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The real dive story from Jason Gibb's logbook.
Dive 1
Aim: To check out the wreck site
Dive time: 31 minutes
Max depth: 13.1m
Seabed: Kelp
Weather: Westerly, 4-5. Showers
Boat HQ: Wessex Explorer
Sea temp: 15oC
Dive details: Last night over a couple of Guinnesses in the Mishnish pub in Tobermory I heard rumours that our wreck site had been illegally dived. This is a big problem, even for wrecks protected by law (like this one). So I wasn't sure what we'd find when we dived the site, and Phil hasn't dived the site for a couple of years (Phil is one of your no-nonsense, hardcore, all-weather divers. He used to make a living out of diving for scallops, which is a hard, hard job. He has hands the size of plates.)
And there wasn't much down there, just five cannon, all completely encrusted. If I'd have swum over them, I wouldn't have had a clue what they were, but as a scallop diver Phil's eyes are as sharp as a hawk's. With just five crusty cannon to go on, I don't think we have a snowflake's chance in hell of solving this mystery.
Dive 2
Aim: Dive the mystery targets from our survey
Dive conditions: Wind picking up. Having a lot of trouble mooring the Elizabeth G (74ft dive vessel)
Dive time: 19 minutes
Max depth: 16.5m
Dive details: On the multi-beam sonar survey of the surrounding area the geophysicists found a number of targets that could be cannon, or even something else. They needed to be checked out and I love this kind of diving – descending into the murky unknown. We could find a virgin site, with cannon and anchors or anything! So me, Phil and Steve (local diver, personality and scallop fisherman) went down to check 'em out.
We spent the whole time scrabbling round in silt, sand and rubble and found nothing except an old bit of pipework. Back on the surface we headed back to the dive boat with the pipe held aloft. Fred, the director, thought that I'd found a sword or something of great archaeological significance and got very excited. Sorry mate (if it was I would have left it where it was and surveyed it in).
Dive 3
Aim: Find artefacts – clues, any clues!
Dive conditions: Windy
Dive time: 73 minutes
Max depth: 11.3m
Dive details: Garry is one of the most dedicated, passionate (obsessed) archaeologists I know. He's very keen to do everything by the book, especially when the cameras are watching (fair play). And he spent so much time surveying the artefacts in (which I had to film) I was freezing my butt off. Once he surveyed them we could bring them to the surface. Garry tagged and bagged them and we brought them up to show to eminent marine archaeologist Colin Martin. We had a piece of lead sheet with holes in it that Colin reckons is a piece that was used to repair a hole. We also found a piece of oak with markings from the tropical toredo worm on it. This means the ship was, at some point, in the tropics. We're building a picture of the ship, but still a long way off anything specific.
Dive 4
Aim: Measure cannon
Dive conditions: Sunny, still. Good conditions
Dive time: 56 minutes
Max depth: 11.3m
Dive details: This is our last chance to identify the wreck for Phil. What is it? Why is it here? When did it sink? It's a tall order but I had cannon 'nut' Charles Trollope watching my pictures, I descended with a good feeling about this dive. Charles is great, his eyes light up at the mention of trunions and cascabels, and he knows more about cannon than any sane man should. Phil and Miranda took measurements – and it's no easy task swimming round with tape measures in murky water. After measuring all five cannon, Charles told us he had an inkling as to what they were, so we surfaced totally excited. Over a cup of tea he enlightened us that they were English cannon cast between 1640 and 1670. How on earth he worked that out I don't know, but he is a hero. And now I can go back home and watch the rest of the World Cup satisfied.
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