Merchant Royal, Evertsen and Pangani, DIR-UK Trip, August Bank Holiday 2005

[And]

I thought I'd write a short trip report of our bank holiday diving.

This was a DIR-UK trip and we were based on Wey Chieftain, which has rapidly become my favourite dive boat. Grahame is an excellent skipper, and the boat is well designed for relaxing diving. The guys on the trip: Dave Robbins, Howard Radcliffe, Bob Cooper, Greg Roach, and me Some guys had dropped out at the last minute and so we had plenty of room on the boat. Paul Larriet also came along on the Monday for a dive.

The Merchant Royal

Saturday's dive was the Merchant Royal,

Originally Posted by wreck-database

The Merchant Royal was a British cargo steamer, formerly known as the Goodwood. She was 5.008 tons, 416ft long and had a beam of 55ft. She was built in 1920 by J Redhead & Sons at Sunderland and was fitted with a huge Doxford triple-expansion three-cylinder steam engine. On the 3rd July 1946, carrying her cargo of steel and wood, she collided with another vessel and sank. Attempts to rescue her by tugs despatched from Portland were in vain.

She lies in about 57 metres of water with her bows blown off but her mid section and stern are upright, listing heavily to starboard.

We had been told the viz wasn't going to be great, but I took the video camera anyway, as I have learnt that sometimes when its supposed to be crap... it isn't. Needless to say this wasn't one of those times. I was diving with Dave Robbins, chairman (I think) of the UE-UK club and it was the first time I had dived with him, but he has been doing the trimix diving for more than a few years . We chatted about the deco and bottom times etc etc and agreed a plan. I decided to take a bottom gas stage and two deco gasses, so we could do a 35 minute bottom time and I would still have a reserve I was happy with. I chose to take the second deco gas as Dave was taking his and I thought it might be good to try this three stage business on a 'proper' dive. That was until I had to kit myself up and drop off the boat with all three stages and a video camera! So we jumped in and headed down the shot. It started getting dark about 30 mtrs and was very dark when we came across the wreck at 54 mtrs or so. There was still a current and this was a bit of a pain, as with two AL80's up front and the video camera there was a lot of drag. I found out why Andy K keeps his video clipped to his crotch DRing, as when we arrived at the wreck my camera had decided to hide behind my head and Dave had to find it for me. It was a wreck that I can see will be good with better viz, but as it was I couldn't identify that much, and I was more interested in the pollack which were attacking the lights! Very weird, they just kept swimming straight into the bulb. There were plenty of fish on the wreck, congers and a nice big lobster. I video'd for a while but after 20 minutes or so when I switched to backgas I didn't bother as it was too dark, and I don't have any proper video lights yet. As I had the trimix bottle and the 50% on my chest Drings and the O2 on the leash at the hip I rotated the bottles round whilst we swam along as I hadn't done this on a 'proper' dive before and didn't want to pay dearly for a beginners mistake

Dave was nice and relaxed in the water, and was easy to dive with. We kept together and just headed up the wreck until we hit the 35 minutes and I thumbed the dive. Deco was relatively straightforward and we did 1's from 39 and then 40 mins deco from 21 using 50% and O2. Dave shot the bag from around 30 mtrs, and I free ascended, just putting my bag up his line at 21 after my switch.

The Evertsen

Sunday we dived the Evertsen, which was slightly shallower at 48 mtrs. The 5p test promised good viz (chuck a 5p in and see how far it sinks before you can't see it anymore. This dive I was diving with Bob Cooper and Gregg Roach, and we were using the Gavins I also had borrowed Andy Kerslakes scooter mount and so we were videoing too. After a lively debate about deco the night before we agreed a plan, which was a little less than I would do normally, but I thought it was OK. The Evertsen isn't dived very much and is a dutch coaster. Grahams reason for the lack of divers' interest is that, although there are things to find, there is little, if any brass to, erm, salvage

Anyway, we dropped down the shot and immediately Gregg got scooter fever and headed down the shot, with Bob and I trying to keep up! We didn't lose sight of him but it was close a couple of times. Descending on a scooter is a little different than swimming. You just scooter to the shot, drop down, and before it gets out of sight, scooter again to the shot, so you kind of zig zag down. Either that or you can go straight down (Greggs method) but you have to be careful not to lose contact as it is easy for someone to have an ear problem and then get lost.

Arriving at the wreck we had about 6-8 mtrs of viz and it was awesome scootering along. I've been told that your gas consumption goes up when you first get a scooter. I think thats because you spend the whole dive giggling because its so much fun. Greg was leading, Bob second and me third. I think Bob had a hard time keeping track of Gregg at the front and me at the back as it seemed Gregg was missing signals and not being as observant as he should and this was a bit stressful. In his defense it was his first time with his scooter in the ocean and I guess he was giggling like me. I was videoing and doing my thing, occasionally bumping Bobs fins with my scooter to let him know I was there. Until you've done this you don't realise just how much ground you can cover in just a few seconds. The wreck itself is mostly intact, and, although I kind of know what I'm looking at, I'm definitely no expert. There was plenty of congers about and also large shoals of silver fish. After about 25 minutes we saw Howard and Dave, who were wreck 'pedestrians' and went and said hello.

The next second Gregg and Bob had gone! I looked around and couldn't see their lights. I stopped breathing for 10 seconds or so to try and hear their scooters but couldn't hear them. Assessing my situation, I decided rather than go off chasing shadows I'd stay with Dave and Howard, as three slow moving lights were going to be easier to find than one fast moving one, and luckily enough after a minute or so I saw their lights and rejoined them. We only had a couple of minutes left and so we had another run along to the bow and I got a good shot of the anchor, before it was time to head home. We had just one deco gas this time and Greg was running deco, so I can't remember exactly what we did, but it was half an hour or so. Bob shot the bag and Greg and I free ascended, just clipping out bags to Bobs lin and sending them up. I think we all learnt a bit from this one. Scooters do make it harder to communicate, even with 8 mtrs of viz, and its important to think logically about the best course of action should anything happen like losing a teammate.

The Pangani

Monday, the Pangani, a large sailing ship which had sunk in a collision. Howard had expressed his desire to do this as he said he thought we had the guys on the boat to do it and the weather looked good. Dave said it was one of the best dives in the channel, and, after a bit of contemplation, I agreed, although it was going to be my biggest dive so far.



It was not only a three stage dive but scooter and video too. I chose to take the video as my scooter has been weighted accordingly. If I took the camera mount and camera off then I would need to add weight to the scooter and if I got it wrong then it would be a pain, and I didn't want that at 65 mtrs! I just figured I would turn the camera on and if I got good video then fine, if not then so what, I'm there to do the dive, and can always do it again.

It was a long trip out, nearly three hours in Grahame's boat, which is a fast boat! Although the weather looked like it might not work for us when we first set off, it cleared dramatically, and 47 miles out, in the shipping lanes, it was totally flat calm and sunshine. Its times like this when I wish I could dive everyday. The 5p test showed lots of viz and we were all excited and looking forward to the dive. Seeing Grahame shot the wreck is very interesting. He finds the wreck, gets up tide of it and drops the shot in, which is shorter than the depth to the seabed. The shot then drifts along and hooks into the wreck, which makes for a good shot down. He was a little worried because it looked like it let go a couple of times, and asked us to be careful going down the shot

We all kitted up and waited for slack. The scooter guys jumped in first including me, as we were to check out the shotline and make it more secure if we needed to. We couldn't improve it and so we hoped the other guys wouldn't drag it off before they got to the wreck. Consequently, they didn't and the shot was fine. The team was Bob, Gregg and me. The plan was a 25 minute bottom time at an average of 63 mtrs and we expected to do 85-90 minutes in the water. We had discussed with Grahame what he wanted us to do with bagging off and it was decided that we would ascend the shot to 36 mtrs, come off the shot and shoot one bag per team, and the two remaining divers clip their bag to the existing line. If we saw the other team on deco then we were to stay close so Grahame had an easier job defending us from the container ships! Some of the ships apparently have a draft of more than 15 mtrs so Grahame had an important job to do and it makes sense to make that job as easy as possible.

Heading down the shot I discovered I had made a slight error in kitting up. I had deployed the bottom gas stage on the boat and so I had clipped off my primary reg, and also clipped off my light, so it was tucked in and tidied away for the exit off the boat. The problem was I had cross clipped them to each other and on the way down, whilst chasing Gregg (who had gone scooter crazy again ) handling the scooter, ears, BC, drysuit, I was also wrestling with trying to unclip my light head. Bob did a good job of keeping us together and ensured all the bubble checks were done on the way down. At 40 mtrs or so I signalled a problem but he didn't understand, so I left it until we reached the wreck, showed him the problem and he unclipped the lighthead for me. Something to check and double check in the future!

The wreck is gorgeous. It was an old sailing ship and is still largely intact, although split into two halves. There was still a bit of current but that didn't effect us with the scooters and Bob and I followed Greg, who was looking at some crockery in what seemed to be part of the living quarters. The ship itself had been carrying crockery when it sank. After a short root around we continued exploring the wreck. We didn't pick anything up but Dave had picked up a few bottles and teacups which looked OK. It looked just like a wreck should, in the hollywood stylee, with a 'proper' ship shape and railings etc. as well as other shipllike stuff (notice my expertise here) There was plenty of life, in terms of fish, congers etc. and I always like to see the large shoals of fish which frequent these deeper wrecks. The scooters do give you more freedom to explore and so we easily covered the whole length of the wreck, whereas the 'pedestrians' only managed to get to the break in the wreck before needing to turn around and ensure that they would return to the shot in time. After about 15 minutes my bottom stage started breathing a little harder. Thats my cue to switch to backgas (its about 15-20 bar on the gauge) and that I did, signalling Bob and then letting him watch as I restowed the hose. It all went smoothly which was a relief.

Continuing scootering around the wreck I couldn't believe I was at over 60 mtrs. You really didn't need a light at all as there was so much ambient light. At 20 minutes we headed back to the shot and I was able to take a closer look at some of the wrecks features whilst getting ready to ascend. The other team arrived on cue and we started the ascent at 25 mins bottom time, as planned. Deep stops started at 48 mtrs and when we reached 36 mtrs we drifted away from the line and Greg started to deploy his smb. I think he got something caught in his scooter prop and the next thing I knew he was trying to catch his scooter propellors as they had fallen off his scooter! After a bit of excitable sign language Bob took the propellors off him and he deployed his bag. We then continued up to the 21 mtr stop and we all switched to 50% (Well, after Bob sorted out my 50% hose as I had trapped it in the bottom cord when putting my bottle on. Another thing to be really careful about). Gregg then signalled he only had 100 bar of 50%! I had plenty and Bob had plenty and so we all signalled OK and would see how it went. After that Bob and I shot our bags up Greggs line and settled down for the deco, keeping an eye on Greggs 50%. On the way up to 9 mtrs I rotated my bottles around so I had the empty bottle on my hip and the O2 on my chest, ready for the 6 mtr switch. We reached the backgas break without incident and then moved on the the oxygen switch which again, went without incident. Hanging around at 6 mtrs Bob and I took to taking turns scootering around checking out the other divers and generally having fun :o)

We eventually surfaced on time and had a nice relaxing journey back to Weymouth. The Pangani, I like this wreck

A nice weekend, I had some really good dives, and learnt a lot from each one.

Andy

[keith_henson]

excellent trip report

ever since diving with you at stoney - things jsut have not been the same, something seems to keep drawing me to the dark side

Maybe one day


keith

[Bob Cooper]

Nice one Andy!

I like your trip reports. I can just copy and paste them into my logbook. Saves me an aweful lot of work!

Funniest thing all weekend was when the prop fell off Gregs scooter on deco. Oh, how we all laughed!!

Bob

[Clare Gledhill]

Originally Posted by keith_henson

ever since diving with you at stoney - things jsut have not been the same, something seems to keep drawing me to the dark side

Maybe one day

Watch out Keith - I dived with him once at Stoney too - it's those sublinimal messages again

As usual, great report Andy

[Andy Phillips]

Hey Andy,

Rather oddly we did the same wreck yesterday (pan-whatamacallit), really enjoyed it, makes for a great "rummage in the silt/ gravel and see what you can find dive", I an now the proud owner of a pint'ish glass and a slightly manky cup and saucer (well they nearly match).

Got to say though, your description of all the gas you had to carry, plus a short'ish 25min bottom time graphically reminds me why I have gone down the re-breather route.

Must also admit, I am a tincy bit jelous of the scootering bit, we had about 10~15M of vis on it, I doubt it was worse for you, so I bet that was a laugh.

I decided we were in fantastic vis when I looked down the shot at the diver on the stop I had just left and I could read his computer, not certain I have ever managed to do that before in the UK.

Take care mate,

Andrew

a little note, Lizzy the miserable sod made me throw the pint glass away, just because it had a crack, and the cup and saucer just because it was mankey, didn't match and the cup had no handle. I did however get to keep the small glass.

[Mark Chase]

Nice report M8

Like Andyp said we did this dive yesterday. Dispite our slightly longer bottom time (45min) most only managed to do the china section . Andyp went of to the break and I made it to the bow and the chain locker.

We were on a station as usual and the sight of theose masive container ships passing a couple of hundred M away made me bloody glad we were


ATB

Mark Chase

[gunsentry]

Another excellent report and very entertaining read.

Have to virtual green you

BR
Gary.

[Dave R]

Originally Posted by Bob Cooper

Funniest thing all weekend was when the prop fell off Gregs scooter on deco. Oh, how we all laughed!!

~ especially when he has avoided salt water on it for years and on its first babtism in the sea, he goes 'prop-less'

I thought on Monday's dive I could hear a tanker nearby - but it was infact Greg's buddies roaring with laughter... bad boys...

[Martin Burnard]

Increases my desire to learn more!

Good write up

[Ron Mahoney]

Dangerous - Is that you??

I'd heard you were back in the UK and doing a bit with UE - drop me a line, good to touch base.

"Rocket" Ron Mahoney

(If it's not please accept that I'm not a lunatic - a huge rabbit just told me so)