Diving Green Bridge, 8/23

[CT-Rich]

Emily (my daughter) is going back to school (virtually this semester), so her opportunities to go diving are going to be even less... and the hurricanes are coming. Being 2020, get what you can, and take what you get....

The original plan was FTW so Emily could get in a deep dive before school. With the stellar weather conditions of the last week I decided we need to head out to Green Bridge (executive decision). Our first dive started just after high tide and we surfaceswam to the mouth of cove. I’ve noticed over time that the current straight out of the cove is a longshore. Visibility was good, starting about 10’ and getting progressively better the farther out we went. We followed the back of one group of rock out until we could swim over them in about 20’ of water and headed south until we hit sand. Plenty of Black Sea bass and tautaug. Exploring the open sand we came across what I at first glance thought was an engine block of some sort. I soon realized it was the rotted crate of 40 mm anti aircraft shell. The rusting metal had fused them into a block, the sand action had polished the brass casings. Shortly after this find we started heading back in. Our max depth was 36’ and our dive time was 63 minutes, 3/4 of a mile.

 

[Luca Brasi]

Where is green bridge?

 

[CT-Rich]

Newport, Ri

 

[Resqdivemedic]

I just said to a friend of mine I wanted to go back to Green Bridge. Haven't dove there in over 15 years. I remember my first instructor taking us around roaring bull to a chute in the rocks that the current pushes you down through and out. Thanks for the report.

 

[tkaelin]

Just casings, empty shells?

 

[CT-Rich]

Just casings, empty shells?

They are not usually empty. They typically are waterlogged, though. The projectiles were made from steel and I am yet to see one intact. These were 3/4 buried in sand and may have faired slightly better, but I doubt they are any different. The accreted rust is holding everything together in this case and my guess is that if you could get the mass out of the sand it would weigh close to 100 pounds (shells+box+rust/sand mixture). Each shell weighs 4.4 lbs plus everything that fuses them together.

 

[tkaelin]

Thanks. Dumb question but do they pose any risk? I have seen stories of munitions and bombs found in Europe from WWII that pose a hazard, cause shut downs, evacuations and removal.

 

[tkaelin]

Nice report and find btw.

 

[TuckerIdaho]

Thanks. Dumb question but do they pose any risk? I have seen stories of munitions and bombs found in Europe from WWII that pose a hazard, cause shut downs, evacuations and removal.

There's no way to knowing if they're dangerous or not, and should be treated as such.

 

[AfterDark]

Thanks. Dumb question but do they pose any risk? I have seen stories of munitions and bombs found in Europe from WWII that pose a hazard, cause shut downs, evacuations and removal.

No they are no threat laying about the bottom.

If you read an earlier post of mine I mentioned I and others were handling these things 40 years ago when we could find intact wooden casess of this ammo looking as fresh as they day it went underwater. Nobody got hurt or had any near misses. They are just big bullets and just as safe out of a gun as any other bullet, safer now because they are water logged. I wouldn't leave one out in the sun for days without end, because the powder will dry out and it will burn if lit. If it got hot enough it may self ignite especially baked and confided inside a brass case.

RI law I believe prohibits taking stuff that you can't eat off the bottom. Better to let history rot on the ocean bottom then to recover, restore and preserve it. I don't know if the display of artifacts we donated to the Maritime Museum in Fall River is still there but I was proud to have been part of the recovery. It is preserved somewhere, if only in the cellar of the Museum by now.

These days as @CT-Rich posted they are water logged, the projectiles are rusted away as are the clips that held them together and were used to load 4 rounds at a time into the Bofor gun. The powder is still inside and most times the primer is intact because it's brass also. Maybe deep in the sand some are still intact but the way the sand shifts at that site I suspect most are exposed, covered, exposed, covered.....repeat, over the years so that corrosion has had plenty of time to do its work.

It the one on the right

Loading a Bofor 4 at a time. The clips can be seen on the back of rounds to the left of the triggerman.