My buddy John and I can now be added to the list of divers who have dived on the Empress of Ireland.(The Andria Doria is known as the Mount Everest of wreck dives, and the Empress is refered to as the K2)
We dove on the wreck twice, Tuesday and Wednesday.
We hit a max depths of 135 and 150 fsw.
The water is cold, 41- 42°F and visibility was poor (5-10 feet). Time at this depth is extremely limited. and I get realy narc'd below 120 ft so trimix training was nessessary. We have been preparing for this trip for over a year.
We trained in decompression techniques, got nitrox certification, and gas blender ratings.
We consulted with experienced trimix instructors, bought decompression software, and did training dives in Rock Port and on the Forrest City in Tobermory to prepare.
The wreck is deep, starting at 85 fsw and bottoming out at 145 - 150 fsw. The wreck is very silty and over grown with soft growth, and there are many toad crabs, and anemones every where.
The wreck is lying on her starboard side (right side when looking forward), with her bow facing north and keel into the current, deck facing down stream (east). This makes for a good dive since we could drop off the rail, down the deck, in the lee of the current.
Dive 1: Tuesday August 28, 11:11 AM
To maximise our bottom time, we were using technical diving techniques, and equipment (twin 98's with trimix, and an 80 with nitrox decompression gas)
We descended on the mid ship down line, left a strobe flashing and proceded along the rail, forward to the bow. We passed along the raised letters about 10 feet below the rail, to the anchor, then down towards the keel.
At 120 feet I found a brass lamp cage, tarnished green, but in perfect condition. (I was able to photograph the one in J.P. Bouillon's collection, that is identical to it)
We bottomed at 135 fsw, then headed back up the hull towards the midships down line.
At 25 minutes we picked up the strobe, and started our ascent. Marc was using Nitrox on this dive, (higher nitrogen content than our trimix)
so we had a lengthly decompression obligation.
At 70 fsw we switched to our deco-gas, to aid improve our out gasing, and made a series of deco stops starting at 50 to 10 fsw. Dive time : just over under hour.
The rest of the day we visited the Empress of Ireland museum in Rimouski,and mixed trimix and nitrox for our dive, on Wednesday.
Dive 2, Wednesday August 29, 10:33 AM
We descended the midship down line, and placed the strobe as before, but we then dropped over the rail down along the deck to the bottom at 150 fsw.
I noticed an inflated red one gallon plastic tank here,probably used as a reference marker by previous explorers to mark the locarion of the ascent line.
We proceded along the bottom, towards the stern, following a trail of debris, next to the deck.
At 20 minutes we proceded up the the top rail at 85 feet and moved forward. We passed a large opening in the port side, this was blown out by explosives for access to the lower decks. We checked the area, for a future penetration dive.
We continued along the rail to retreive our strobe, and start our ascent at 28 minutes.
This was over our original plannned time of 25 minutes, but we had a couple contingency decompression schedules prepared, we moved to the 30 minute schedule and all went well. Over an hour in 36°F water. I'm glad we used argon in our dry suits.
Mike D
