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Hello List, I usually post my dive reports only to the Florida Tech Diver list, but I thought some of you might enjoy reading this one: ================================================================= Dive Report: Deep 423 (Marine Sulphur Queen?) Date: Saturday January 28, 2001 Boat: Nauti Gal and Gulf Business Captain: Jeff Hunter By: Mike Rodriguez The MSQ was a T2 type design tanker which was very common in the 60s due to the speed and economy with which it could be built; the Liberty Ships of WWII were similar in that they could also be built in about 70 days. Its 7,240 horsepower turbo-electric engine propelled it at up to 15 knots and it had a range of 12,000 miles. In 1960 the ship was one of the first T2 tankers converted to transport molten sulfur. After the conversion, the MSQ was plagued with problems. It had two major sulfur spills, one grounding, numerous problems with sulfur seepage, and almost constant fires in the sulfur tank insulation. When the ship disappeared with all 39 hands lost, it was the subject of national headlines as lawsuits against the owners, the Texas Gulf Sulphur Company, were filed claiming these and other problems caused the sinking. On the evening of February 7th, 1963, the ship was reported missing and the Coast Guard began a search. On February 13th the search was called off. Only a few small items from the ship - a life preserver, fog horn, t-shirt - were ever found. The weather around the time the ship disappeared was rough with seas up to 16 feet, but since no distress signal was ever received, it is not known if the weather or something else caused the sinking. Underwater searches of the eastern Gulf of Mexico and Florida Straits turned up nothing conclusive. By the way, the "correct" spelling for the element is Sulfur, with an 'f'. While the older spelling with 'ph' is still commonly used, the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry officially calls the element Sulfur. A few months before this dive, Captain Jeff Hunter, whose boats the AUE gang frequently charters to the wrecks off the Marquesas and Dry Tortugas, asked one of our guys if we'd be interested in diving an "unknown" in 450 feet of water and 140 miles offshore Ft. Myers in the Gulf of Mexico. Initially, we weren't very interested due to the extreme depth and the distance from help if something went wrong. After some research by one of our guys, however, it was determined that the wreck might be the Marine Sulphur Queen and this intrigued us. His research also lead to an email contact with the daughter of one of the men lost on the MSQ. She initially thought the email was a joke since she was an open water diver herself and didn't think it possible to dive to such depths. About the same time, she was contacted by someone from the BBC who was preparing a documentary involving the MSQ. She put our guy in contact with them and after some negotiating, the BBC agreed to fund an AUE expedition to the site to determine if the ship was the Marine Sulphur Queen. So it was that the AUE core ended up 140 miles offshore preparing for an extreme dive. The team of four bottom divers, two deep support divers, and two shallow support divers along with the daughter of the lost MSQ sailor and the BBC film crew arrived at the boat Friday night around 8pm. We had dinner and loaded the boat then held a last minute meeting to go over the plan. All the details had already been worked out by email and during previous meetings, so this final meeting was just to wrap up final details. Afterward, everyone found their bunk and went to bed. Around 3am, the crew showed up and we started out under clear but dark moonless skies. As we got out into open ocean we found the seas running about two to three feet and choppy. Later in the morning conditions improved a little, but it was still a bumpy ride for the 41 foot boats. We finally reached the site around noon and found the wreck on the bottom finder. Fortunately, we read the sand at only 420 feet, not the reported 450 feet we were expecting. The shallowest spot we could find on the wreck was about 360 feet. From the image on the bottom finder, it appeared the ship was probably turtled. If so, it would make identification of the ship very difficult. One of our goals was to measure the beam of the ship and if it was turtled, that measurement might be impossible to make. With a good reading on the bottom finder, we prepared our large AUE grapple hook and floatline. The captain took us over the wreck and I dropped the hook. I felt it scrapping along the hull, but it didn't catch and we pulled it up again. The second drop also met with failure. The other boat attempted to snag the wreck several times as well with no luck. We decided to change tactics and tied the end of the line to the boat then circled the wreck several times hoping the line would spiral down and catch something. After about two hours, I felt the hook finally snagged something and we released the ball. We watched the floatball to see what the current was up to; the small wake behind the ball told us there was a moderate current. It looked too strong to swim against which would significantly complicate things, but we'd planned for this possibility and everyone knew what to do. Everyone on the bottom team was diving the same gases and schedule. Our bottom mix was trimix 9/68/23. The decompression gasses were trimix 35/20/45, 50% nitrox, and 100% oxygen for decompression. On this dive, our bottom mix was sufficiently hypoxic to require a "travel" mix. The bottom mix didn't reach a PO2 of .16 until 25 feet and a normoxic PO2 until 45 feet. With a travel mix, it's vitally important to switch from the travel mix to the bottom mix before starting the final descent so part of our plan was to have a pre-dive stop at about 40 feet so we could do a bubble check and confirm that we all made the gas switch before starting down. The teams on both boats began to gear up as the captains kept us appraised of each team's progress. When everyone on both boats was nearly ready, my team splashed in and we headed to the pre-dive stop at 40 feet. Once there, we switched to bottom mix and waited for the team from the other boat. Unfortunately, the drag we placed on the line with the moderate current was too much for the floatball which promptly sank despite its 150 lbs. of buoyancy. We scooted toward the end of the line, but we were sinking rapidly and there was no way to get the ball back up... it was squashed and looked like a raisin. Our team had no choice but to let go and surface where we met the other team who wondered what happened. We explained the situation and greatly discouraged we boarded the boats. Sitting on the boat again I was happy to see that the ball had come back up. We tied two additional balls to the line and prepared for a second drop. This time everything worked. Both teams splashed in at nearly the same time and rallied at 40 feet. We switched gases, did a bubble check, and waved goodbye to the support divers as I took the lead on the way down into the gloomy darkness. The visibility was fair at about 50 feet all the way down. It was a sunny day, which helped, but it was still very dark below us. I went hand-over-hand down the line which sloped at about 30 degrees. I kept up a steady pace and was very relaxed which kept my gas consumption down. At about 100 feet I stopped to check on my buddies above me on the line. Everyone was there, so I continued down. As I dropped deeper, I thought about other Florida wrecks near my home; at 170 feet the Hydro Atlantic, at 210 the Lowrance, at 260 the RBJ, at 280 the Pappa's Wreck, at 300 the Vitric, at 320 the Ozark, at 360 the Liberty Ship Bodenhamer, then I saw the floatline intersect the wreck by a humongous warsaw grouper bigger than many jewfish I've seen. The wreck was on its side and fortunately not turtled. I dropped onto the side of the hull by the line and looked up to check on my three buddies as they arrived, their HID lights shining brightly in the gloom. The depth here was 370 feet on my Nitek 3 which can read to 600+ feet. My Uwatec locked up at 328 but came back to life later when we ascended. It was dark, but not too dark to read my instruments without a light thanks to the bright sunshine above. The current was nearly gone at this depth and the temperature was about 70F. The visibility was about 50 feet. Our HID lights help cut through the haze somewhat, but we were unable to determine which way the bow and stern were. I tied my reel to the floatline which was precariously hooked onto the growth on the bottom of the hull. The surface current was running laterally over the hull toward the deck which is why hooking in was so difficult; had it been running the other way we would have hooked the wreck on the first try. I unspooled my reel to the gunnel, tied a knot, then dropped to the sand and tied another knot. I would later measure the distance between the knots to determine the beam of the ship and try to identify it. Immediately after tying the second knot I glanced at my depth gauge, which read 423, then I pushed off the sand and headed up to the top gunnel. With my measurement taken, I stowed my reel and took a closer look at the wreck. It was heavily encrusted and looked like it had been down several decades. A long mast stuck out from the deck into the gloom over the sand. A couple more large warsaw groupers hovered around us as the team studied the deck and peered into the gloom looking for identifying details. Our planned bottom time nearly over, I swam back to the line and did a quick head-count, then I swam down to the hook. It was just barely snagged and one sharp tug pulled it loose. It scrapped up the hull with me holding on, then over the wreck and out over the sand. My buddies held out the loop we'd previously tied in the line and I fouled the hook on it. Everyone headed up to our first deep stop at 210 feet where we met the deep support divers. We signaled that everyone was OK and began our long decompression. At our 60 foot stop, one of the support divers spotted something big swimming in the distance. It had a dorsal fin and he indicated to us that it might be a shark. Our team has had trouble with Gulf sharks before, so we took the threat seriously and instinctively set up back-to-back to look around. Fortunately, it turned out to be a pod of friendly dolphins. One of them came very close whistling and clicking at us. I swam slowly toward it, and it let me get to within two feet before it moved away. Why anyone would want to swim with imprisoned dolphins at the various "Dolphin Institutes" scams that have popped up all around florida is beyond me when, with a little effort, anyone can see them up close in their natural habitat. These beautiful and intelligent animals deserve better. Anyway, after the brief encounter with the pod, we finished our deco and boarded the boats. I was anxious to measure the distance between the knots on my line and quickly got out of my gear. My measurement came to 48 feet, significantly shorter than the 60 feet expected on the MSQ. However, since the ship is on its side and looked to be fairly well settled into the sand, I can't say if my beam measurement confirms or denies the identity of the wreck. Perhaps another expedition to this site later this year will provide more conclusive results. Due to the uncertain identity of the ship, we temporarily named it after its depth, "Deep 423". The crew dragged in the floatline and everyone settled in for the long ride home. Due to somewhat rougher conditions, it took over eight hours to get back to the dock. It was after 2am before we had everything unloaded and packed up. I said goodbye to the observers on our expedition and to my buddies and support divers, then drove home. The BBC's footage is being edited and will air on the Discovery Channel in May, 2001. Additional footage and stills will be posted to the web site shortly. Although we were unable to positively identify the wreck, it was a good dive. The team's performance, especially the support diver's, was excellent in the difficult conditions. I had the easy job compared to the support divers and sincerely believe it's their hard work that really make dives of this magnitude go off without a hitch. I'd like to thank our support divers, Marc, Ralph, Sleepy, and Tony for their help and the BBC for their generous funding of this expedition, and I'm looking forward to returning to this wreck again soon. ================================================================= -Mike Rodriguez <mikey@mi*.ne*> http://www.mikey.net/schedule.html Pn(x) = (1/(2^n)n!)[d/dx]^n(x^2 - 1)^n -- Send mail for the `techdiver' mailing list to `techdiver@aquanaut.com'. Send subscribe/unsubscribe requests to `techdiver-request@aquanaut.com'.
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