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A journey through any dedicated wreck
divers diary will reveal a surreal world of tales in adventure,
companionship, trust and ambition. Stories of hidden treasure amongst
the bones of an old ship conjure imaginations wild, exploring shipwrecks
is a pastime that captures many into a lifetime. Wreck diving is
a way of life and Deep Image intends to show an alternative side
of it. The taboo subject of deep mix gas wreck exploration is of
age, now recent advances in the subject itself have clearly detailed
lost shipwrecks back into the limelight. Along with the cave divers
the wreck divers represent perhaps the last chance that man or woman
from ordinary life can use the title of 'Explorer'. The wreck diving
pages of Deep Image intend to dig deep into the world of wreckin
its personalities and its methods. I searched the web for a long
time for a certain kind of material that represented true wreck
diving at its best. I am still searching! but in the mean time trying
to carve my own efforts which I hope you will enjoy.
Leigh Bishop Aug 2003
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Lusitania expedition leader Mark Jones uses
a slave to add light to a covered promenade deck
window on the wreck of the Lusitania at a depth of 307ft.
The Deep Image archive includes 100's of never seen
before images of this famous wreck which in time will
appear on this site. Click the image to get a larger
and better perspective.©Leigh Bishop 2001
For a full list of recent wreck diving expeditions please see
expeditions or our home page. |
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Wreck Diving
Introduction
There's something about shipwrecks that captures the imagination from
an early age, what ever it is I was certainly one of those who fell
victim, a victim in a way I could never have imagined. Having started
exploring shipwrecks in the 1980's the natural progression for more
exciting and untouched shipwrecks came around the same time as diving
the wrecks themselves took on a new concept in technical terms during
the late 80's early 1990's. Interestingly enough, anyone prepared
to take the challenge' was in for a decade and more of some of the
best wreck diving in the history of the sport especially with as many
Kevin 'Murder' Emans examining a ships bells
for a possible name
©Mike Boring 2001
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deep-untouched wrecks as you could
shake a stick at. Shipwrecks such as the famous Lusitania, a
legendary ocean liner that practically changed the course of
history could now realistically be explored by free swimming
divers for the first time. Not just the famous wrecks but hundreds
of classic steamers alike could now be seen once again and for
the first time their bones carefully picked through to reveal
their true identities. |
Alan 'Bones' Boness with a
ships bell from an unknown wreck. © Leigh Bishop 1997 |
The old school divers were slowly starving themselves of new wrecks
and artifacts alikealike but at the same time refusing to accept the
changing concepts of the new ways of exploration. Their deep air techniques
hammers & Chisels were slowly becoming a thing of the past, as
were their attitudes. Having said that these guys I still have great
respect for as they inspired me for all it was worth. These were the
guys that had more artifact in their houses than furniture something
I had always been heavily impressed with. The stories they had of
wreck diving adventures outweigh any today and are still firmly fixed
in my mind. If the old school lads practiced dangerous techniques
compared to today's terms I do not care and yes deep air is wrong
even I'll agree but that never took their stories away and fuckin
good ones they were as well. I wouldn't have missed my learning curve
through these guys for the world As everything things take a full
circle and just now collecting of artifact from shipwrecks in the
UK appears unfashionable as the ever-growing trends of do gooders
fight for the last world
Steady progression through the 90's decade saw divers becoming
more comfortable with greater depths, which in turn meant much more,
was being discovered about our rich maritime history. Towards the
late 90's the free swimming divers had built on the confidence at
depth to now start bringing the images of those wrecks home for
the remaining world to see.
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In the mid 80's 165ft was a big dive
today in 2003 heads rarely turn over a stunt dive to 500ft+
but true exploration of a shipwreck to depths in excess of 500ft
can only be carried out by the dedicated few. For those true
leaders of the sport historic shipwrecks still lay in wait from
treasure ships to Ocean going liners the world of wreck diving
is tightly in the grasp. Their dedication will excel them in
the sport and the rewards for them will be unimaginable. I was
lucky to have lived through a time when sport wreck diving saw
the greatest change it is ever likely to have. The introduction
of mixed gas in the late 80's/early 90's meant that those in
wait no longer had to listen to commercial stories of deep wreck
exploration and could physically take it in their own hand and
make their own discoveries. In 1994 I called the UK hydrographic
office regarding information on the lost British Battleship
King Edward VII off north Scotland.
<<In August of 1995 Scientific
America magazine ran a feature article on the subject of
deep technical diving. The scientific conclusion on this occassion
was that divings greatest dangers often come from the air not
the water.
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The wreck had gone long since forgotten representing merely a footnote
in chapter, as the man on the end of the telephone browsed his database
he muttered under his breath " Hum cant be that King Edward
your inquiring over it's a little too deep! I'll try looking somewhere
else" I disturbed his concentration "excuse me sir but
exactly how deep is that certain King Edward you have in your database?"
"Err that's 382ft cant be the one you are looking for as its
out of range for Scuba" Needless to say as I informed him of
our objectives in the exploration of the wreck and that was indeed
the wreck in question he was rather astounded and was faltered at
the fact 'being an ex Navy' diver that sport divers were taken serious
drops using mix gas to this depth.
At the same time Aquacorps was bringing it home to us, a small community
at the time was united together with a cult publication that had
the answer we were looking for. Aquacorp reached out with the answer
saying a big 'Fuck you' to the agency's attitude that the alternative
way was the wrong route to take. Aquacorp brought with it the big
interviews daring to publish the truth and the language with it,
cutting edge expeditions the Cazador, Ostfriesland& Pollys legendary
Lucy 94. Deans in the meantime sat back with his finger up took
the piss as he mixed gas in a cauldron and rolled the dice to produce
decompression tables. Those that have seen that film will now exactly
what I mean.
Towards the late 90's Kevin Gurr & Nick Hopes respected expeditions
to the Britannic marked the way for others in there on individual
ways. Hope had pushed for a license to dive the wreck from as far
back as 94 then in May 97 received a joint license with Gurr to
explore the largest sunken liner in the world. (Not as a subsequent
follow-up party to these two highly successful expeditions described
as 'the largest shipwreck in the world')
Much Significant progress was made in deep wreck diving in this
decade and those whom made it what it was can proudly sit back knowing
they were involved. I spent quite some time going through my personal
publication archive to research the history of Technical.
Wreck diving WHY?
Thinking about it deep wreck diving has to rate as one of the most
bizarre pastimes modern-day times could possibly recall. A dive
to a shipwreck starts a year in advance scheduling your charter
then as the dive draws closer we begin to fettle kit in preparation,
fill dill sometimes by driving miles out of your way, check cells
valves etc then we wake well before the milkman at some unheard
of hour to make the 200+ mile drive, well that's if you haven't
made it the night before and crashed in the back of your van on
the quay side only to be driven mad by the battering rain on the
metal roof all night long. Then load crates of heavy kit onto a
small bobbing boat and rush like damit to fit it all together before
the boat leaves the harbor in an attempt to save yourself getting
soaked by the battering spray driving itself over the gunwale. We
then grab a sacred square ft of wheelhouse and make it clear that
yours for the next four hours out to the wreck. After constantly
absorbing that droning background engine noise we then wedge ourselves
between sections of wheelhouse and skipper to don a drysuit before
making a hasty exit in yet another big effort bid to squeeze into
your kit that happens to be squashed between the two blokes who
happen to own everything. Ahh now its time to relax and take in
some tasty diesel fumes as the skipper searches in vain for that
wreck that the local pot fisherman has promised will be there. Don't
forget while all this is going on its brewing up for a nice force
4 to 5 out there under that lovely overcast sky. All systems are
then go and before we know it our cushtie 25 mins has evaporated
as the slack comes to an end and threatens to yank your arms out
of the sockets as you scrap the last extra minute on an old barnacle
covered section of hull plate. Now all we have is natures unbiased
ratio of decompression to carry out in relation to the bottom time.
Seems hardly fare! Slag! In a nutshell now all we have to do is
everything we have just done other than the dive but in reverse.
However the worst of all is to come, you can guarantee some knob
has crashed on the motorway just after you get underway again after
the 2 hour contraflow which the knock on effect makes you miss those
vital first moments of Heartbeat that consequently knock the entire
plot out of touch. (Then of course you find you have set the channel
wrong on the video and have to wait an eternity for that episode
to make its rounds on UK gold) Life! So lets just work out what
that tidy 25 mins on a piece of rusting shit works out at? arr.
that's right an entire day and a bloody expensive one at that. And
we take around 40-50 of those in each year just for good measure!
As I say bizarre huh! Sometimes you can see the sense in a swift
18 holes and a couple in the 19th just to take the edge off!
For a long time I have personally surfed the net in search
of the ultimate wreck diving pages with little if any luck. Just
what entails as the ultimate pages I'm looking for I cant answer
although when I see them I have a feeling I will know. If you have
some great wreck diving pages with plenty of quality wreck images,
artifact displays and a wealth of information please let me know.
In the mean time I decided to have a go at carving my own, whether
they end up to be what I've always been in search of is a different
matter. I will try [time allowing] to work these pages as much as
I can in order to provide as much information and pictures as I
possibly can. During the last 15 years I couldn't have asked for
a better wreck diving career, here it is.
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