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As an addendum, the journalist who came along with us is named Bob Frump. Some of his excellent work can be read at: http://webandwire.com/index.htm Jim ------------------------------------------------------------------- Learn About Trimix at http://www.cisatlantic.com/trimix/ > From: Jim Cobb <cobber@ci*.co*> > Reply-To: vbtech@ci*.co* > Date: 17 Oct 2000 10:06:33 -0400 > To: Tech Diver <techdiver@aquanaut.com>, vbtech@ci*.co* > Subject: Trip Report > > We had a nice dive on the Marine Electric this past weekend. JT rented the > Miss Lindsey out for the weekend and a group of us camped out over the ME > and dove 5-6 dives apiece. The weather was awesome, flat water, no wind, > minimal currents. Surface temp around 70-76F with water temps of 63F. Vis > varied greatly from about 15' to 45' at times, changing during the dive. > There were great clouds of plankton and jellyfish which swept the wreck site > like banks of fog. > > This is a huge wreck, 600' long and perfect for scootering. The max depth > (at the bow) is 133' by my gauges so you can get several dives a day with no > problem. We were using nitrox and 100% 02 for deco. JT and Rick were > planning to go inside the engine section and I was going to spend my dive > sightseeing. I had a new drysuit to try out, replaced my neoprene unit with > a trilaminate DUI 450. It was nice to finish a dive perfectly dry and have > minimal buoyancy changes between the surface and the bottom. I found that > the non-elastic trilaminate fabric meant that I was not as flexible as with > neoprene but the benefits outweighed the drawbacks. I was also glad I > changed my underwear from 200g to 400g at the last minute due to the > information I garnered from this list. > > We left at 11:30 pm Friday night and arrived at ME at about 6am. It's was > nice to get to a wreck and not be in a assholes & elbows hurry to get in the > water, so I enjoyed setting back and watching various divers get ready. I > got another Dacor apollo scooter to replace the one left on the U-140. For > towing instead of a carabiner I tried out a double bolt snap, theory being > that if one snap jammed you would have another to use to disconnect from the > scooter if needed. This arraignment worked out to be most satisfactory and I > think I will stick with it. I (and other divers) find that the shroud loop > tended to get caught behind the snap of the carabiner. The bolt snap comes > right off and you don't have to have anything dangling from the scooter. > > The ship lies on the bottom at a bearing of south southwest and lies more or > less in a straight line. The engine section is laying on her stb side at an > angle of 70 degrees. The center section is inverted and collapsed and the > bow section is inverted. The wreck has huge relief, great sweeping sections > of bottom seem to stretch on forever. On the top of the engine section the > current is magnified by the sweep of the hull and you can hang out up there > with tautaug and other large fish whipping around you. It's one of those > places you can just sit there and watch the going's on. > > I accompanied the penetration team down to the tiny skylight hatch and > watched them squeeze themselves through to enter the ship. Me, I am not > doing stuff like that again until my kid's get a little older... As I said > this is a great scooter wreck and it was great fun to put the Apollo on > cruise control and go do some exploring down the great lengths of hull. The > center section offers many opportunities for easy penetration but there is > not much to see in there as this ship was carrying coal and not much else. > The bow section is another story. If you cruse forward along the collapsed > center section you will notice it getting darker. The plating quits and you > hit some sand and muck piles. It's really dark now and when you flash your > light around you realize that you have scootered straight up into the bow! > The bow section is so huge that you can enter it without seeing the top or > sides unless you are looking for them. It is possible to scooter freely > about 100-150ft into the bow among torn hull members and msch. machinery. > > The penetration team wound it's way deep into the wreck and found the > galley, they brought back some plates, cups and mugs. I found a very large > ceramic insulator from the radio off of the radar mast and presented it to > the journalist we had on board. I also gathered some coal from the cargo the > ME which the journalist plans on sending to the survivors of the wreck. In > our minds was the thought that 31 people who died when the ME foundered, and > it added a bit of a blue note as you scootered over the wreckage. I did 5 > dives and would not hesitate to do 5 more. > > Jim > > ------------------------------------------------------------------- > Learn About Trimix at http://www.cisatlantic.com/trimix/ > > > > << Send subscribe/unsubscribe/help requests to VBTech-request@ci*.co* > >> -- Send mail for the `techdiver' mailing list to `techdiver@aquanaut.com'. Send subscribe/unsubscribe requests to `techdiver-request@aquanaut.com'.
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