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For those who were unable to attend and are interested in how the event turned out please read on.......... The morning was much cooler than expected and though we had heaters for the tent(18'x40'), it was inadequate for the temperature. Half of the space was for artifacts and the other half was used for the speakers. Both ends were full and resulted in standing room only when the speakers gave their presentations........they were so good and informative not a soul left or complained about the chilly conditions, more kept showing up through the day. The first speakers presentation was about techdiving and VBtech, Dave Widen kept his presentation short due to the guidelines I had set. While I think Dave could have spoke longer, I blame myself for limiting his time and thus many could have prospered from advice he was willing to give, but lacked time to do so because of scheduling. Jackie Smith followed after a break and gave a wonderful presentation of CCR........ Jackie made 16 sub 300ft dives last year, some to 400ft using his BioMarine 500 CCR, plus the normal technical dives(shallower than 300ft) he does the rest of the year. He explained why he chooses to dive his CCR manually and disable the electronics while also bringing bailout gas that is ample enough to get him to staged back up gas, support divers, or complete deco should the unit have a problem, which has never happened to him. Capt. Johnny Pieno spoke on Hatteras, NC wrecks and their artifacts that was so good that a trip is in the making to one of them right now and while our group is noted for doing some pretty deep stuff, he touched on several wrecks that are less than 130ft and are so loaded with artifacts as he put it, Hellen Keller ( a famous blind person) could find some. One such wreck is the City of Atlanta. Robert Frump gave a summery of his book "Until the Sea Shall Free Them", Bob gave a chilling account of the 31 men who lost their lives when the SS Marine Electric sunk and how 3 men managed to survive near freezing water and 30ft seas with no survival suits FOR 2 hours. How it changed the way the USGC does its ocean rescues, while both ABS and the USCG changed their inspections on sea going vessels after this vessel sunk. Disney has the movie option on the book and I would not be surprised to see it made into one. Christina Young gave a fascinating presentation on NJ wrecks, with details and photos of how Richie Kohler, herself and others found and identified the USS Murphy while the US Navy took the stance of a vessel "had not sank" there and they were not missing one nor looking for one........while some may be against artifact recovery this is a prime example why something as simple as a ships gauge can help solve a mystery and set the record straight. Though the gauge *did not* solve the mystery of the Murphy.... the information that it contained (the inspection tag) was dismissed, and then AWOIS / Eastern Sea Frontier War Diary connection actually provided the definitive link. Other things worth mentioning, Robert Frump and I were interviewed about the SS Marine Electric by our local TV WVEC and will air on Feb 10&11 which will included some footage from the VBtech expeditions in 2000 & 2001. I will also be making available a DVD sometime in March about the Marine Electric and these expeditions to the wreck. At the show I made available on DVD the 490ft dive that Rick and I did in FL, while a copy of the tape was stole shortly after the dive and became the subject of many emails on these lists, I was not able to make it available for everyone to see back then and posted it would be at sometime. Also on the same DVD is the 380ft dive to the German Battleship Ostfriesland in 2002, see my web site for these DVD's. The artifact display was a complete success as many put on display some amazing finds.........while some are opposed to the taking artifacts I took delight being interviewed by someone who is doing an article on the subject. I stated how many of these things on display were the result of divers using their own money to research and locate these shipwrecks, while our Government and museums do not have the resources and could care less of there existence anyway. Not to mention the money these divers put back into the economy by paying companies to restore some of these items or purchase things like shadow boxes, stands, curio cabinets ect. to display them......wait until you see the photos I am going to put on my site of these artifacts. If you missed the show, then you can see some of it on my site, I will try to put up a page every day for the next 6 days. If you weren't there then you missed some of the best presentations I have ever been at. I can't duplicate that on my site. Capt JT "You can't learn to dive on the net, sooner or later you have to get in the water" Your Guide to Great Wreck Diving along the East Coast & more Web Site http://www.capt-jt.com/ Email captjt@mi*.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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