Commercial system / Tech. divers to explore the "Britannic"...

[DeepSeaDan]

...Just learned of this from a commercial diving associate.

It appears a group of tech. divers are planning a project to explore the wreck of the Britannic in the Mediterranean Sea in 120m+.

They will be using a saturation system & diving bell. They plan to use rebreathers during their penetrations. They are being assisted by members of some commercial companies who are interested in studying the effectiveness of rebreather diving in sat.

The diving team recently completed training at Fort william in the U.K. in preparation for the project.

Regards,
D.S.D.

 

[MechDiver]

The wreck has already been videoed by divers from Seattle, and I believe, GUE.

MD

 

[DeepSeaDan]

...you may well be correct on that Mech.; however, the benefits of exploring that wreck when saturated will be akin to kids having unlimited access to the candy store!

They are apparently diving untethered, thus it is unlikely they will have the thermal luxury of hot water suit diving. Still, they can roam from the bell for the duration of their safe gas supply, return & rest while the other diver locks out, then return for another spin when he gets back! I don't know how they will plan their excursions, but when I dove sat. we were limited to 8 hour bell runs...4 hours in-water, 4 hours as bell tender.

And still it gets sweeter...the bell returns to surface, mates to the D.D.C. & another team locks into the bell to continue exploring. Those remaining in the chamber rest, eat , have a hot shower & sleep till its their turn to play again!

Oh yeah...no deco. till the explorations done! Everybody takes the slow ride to surface together, warm, dry...and usually sound asleep!

Now thats deep diving the civilized way!

Regards,
D.S.D.

 

[pipedope]

OK Who wants to get together and buy a commercial dive boat with bell chamber systems, ROV, dynamic positioning and other goodies and use it for tech diving?

I think it would be the cats pajamas.

 

[boomx5]

Didn't they already do this kind of exploration on the Doria back in the early 80's (minus the rebreathers)?

 

[DeepSeaDan]

Oceaneering Intl. supplied a bell/sat. system & crew to support u/w cinematographer Peter Gimbel's exploration/documentary of the Doria.

Amongst other things, those series of dives resulted in "Gimbel's Hole", where a large section of hull cut away by the O.I. divers permitted access to the interior of the wreck. Apparently, this hole is the favoured point of entry for all those interested in finding some "goodies" inside.

Pipedope,

That has been a dream of mine for many years!

My first gig as a commercial diver was a 4 month stint on a Brown & Root barge in the Bay of Campeche', Mexico. The M-280 was a utility barge, though her main duty was to dredge-in pipeline. We were doing just that one day when the dredge sled came to a halt on bottom. The barge master ordered a bell run to investigate what the sled was hung up on. When the guy locked out he was amazed to see the sled butted up against a huge sailing vessel, sitting upright on the bottom in 180' of water. The 36' pipeline had been laid right over top of it! He estimated the wreck to be at least 200 years old! We begged/pleaded/cajoled/ the Barge Master to allow us some time to explore the wreck, but the ol' Coon-Ass just had them lift the sled over the wreck & continue on dredging ops. ( time-is-money! ).

Always wanted to go back there with my own system & check that wreck out.

Interested?

D.S.D.

 

[pipedope]

I bet that pipeline was put down a few years ago before ROVs became so common.

That sounds like it would be a great project.

Now all we have to do is find the money.
With enough money it is easy to get a good boat. With a good boat and a hot project, finding divers is the easy part.

 

[Bob3]

A friend's dad owns the shipyard down in Campeche, this was almost 20 yrs ago so the kid is probably running the whole show by now.
One of those shrimp trawlers they make would make a good support vessel.

 

[BigJetDriver]

DSD, Pipedope, and Bob3,

Sign me up on that deal!

Rob