Wreck Salvage - A Comm Diver's Salutary Tale

[fizzydve]

Interesting story, and I dont doubt it's true. I am a commercial diver and if a supervisor asked me to go to depth on SCUBA with no back up air and with no communications to surface, I wouldnt do it - simple is that. Commercial training and the experience gained from working, sometimes complex tasks, in difficult conditions helps with composure, clear thinking etc when things do go wrong - however the most important thing is to consider the risks / potential problems before doing the dive - I'm sure the divers did this and made a decision it was acceptable and so continued, but without taking anything away from these guys, I believe they made the wrong decision.

[Mr T.]

Your point is valid Dave (Fizzy), but being in the game, you'll appreciate that when this team set out (all with about equal share in the salve), they owned all the bills and the cost of the op. And like you say, you judge the risks of the op against a number of prevailing factors - depth on SCUBA being just one of them.

[ahar]

Bloody lunatics. I'll stick with my nice safe desk job

[Angleseyskipper]

sorry to piss on this story but i'm afraid i'm going to have too as hobby is fully aware of the reason he ended up on this job.
the salvage of the possible "laplata" was started by us we had a mooring laid and a 6" airlift and airlines in permanent and had started excavating the wreck in 36m which was then and still is now unidentified.
i'm afraid hobby and his team were "sold a pup" that the wreck was the "laplata"which sank in 1863 with its silver coin cargo, to bring them in to be nothing more than a pain in the arse to our operation.
the reason behind it all was sour grapes by another local diver for not being involved in our excavation despite numerous invites to join us.
the site is 36m at lowwater and 42m at high water and only stands up about 0.5m off the sea bed so i don't know were 50m came from.
this whole saga lasted over 3 years which eventually ended in the police and receiver of wreck being involved .
we have had a lot of people have a go over the years it all boils down to jealousy when you get on with the job and get results.
its like the old saying you can tell a pioneer by the amount of arrows in his back, i've lost count the amount of times i've been shot at.
there are no losers on this team as we got the result we were after.
cheers elfyn

[ray]

Hi/

When they were trying to raise the wreck "Vasa" if that is what it is called in Sweden, the commi diver had the job of water blasting a tunnel in a number of places under the hull to put lifting straps round the hull to lift it, on one of the excavations under the wreck the tunnel collapsed trapping him, just think all this will have been done in nil viz,. so the guy turned the jet round between his legs and blasted his way back out!, it was said he had a pot of tea and a fag, and went straight back in to complete his task. Personally I would have had to go home and change my Armour first.

[Mr. D]

Originally Posted by ray

Hi/
so the guy turned the jet round between his legs and blasted his way back out!, it was said he had a pot of tea and a fag, and went straight back in to complete his task. Personally I would have had to go home and change my Armour first.

Its amazing the things you can do when you really have to!

[DVR]

[hobby and his team were "sold a pup" that the wreck was the "laplata"which sank in 1863 with its silver coin cargo, to bring them in to be nothing more than a pain in the arse to our operation.


Dont be shy Elfyn, get of the fence and tell it like it is

[Andy the Coastie]

Originally Posted by Yellow Butty Box

the site is 36m at lowwater and 42m at high water and only stands up about 0.5m off the sea bed so i don't know were 50m came from.

Oh please ,,, a professional skipper like yaself knows that we get abnormal tides now and again .... on there dive it was a extra 8 mt spring tide

[Allan Carr]

One of the guys I used to dive with in the 60's/early 70's (called Andy - is this an essential name for a commie?) went on to be a commercial diver with Comex , initially on the North Sea rigs. On his first dive, to a mere 600ft, the faceplate on his Kirby Morgan started leaking badly. He only just made it back to the bell.

On another occasion, they were just about to be hauled up from the bottom when the rig told them that there had been a bomb threat. They were being hauled up and suddenly at about 400feet, the lift stopped, the lights went out and all communication ceased. They say there in the near dark for four hours and were discussing whether to blow for the surface (the bells have emergency flotation) when the lights came on and they started moving again - it had been a power failure, nothing to do with a bomb.

Andy was absolutely ice-cool under pressure and made the ideal commie.

[Angleseyskipper]

that's me john what ya see is what ya get i'm afraid .
as for the depth andy i think they must of used a twin turbo plasma airlift fully loaded "suck ya head clean off" to re-map the sea bed.
in reality they were an insult to the term "diving on the cheap"and were by no means fit to be called a commercial operation.
the quality of the 100ft salvage vessel used in the venture was so high they cut it up for scrap last year .
apparently you could'nt hear the vhf radio on it for the sound of rust chomping on the hull plates.
i know hobby was only with them for a very short time ,smart move me thinks
elfyn