DIR UK July 2006; Merchant Royal, Unknown, Warrior II

DIR UK July 2006

We always have a lot of laughs on these trips. This time it started early when, still in the harbour Bob gets on the lift fully clothed to help Al weight his scooter – with Andy Kerslake in charge of the lift buttons…… well you can guess what happened next.

Day 1 – Merchant Royal.

The Merchant Royal is a large British cargo ship of 5000 tons lying South of Portland sunk as the result of a collision. Standing 11M high with her centre castle area largely intact she is still a recognisable ship with her bows broken off and amid ship and stern listing Starboard. It is possible to go below seabed depth and reach 60M where there are apparently copper ingots that were missed by the salvage men. More realistic max depth is 56m to the seabed.

Al and I decided to make the most of the conditions, which were pretty nice, to scooter the wreck. My stress levels which were already rising slightly at the prospect of my first multi gas scooter dive went into orbit when we were given the shout to kit up and I realised that my argon reg was not only not fitted to the cylinder but was at home in the shed (after removing it for a trip to Ireland). I resigned myself to not diving but then realised that I had a spare stage reg that I could attack and make do. Within two minutes work with a spanner and a donated blanking plug from Greg, I had a workable set up (albeit with a very large gauge for an argon bottle) and carried on kitting up.

On reflection, I should have asked for our team to move down the running order as I was now very hot and bothered and breathing heavily. But we kept our slot and jumped in – thankful of the cold water. I was leading and enjoying the fact that we did not have to use the shot – just scootering forward to keep it in sight and descend.

I got to about 30 metres and realised that I had quite a fuzzy head – given that I was diving 18/45 it was unlikely to be nitrogen narcosis and was more likely to be caused by CO2 from my rushing around on the surface. I carried on the descent concentrating on keeping my breathing relaxed and, at the bottom, signalled to Al that we should keep it slow and steady. I’ve been affected before and it usually clears quite quickly and after a while I felt a bit better so we both went on the trigger and went off around the wreck.

We came across Brian and John Kendall in the water, John appeared to be videoing a large lobster. We headed up towards the bow and Al who was one at this point came off the trigger saying ‘woah’ I looked up and instantly did the same – the wreck at this point was intact and loomed up ahead of us in very dramatic style.

We headed round the bow and came off the trigger again to hang and look at it (always a favourite part of the dive for me) but this time we started moving backwards instantly as fast as we had been moving forwards – the current had picked up big time but whilst on the scooters we hadn’t really noticed. I realised that I was still not 100 per cent and turned to Al to thumb the dive but his thumb was already up – time to go. Deco was uneventful apart from the fact that current and tide combination meant that Graeme the skipper had a hard job keeping all the teams in sight on deco – almost 1.5 miles from the wreck when finished.

Tom at Breakwater does us proud with fills - a whole boat of trimix and 20 odd stages takes time and we don't get to the centre until 6pm but he stays on happily and gets all the mixes spot on - well done!

Day 2 – unknown.

Plans for diving this day were changed when the weather deteriorated and Graeme felt that he would get us a smoother ride out in a different direction than expected. The payback was getting to dive an unidentified wreck which has a great deal of potential for research in future if we are ever to work out how and why she came to rest there.

We came equipped for most eventualities

Fraser had joined us by this stage and we jumped in without scooters – the brief for this dive was to seek some form of identification and scooters would only hinder this aim. John Kendall was to take video and the rest of us would rummage.

I really enjoyed this dive. We do know from artefacts already recovered (in association with the R.O.W) that the ship is likely to date from 1867 and she was a very large ocean going sail ship loaded to the gunnels with supplies. Fire bricks, pottery, buckles and musket balls, barrels of dynamite, millstones, bottles – many still with corks in – were in abundance. I found a perfect large white china bowl with a Staffordshire stamp but it was buried and removing it would have taken rather too long at 54 metres if I were to be careful enough not to damage it so I left it there for someone with more time.

I was leading and took us over a bit of the wreck which stood perhaps two meters proud. As I did so I noticed the largest conger eel I have ever seen, below me but looking straight at Al and Frase. I heard Fraser squeal (he said it was the helium

) and Al laugh at this but noticed that Al changed course as well.

The viz on this dive was stunning – the rocky bottom ensuring that we could see other teams working on distant areas of the wreck which was clearly large. We never found the anchors although Bob and Greg did – or the bell which has never been found. I, for one, would be very happy to go back to this one. She clearly has a tale to tell.

Conditions on deco were interesting and out came the wetnotes where I asked to pad deco at 6 fearful that we would not be able to do the slow ascent that is normally had built in to the O2 stop. Al and Frase agreed but as it was, conditions were OK up to about 1.5 metres and we were able to complete it without issue.

Day 3

The weather deteriorated further but Graeme was able to give us a smooth ride out (in what was a force 5/6) by choosing his direction carefully to use the tide to our advantage. We were to dive the Warrior II.

This was an armed luxury steam yacht which had been built in 1904 and had already survived World War One. The 1,120 ton vessel was dive-bombed and machine-gunned and finally went down about ten miles south-east of Grove Point.

Fraser and I dived the Warrior II a couple of weeks ago but really enjoyed the dive and were happy to return with Al. We dropped in roughly in the middle of the wreck and Al led off down towards the bow where I got to do my ‘hang off the wreck in mid water and soak up the atmosphere’ bit.

There are so many large congers, lobsters and crabs on this wreck you almost become blasé when you spot yet another but the sight of an edible crab bigger than a large dinner plate wobbling along on legs which looked like they would snap under the weight of the shell was funny. Colourful wrasse helped brighten up the wreck which was dark – but with good viz.

We headed back towards the swimming pools and mosaics but, swimming against the current, turned it before we got there and drifted gently back down the wreck. The boiler on the Warrior II is the biggest I have ever seen anywhere and stands a good four or five metres proud – I saw a tail sticking out and don’t even want to think how big that conger was!

Back on board, I’m tying my kit down when Bob comes on board. His argon bottle catches in the pleat of my drysuit and he pulls me round with him as he walks. I grab hold of the handrail to steady myself and am fine – until he sits down on my hand with his twin 15s

Owwwwwwww!

Tom the handsome and helpful deck hand offers to avenge me with a boat hook but I guess karma comes into force when Bob then topples over on to the deck and is pinned (unhurt) by his set to the deck….

Day 4 – nothing to report. Despite Graeme working miracles all weekend there is an end to the guy’s ability to pull a rabbit out of the hat every day and the weather had cut off all available options. Pub lunch and home.

Doesn't get any better - lots of laughs and good diving....hope you all had good weekends too.

Clare