GUE diver does the Victoria

[Davey Willo]

Just thought I'd cut and paste this for the enjoyment of the YD membership

It's a bit of a report by a guy called Mozi who is lucky enough to be able to dive the newly found vertical wreck of the HMS Victoria

http://www.cdnn.info/industry/i040903c/i040903c.html

Below is his erm... trip report


October 17, I wake up at 8 AM and head to the North with my pre-loaded truck.
My buddy was still mixing there, so we left the dock at around noon arriving at
the dive site at one o clock.



I don my double 104s, which contain 10/70 Trimix at 240 bars and drop in the
water. On a stage line, attached to the buoy that has a rope going down to the
wreck, my other four bottles are doubles clipped. One AL 80 stage with bottom
mix 10/70, one AL 40 with deco gas 35/25, one AL 40 with deco gas 50/25 and one
AL 30 with O2. All these are at 220 bars except for the O2 at 200 bars. I opt
not to take my scooter as there was no current and the wreck is vertical, like a
skyscraper in the middle of the sea.



I haul up the tanks, and clip the 50/25 and the bottom stage on left side and
the other two are leashed from the hip D-ring to the back. I drop breathing the
stage. As expected the thermocline is encountered at 50 meters where the
temperature drops 10 degrees C from 27 C to about 17 degrees C. I start seeing
the outline of the propellers at 60 meters and we reach the top wreck at the bow
level at 77 meters.



I drop down to 80 meters where there is a big ring where I stage all my tanks
except for the small AL 40 containing 50/25. This process goes as follows: Upon
arrival, I switch from the bottom stage to the back-gas, unclip bottom stage and
clip it on my line on the ring, unclip leash and clip on line. This staging is
done to reduce our profile for light penetration purposes. Light penetration
involves going into a room or two where the exit is never out of sight. There
is no way that tanks fall off or something, but I keep my small 21 meter bottle
as I can still manage to do an acceptable deco using it and with help from my
buddy (who stages on a different ring, so the likelihood of both loosing the
tanks are virtually nil). It is worthy to mention here that the line coming off
the boat to the surface float has two AL 80s at the 21 meter level and at 6
meters as back-up 50/25 and O2. There is another line that has no snags which
we use to shoot bottles up.



After staging, we drop down, passing the skylight that peaks into the Admiral’s
room and passing the huge middle canon, to a door that leads to what we are
calling the “canon hallway”. That door is at 92 meters. I peak through inside
almost ¾ of the way in and stay in that position while my buddy is all the way
in. I point my HID downwards and it pierces 20-30 meters down in s straight
beam and there is no end to the darkness…



I look at my left and see a side canon neatly in place. I am fascinated as the
thing is probably 7 meters long. There is a mechanism structure next to it with
wheels that act to push out the canon for when in combat, and it folds it neatly
back inside the ship when not in combat. The sense of history in looking at a
111 year old canon in such a wreck is almost surreal. We see some other small
interesting items.



I started counting my bottom time at runtime 7 minutes. We stayed there
exploring for 8 minutes and proceeded up from 92 meters to the 80 meter area
where the back balcony and the props are. I clip on back all the tanks and go
back to breathing my bottom stage. When I get to that area, I always shine my
light and read “V I C T O R I A” on the back and think how lucky I must be to be
diving what is one of the best wrecks in the world (I do not want to say the
best one). We stay there another 12 minutes to complete our 20 minute bottom
time. The last three minutes, it was real cold. My 200 G Thinsulate (Stretch)
needs to be upgraded soon. We start ascending, as we are doing that my bottom
stage is done, I go back on my back gas and shoot the stage up the line. Bye
bye Vicky…



Deco was done as follows:



66 1

63 1

60 1

57 1

54 1

51 2

48 2

45 2

42 2

39 2

36 4 Switch to 35/25

33 4

30 2

27 2

24 4 On Back Gas

21 7 Switch to 50/25

18 7

15 5

12 5

9 6 On Back Gas

6 12 on, 6 off, 12 on and, 6 minutes to the surface.


On the boat, back gas tanks contain 80 bars, two AL 40s of 35/25 and 50/25
contain 60 bars and O2 contains 40 bars.

[Gavin Yates]

A few useful(I hope) details on the Victoria.

HMS Victoria

Sans Pareil-class battleship (1f/2m). L/B/D: 340 × 70 × 29 (103.6m × 21.3m × 8.8m). Tons: 11,020 disp. Comp.: 430-583. Arm.: 2 × 16.25, 1 × 10, 12 × 6, 12 × 6pdr; 6 × 14TT. Armor: 18 belt. 3 deck. Hull: steel. Mach.: triple-expansion steam, 7,500 ihp, 2 screws; 15.3 kts. Built: Sir W. G. Armstrong, Whitworth & Co., Ltd., Newcastle-on-Tyne, Eng.; 1890.

The Sans Pareil-class was the first class of battleships built after the Admiral-class barbette ships, which included HMS Camperdown. The last single-turret ships built for the Royal Navy—and as such representing a step backward from the earlier class—they were the first to be driven by triple-expansion engines. Victoria was commissioned as flagship of the Mediterranean fleet, to replace Camperdown, and remained on that station the whole of her brief career. On June 22, 1893, en route from Beirut to Tripoli, the fleet was steaming north-northeast in parallel columns six cables (1,200 yards) apart. For reasons never adequately explained, Vice Admiral Sir George Tryon ordered the two divisions to turn 16 points towards each other. Although there seemed to be some concern over the outcome of the maneuver—which sent the ships towards each other at a combined speed of 10 to 12 knots—no one questioned the order. Camperdown's ram struck Victoria just abaft the anchors 12 feet below the waterline, making a breach nearly 28 feet long. Although Victoria was turned towards shore in an attempt to reach shallow water, the inrush of water was so great that she quickly went down by the bows, taking with her 22 officers and 336 men.

[John N]

Nice kit report...

[Fraser]

Hiya Willo,

Thanks for posting that mate, makes for an interesting read

Frase.

[Mikel-Deko]

Originally Posted by Dave Williamson

Just thought I'd cut and paste this for the enjoyment of the YD membership

It's a bit of a report by a guy called Mozi who is lucky enough to be able to dive the newly found vertical wreck of the HMS Victoria

http://www.cdnn.info/industry/i040903c/i040903c.html

Below is his erm... trip report


October 17, I wake up at 8 AM and head to the North with my pre-loaded truck.
My buddy was still mixing there, so we left the dock at around noon arriving at
the dive site at one o clock.



I don my double 104s, which contain 10/70 Trimix at 240 bars and drop in the
water. On a stage line, attached to the buoy that has a rope going down to the
wreck, my other four bottles are doubles clipped. One AL 80 stage with bottom
mix 10/70, one AL 40 with deco gas 35/25, one AL 40 with deco gas 50/25 and one
AL 30 with O2. All these are at 220 bars except for the O2 at 200 bars. I opt
not to take my scooter as there was no current and the wreck is vertical, like a
skyscraper in the middle of the sea.



I haul up the tanks, and clip the 50/25 and the bottom stage on left side and
the other two are leashed from the hip D-ring to the back. I drop breathing the
stage. As expected the thermocline is encountered at 50 meters where the
temperature drops 10 degrees C from 27 C to about 17 degrees C. I start seeing
the outline of the propellers at 60 meters and we reach the top wreck at the bow
level at 77 meters.



I drop down to 80 meters where there is a big ring where I stage all my tanks
except for the small AL 40 containing 50/25. This process goes as follows: Upon
arrival, I switch from the bottom stage to the back-gas, unclip bottom stage and
clip it on my line on the ring, unclip leash and clip on line. This staging is
done to reduce our profile for light penetration purposes. Light penetration
involves going into a room or two where the exit is never out of sight. There
is no way that tanks fall off or something, but I keep my small 21 meter bottle
as I can still manage to do an acceptable deco using it and with help from my
buddy (who stages on a different ring, so the likelihood of both loosing the
tanks are virtually nil). It is worthy to mention here that the line coming off
the boat to the surface float has two AL 80s at the 21 meter level and at 6
meters as back-up 50/25 and O2. There is another line that has no snags which
we use to shoot bottles up.



After staging, we drop down, passing the skylight that peaks into the Admiral’s
room and passing the huge middle canon, to a door that leads to what we are
calling the “canon hallway”. That door is at 92 meters. I peak through inside
almost ¾ of the way in and stay in that position while my buddy is all the way
in. I point my HID downwards and it pierces 20-30 meters down in s straight
beam and there is no end to the darkness…



I look at my left and see a side canon neatly in place. I am fascinated as the
thing is probably 7 meters long. There is a mechanism structure next to it with
wheels that act to push out the canon for when in combat, and it folds it neatly
back inside the ship when not in combat. The sense of history in looking at a
111 year old canon in such a wreck is almost surreal. We see some other small
interesting items.



I started counting my bottom time at runtime 7 minutes. We stayed there
exploring for 8 minutes and proceeded up from 92 meters to the 80 meter area
where the back balcony and the props are. I clip on back all the tanks and go
back to breathing my bottom stage. When I get to that area, I always shine my
light and read “V I C T O R I A” on the back and think how lucky I must be to be
diving what is one of the best wrecks in the world (I do not want to say the
best one). We stay there another 12 minutes to complete our 20 minute bottom
time. The last three minutes, it was real cold. My 200 G Thinsulate (Stretch)
needs to be upgraded soon. We start ascending, as we are doing that my bottom
stage is done, I go back on my back gas and shoot the stage up the line. Bye
bye Vicky…



Deco was done as follows:



66 1

63 1

60 1

57 1

54 1

51 2

48 2

45 2

42 2

39 2

36 4 Switch to 35/25

33 4

30 2

27 2

24 4 On Back Gas

21 7 Switch to 50/25

18 7

15 5

12 5

9 6 On Back Gas

6 12 on, 6 off, 12 on and, 6 minutes to the surface.


On the boat, back gas tanks contain 80 bars, two AL 40s of 35/25 and 50/25
contain 60 bars and O2 contains 40 bars.

Thank you for such nice report.
I've got a cuestion. With program did you used to calculate the deco?
Thank you very much.
Regards.

[And]

Thats ratio deco.

There isn't a program for it, but I believe VPM can create similar profiles.

Andy

[Mozi]

No program was used to do the deco and no program will create this profile. Every step in the profile has a reason. Softwares do not think, and that is why the profile cannot be re-created through software.

This is Tech 3 level diving. Although I have not done the course, AG stated that our expedition diving the wrecks of Lebanon was 75% of a Tech 3. You could use ratio deco up to an average depth of 85 m. Beyond that, you use another strategy and it is not ratio deco anymore. We were lucky to get exposed to it as we needed to do the Victoria dives with Andrew. There are links for that expedition on www.5thd-x.com and www.redseaexplorers.com

Mozi

[Mozi]

Hi guys, cool forum you got here.

I am not sure if the rules of the forum allow this but the mod can decide to move this post if it should not be here.

We did an exploration project with Andrew Georgitsis diving most of the wrecks in Lebanon culminating in a dive on the HMS Victoria that lies vertically up from 150 meters from water.

There is a DVD being sold through www.5thd-x.com that documents the dives etc. Very nice stuff. If you are interested in gear set-up and how actual deep ocean wreck dives are conducted DIR, it is a nice resource to have. On the site, there is a link that describes the whole project (Underwater Exploration In Effect) or (A True DIR Implementation)

Mozi

[Mr T.]

Mozi,

Welcome to the site. You have friends here.

Cheers,