|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
|
|
|
The real dive story from Jason Gibb's logbook.
Dive 1
Aim: Locate the Earl of Abergavenny
Dive time: 42 minutes
Max depth: 18.3m
Seabed: Fine silt
Weather: Calm, force 1-2 NW. Sunny
Boat HQ: Shoreline Engineer
Sea temp: 17oC
Dive details: The site is close to the River Wey, so the seabed is fine silt that washes out with the river water and settles in the bay. As soon as we hit the bottom I knew we were in for a nightmare dive. The cloud of silt was so thick we couldn't see each other, just inches away. Even Ed, who has dived this site hundreds of times, was completely disorientated. I was annoyed because it meant it was really hard to film anything. In the zero viz we kept on getting tangled up in each others' lines. I tell you though, Miranda is a cool cookie, and nothing fazes her underwater. So we just sat it out and waited for the viz to clear. I got a good look at the wreck in the end. It's really smashed up (from heavy salvage with explosives) and consists of a long line of timbers with various pieces of metal supports. The site is covered by thousands of gunflints – part of the Abergavenny's cargo. Ed collects these and sells them. No clues. A lot of work to do.
Dive 2
Aim: Hunt for an iron knee
Dive conditions: As previous dive
Dive time: 43 minutes
Max depth: 18.3m
Dive details: We dive under very strict commercial diving regulations so we have to plan our dives meticulously. This means we have a dive supervisor on the surface who 'runs' our dive – today a very funny chap called Guyzee. But he's dead serious when it comes to our diving safety.
Guyzee and I had a bit of a clash today – we were running out of time, and still hadn't found the knee. I knew this was our one shot at finding it, and safety was my last concern. I just had one thing in my mind: find the knee. It meant I pushed Guy a little – not that I did anything unsafe – and just crept into his super-dooper conservative safety margin. He was fuming when we came up, and fair enough, he's ultimately responsible for our safety. Lesson learnt (but we did find our knee).
Dive 3
Aim: Surface recovery of iron knees
Dive conditions: As previous dive
Dive time: 20 minutes
Max depth: 17.7m
Dive details:
Lifting a big lump of metal off the seabed is a challenge. We located the iron knee I'd seen earlier and it was much bigger than I remembered, about 6ft by 7ft, and with the concretions it looked real heavy. Luckily commercial diver Jess was down there with me to do the work. At least I think Jess is his real name – he's an ex-marine, and when he's not diving he works as an undercover investigator. He did a great job, stropped up the knee, did a few covert operations, and then got it to the surface safe and sound!
Dive 4
Aim: Search for more knees
Dive conditions: As previous dive
Dive time: 42 minutes
Max depth: 18.0m
Dive details: Now we know that the key to our mystery is the copper pins which hold the iron knees in place, so the hunt is on to find more. We covered a lot of seabed looking for them. Found two knees with copper pins. Gordon, the Dorset archaeologist, wants to lift the big one (and this is huge, much bigger than our earlier one). Getting to know the site well.
Dive 5
Aim: Surface recovery of the second knee
Dive conditions: As previous dive
Dive time: 23 minutes
Max depth: 18.0m
Dive details: We went down to lift the large knee structure. Jess was on the job again. I just found out he has played a villain 'extra' in a James Bond movie. He has a bald head, sharp nose and front teeth missing. Anyway, he did a great job again. We got the knee to the surface. All very exciting. On deck, Gordon and our ship structure expert (pirate-look-alike) Peter Goodwin were convinced the use of copper pins (on iron fixings) were at least partially responsible for the sinking of the Abergavenny. They've never seen anything like this, so this week the Wreck Detective investigation has rewritten the shipbuilding history books!
^ Top
|
|
|
