Hi Guys, just thought I would share an incident we had when diving the Breda in the 1980s, even it was just a laugh on the club
In July 1982 the club had a fabulous holiday diving in the Outer Hebrides, starting at the Butt of Lewis. On the return journey we stopped off at Oban and made some dives on the wreck of the Breda.
Rolf and John were first to go down and after some 15 minutes they both broke the surface in a frenzy of excitement about 30-metres away, shouting and waving their arms about. There could not have been more commotion if a Great White Shark was after them. Rolf spat out his mouth piece and blurted out that he had found what looked like a huge block of gold. It measured about two feet by one foot and it seemed solid. He said that he had scraped it with his knife and it was reasonably soft. Nobody doubted him because he had ten years experience as a diver and knew the difference between the likes of copper, brass and lead etc. We hastily took some good transits and debated our next move. New dive sites were the farthest thing from our minds as a block of gold that size would have provided holidays in the South Seas for the rest of our lives! The adrenalin was really starting to wind us up and we headed post haste back to Oban for refills and a light meal. While we waited (and waited) for our decompression times to pass we discussed the various possibilities of what our 'golden block' may be? How it could be on, or near the Breda? And where it could have come from - as well as how we could handle such a short heavy object. Rolf had said that he had dug down underneath the block so we thought it may be possible to put a rope around as the bottom was just compressed silt. We were back again at 5 pm and we raced out to the scene of our gold mine with hardly a word being spoken - each of us in our own world of dreams.
Once at the buoy we kitted up, with Rolf and I making the first dive, equipped with two big lifting bags. There was no sign of our booty near the anchor but we knew it could not be far away so we decided to separate and search on two sides of the
Anchor however the viz had changed by then. Only a couple of minutes had elapsed when lo and behold, there it was in front of me, shining in the dim green light just as Rolf had said it, the block of gold? If it was it must have been worth in the region of £50 million.
I found the hole Rolf had dug and completed the job quite easily with my knife. Soon I had the heavy nylon rope secured round it, the lifting bags attached and the bags filled to their capacity. Obviously I did not expect anything to happen but I decided to give it a helping hand and put my back into it. The ropes on the lifting bag were straining like a bow string. Nothing happened at first; then an inky cloud rose up around the base as the suction gave up its hold and off went our `gold' like a bat out of hell, leaving behind a very disappointed diver, showered in dirty black silt. Rolf was still out of sight, so I decided to go up top while I had 'air time' left.
Happily the lads had been watching our movements and kept us both under surveillance. By the time I surfaced they had the 'gold' on board and the same disappointment showed on their faces as must have shown on mine. The 'gold' was a small stainless steel cabinet with a flush door and full to the brim with gooey, black, silt, which had been largely caused by rusting metal objects. After the initial gloom, we had a good laugh and decided Rolf should not go unrewarded for our spoilt dreams. Just then he surfaced, swam over to the boat and inquired as to what we had on board. It was then that we gave him the 'reward'; about three gallons of the black goo over his head! Fortunately he saw the joke and had a good laugh at his own expense.
Rolf placed his cabinet on a rocky headland at the end of the bay with a wooden board describing its origin and date and probably it will still be there to this day.
Cheers Ron
