dive near his home. And last winter, he and his kids traveled to Bonaire, off the northern coast of South America, for his first diving trip, a weeklong vacation with Katz.

“It was very, very nice,” he said, “but; I told Martha I want to be able to dive with my kids” without an instructor. “I wanted to prove to myself that I could do it. I always was independent.” With the webbed gloves, he said, “I can keep up with anybody.”

So during his 14 dives on the trip, he completed the HSA course for independent diving as well as the advanced open-water course from the National Association of Underwater Instructors. Now, he’s planning a trip to Cozumel, Mexico, and hopes to do more wreck diving after visiting one hulk in Bonaire. “I’d really like to see caves,” he added.

“Because I’m a tool and die maker by trade, I like to see how things work,” Tribelhorn said. So he wants to become certified for maintaining scuba regulators so he can work part-time in Katz’s shop.

“It’s beautiful down there,” Tribelhorn said of one attraction of diving. But there is a bigger benefit. “It’s the freedom. Being neutrally buoyant is the most awesome feeling that I’ve ever experienced. Everything is so relaxed down there.”

Tribelhorn said that when he dives, he no longer feels disabled. “The chair is not an issue anymore. You don’t think about it. I can go up. I can go down. There is no limitation.”

Source: newsday.com

HMS Opal foundered on rocks in 1918, killing 187 seamen

By JOHN ROSS

STANLEY Cubiss had been married for less than a year when he perished with 187 other men in a wartime tragedy. He died when HMS Opal crashed into rocks 90 years ago, in one of the most violent storms to hit Orkney.

And with the 25-year-old went the future he had planned with his wife Florence – and a ring she had given him just two years before.

For the next 89 years the gold band lay buried on the seabed until it was found by chance by a diver, who at first thought it was a worthless piece of metal.

But when it was realised it was a poignant connection to one of the drowned crew and his widowed sweetheart an investigation was launched.

Yesterday the ring was back in Orkney, where it will stay as an exhibit in a museum dedicated to wartime memorabilia.

Mr Cubiss was working in the engine room of the destroyer when it sank, along with HMS Narborough, after running ashore at Windwick Bay, South Ronaldsay, in a blizzard in January, 1918.

Last year, amateur diver Peter Brady picked up a piece of metal he originally thought was a piece of HMS Opal’s plumbing.

Returning to the surface he found it was a gold ring bearing the inscription “To Stanley from Flo, March 1916″.

After finding the ship’s casualty list on the internet, Mr Brady and diving partner, Bob Hamilton, found there were two Stanleys on board, including Ernest Stanley Cubiss, husband of Florence.

The list also mentioned he was from Keighley, west Yorkshire, and the pair eventually tracked down Mr Cubiss’s nephew, Malcolm Cubiss, 78, a retired brigadier, who lives near York.

Mr Cubiss’s nephew has now donated the ring, along with other artefacts including photographs and medals, to the Scapa Flow Visitor Centre on the Orkney island of Hoy.

Peter Brady, who handed over the ring to the museum yesterday, said: “I was just scraping around in the sand when it suddenly popped up.

“At first I thought it was the sort of copper pipe fitting a plumber might use. But I put it on my finger and brought it up to the surface for a closer look. And that’s when I noticed the hallmark and realised this was something pretty special.”

Mr Hamilton added: “When we saw it the hairs on the back of my neck stood on end and the happy mood on the boat changed to something far more sombre. It seemed incredible Peter should have found something so small and so perfect – and that the inscription should still be so clearly visible.”

Mr Cubiss said he was amazed when the divers turned up with the ring.

He added: “If I had kept this ring which was kindly offered to me I would have only put it in a drawer, and in time it would have been thrown out or sold.

“I had one or two other pieces, medals and photos and other things, and it struck me that if there is a museum there then that would be a much more appropriate place for them.”

Florence, who died aged 82 in 1971, was the great aunt of retired pilot Michael Foster, 65, from Windlesham, near Ascot.

Yesterday he was shown the ring for the first time. He said: “It’s lovely, but I dare not touch it. I take a great interest in the history of my family, so this is a very emotional moment for me.

“This was a desperate tragedy and it’s very, very sad that two people’s lives should have been torn apart in this way.”

After so many years on the seabed, the ring is still in near perfect condition.

Janette Park, curator of social history with the Orkney Museums Service, said: “It brings the reality of the loss of so many lives into sharp focus. And it makes you reflect on how all the hopes of a young couple were shattered by one night of bad weather.”

BACKGROUND

HMS Opal had a short, eventful life that ended just two and a half years after she was built in 1915. The destroyer served with the Grand Fleet at Scapa Flow, and took part in the Battle of Jutland.

On 12 January, 1918, HMS Opal joined her sister ship HMS Narborough and the light cruiser Boadicea in a night patrol to hunt German warships.

In near zero visibility, Boadicea ordered the Opal and Narborough back to Scapa. However, a garbled message was later received, followed by silence. The ships were found two days later with only one survivor, and later broke up.

Source: The Scotsman

Scientists at the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton, are set to explore the world’s deepest undersea volcanoes and find out what lives in a ‘lost world’ five kilometres beneath the Caribbean…

The team of researchers led by Dr Jon Copley has been awarded £462,000 by the Natural Environment Research Council to explore the Cayman Trough, which lies between Jamaica and the Cayman Islands. This rift in the Caribbean seafloor plunges to a depth of more than 5000 metres below sea level. It contains the world’s deepest chain of undersea volcanoes, which have yet to be explored.

The researchers are planning two expeditions over the next three years using the UK’s newest research ship, RRS James Cook. From the ship, the team will send the UK’s remotely-operated vehicle Isis and a new British robot submarine called Autosub6000 into the abyss.

The team will look for new geological features and new species of marine life in the rift on the seafloor. Geologist Dr Bramley Murton will use a whale-friendly sonar system to map the undersea volcanoes in unprecedented detail to understand their formation. At the same time, oceanographer Dr Kate Stansfield will study the deep ocean currents in the Cayman Trough for the first time and geochemist Dr Doug Connelly will hunt for volcanic vents on the ocean floor. These volcanic vents are home to exotic deep-sea creatures that will be studied by marine biologists Dr Jon Copley and Professor Paul Tyler.

“The Cayman Trough may be a ‘lost world’ that will give us the missing piece in a global puzzle of deep-sea life,” says Dr Copley, a lecturer with the University of Southampton’s School of Ocean and Earth Science. Volcanic vents in the Atlantic are home to swarms of blind shrimp and beds of unusual mussels. But similar deep-sea vents in the eastern Pacific are inhabited by bizarre metre-long tubeworms. The researchers hope to find out whether creatures living in the Cayman Trough are related to those in the Pacific or the Atlantic – or completely different to both.

Before North and South America joined three million years ago, there was a deep water passage from the Pacific to the Atlantic. This means that the undersea volcanoes of the Cayman Trough could harbour a ‘missing link’ between deep-sea life in the two oceans. Finding out just what lives in the rift will help scientists understand patterns of marine life around the world.

“The deep ocean is the largest ecosystem on our planet, so we need to understand its patterns of life,” says Dr Copley. “Deep-sea exploration has also given us new cancer treatments and better fibre-optic cables for the internet, both thanks to deep-sea creatures.”

Working at depths of more than five kilometres will take the UK’s deep-diving vehicles close to their limits. Isis is the UK’s deepest diving remotely-operated vehicle (ROV) reaching depths of 6,500 metres. The team will control Isis from their research ship to film the ocean floor and collect samples with its robotic arms.

Autosub6000, a new unmanned undersea vehicle built in Southampton, can dive to 6000 metres deep. Autosub6000 is an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) – a robot submarine that can carry out missions on its own, without being remote-controlled. The team will launch Autosub6000 from their ship to survey the area and hunt for volcanic vents on the ocean floor.

“These undersea volcanoes lie within British seabed territory recognised by the United Nations,” says Dr Copley. “We now have the technology to explore them.” The public will be able to follow the progress of the expeditions through web pages updated from the ship. The team will also invite a school teacher to join them and share the scientific adventure with classrooms around the world.

Source: Science Daily

by  Richard Maxton

The divers who spent 19 hours drifting in shark-infested waters on the Great Barrier Reef have sold their story to a British newspaper, prompting Queensland premier Anna Bligh to call for them to pay back some of the cost of their rescue operation.

British tourist Richard Neely, 38, and American partner Alison Dalton, 40, were rescued on Saturday morning after spending the night floating 15km out to sea off the Whitsunday region.

A massive air-and-sea operation, involving seven helicopter, three planes and a fleet of search boats were used to find the divers.

In a paid interview with British newspaper the Sunday Mirror, Neely and Dalton descirbed their nightmare ordeal.

Neeley said: “I truly thought we were going to die. Sharks were on our mind the entire time - but neither of us mentioned the ‘S’ word. We just had to stay positive and calm to help each other through the ordeal.

“We were shouting and whistling but nobody saw us. We saw other divers climbing back on to the boat. The boat stayed where it was, on a mooring, but we just kept drifting further away. There was nothing we could do.”

However Mrs Bligh has suggested Mr Neely and Ms Dalton should compensate the state for some of the $100,000 cost of their search-and-rescue operation after it was revealed the couple may have deliberately skipped a pre-dive briefing and ingored strict instructions to immediately surface if they left the dive site.

Mrs Bligh said that the couple should consider contributing some of the money they were paid for their interviews to the departments who orchestrated their rescue.

“If they are going to profit from their story I don’t think a contribution would go astray.”

The couple surfaced too far from their chartered boat on Friday for those on board to see or hear them.

Queensland Water Police acting superintendent Shane Chelpey says an investigation has begun into what went wrong with local CIB working with local water police and members from the office of workplace health and safety.

 
Source: LiveNews

By Reg Little

MENSUN Bound, the Oxford archaeologist dubbed the ‘Indiana Jones of the Deep’, is gunning for the Tower of London on his latest expedition.

The Oxford researcher is returning to investigate an Elizabethan ship that sank off the Channel Islands, which has given up an array of treasures including muskets, swords and body armour from the age of Drake. But now he is aiming to deliver one of the great cannons from the wreck to the Tower of London later this year, along with other finds and artefacts.

The ship sank off the coast of Alderney in 1592 and is considered to be the most important Tudor find since the Mary Rose. It was carrying munitions and dispatches from Elizabeth I’s greatest minister, Lord Burghley, to an English army in France.

Many of the finds from the wreck are on display at the museum in Alderney. But one of the great cannons and other pieces are to go on temporary exhibition in the Tower of London, once England’s greatest arsenal and manufacturer of military equipment.

The Alderney guns are all cast iron, smooth-bore muzzle loaders of identical calibre and represent a complete co-ordinated weapons system.

According to Mr Bound, of St Peter’s College, Oxford, the Alderney guns, along with those from the Mary Rose, represent the two most important naval gun collections in the world.

He said: “Between the Mary Rose, that sank in 1545, and the Alderney ship, there were only 47 years, but in that time there was a revolution in military science. ”

Mr Bound, who lives in Horspath, said: “This was a ship that was supplying an English army fighting in France to prevent a second Armada-style invasion by Spain.”

He said there are now plans to replicate the guns at a foundry in Scotland and then carry out a series of tests at a live-firing range to establish their ballistic characteristics and destructive capability.

The Governor of the Tower, Major General Keith Cima, said: “Because this ship was on Queen’s business it is likely that the heavy ordnance she carried, not to mention the small arms and bladed weapons, were issued from here by us, so it will be good to get them back - even if it is just for a while.”

Sir Norman Browse, the President of Alderney and the chairman of the Alderney Maritime Trust that oversees the project, said: “This is not going to be an easy job. The wreck is sitting in soft sand in 30m of water in what we call the Swinge, possibly the most notorious stretch of water in the entire Channel.”

Mr Bound established himself in the 1980s as the world’s best known underwater archaeologist after discovering the wreck of a Greek trader from 600BC off the Italian coast.

Since then he has brought up eagle insignia and guns from the German pocket battleship the Graf Spee and raised a cannon from Lord Nelson’s ship, The Agamemnon.

Source: Banbury Cake

Today Big Blue Tech will be boarding the Mv Trident for 4 Days of technical wreck exploration and training. BBT will be joined by other members of the Koh Tao community and rebreather divers from Pucket and Australia.

The plan for the trip is a 3 day stint at HTMS Pangan and an additional day exploration.

From BBT will be James “Canada” Thornton-Allan, Niall Mackenzie as the main instructors; Ben, Marco and Shoko who are completing their DSAT Tec Deep course and Matt Rolph as medic support (he’s bringing his fancy satellite phone too)

This day has come together from a combined effort to train Ben, Marco and Shoko to a level where they can complete deep ocean decompression dives using oxygen and nitrox to accelerate their time.

During this time we’ll be out of reach. Feel free to email us and we’ll get back to you on our return.

Tune in to BBC1 on 17 August for the first of a three-strong series in which presenters Kate Humble and Mike deGruy (pictured) dive great sites in the Pacific.

The first programme, which runs from 8pm, covers the WW2 shipwrecks of Truk Lagoon. After her first dive in the area, Humble said: “If every dive is even a quarter as good as this one, we’re going to have a very, very exciting month.”

The series was commissioned by the BBC’s Natural History Unit and was shot using a 30-strong team of divers, biologists and cameramen.

The expedition, says the BBC, “undertook some of the deepest and most dangerous diving ever attempted by a TV crew”.

Mike deGruy is set to appear at the Dive 2008 Show at the NEC, Birmingham on 1 and 2 November.

Soursce: Divenet