New Video - Wreck Diving Monterey

[bsteg]

I tried diving this site a few months ago and we could not find either wreck using surface triangulation. We gave up and ran into the sailboat on return but had little air to explore. This time we dropped using one of the maps and saw nothing. My buddy noticed we were only at 25' so we headed due north to deeper water and nailed the amtrack. We then used 50 deg for 50 yards to nail the sailboat dead center. I wish someone had a GOOD map with surface pics of points on shore. Better yet, someone should hang a buoy. The video was actually clips from two dives we did on both wrecks that day. Lucky us! I want to shoot it again on a day with sun, good vis, and low tide.

 

[Chuck Tribolet]

Maps don't matter. I'll see if I can get some pictures of the ranges ("line-ups") for you all and put them on my website.

Or wait a few weeks and there will be kelp on both.

 

[Guy Alcala]

I tried diving this site a few months ago and we could not find either wreck using surface triangulation. We gave up and ran into the sailboat on return but had little air to explore. This time we dropped using one of the maps and saw nothing. My buddy noticed we were only at 25' so we headed due north to deeper water and nailed the amtrack. We then used 50 deg for 50 yards to nail the sailboat dead center. I wish someone had a GOOD map with surface pics of points on shore. Better yet, someone should hang a buoy. The video was actually clips from two dives we did on both wrecks that day. Lucky us! I want to shoot it again on a day with sun, good vis, and low tide.

50 yards (150') is definitely too far. I measured it with my reel at 115' IIRR, so allowing +-5' for stretch call it 110'-120'. I personally find 040 deg. works better than 050 deg., but the difference is less than 20' at that distance so either may get you there.

The Amtrack's a lot smaller target, and in bad vis the 10 deg. difference from 220 to 230 may cause you to miss it (or make it, if your personal swimming bias pushes you in the right direction). In bad vis I often use a reel, either the whole distance or at least the last 25 feet or so, aiming off to one side, swimming until I'm sure I'm past it and then arcing until I hit or catch the line on it. Because of the upward slope and height of the bow you're guaranteed to catch it if you aim off left then arc right, but going right and arcing left will usually work too - just keep the line no more than 1' above the bottom and you stand a good chance of snagging the empty 37mm gun turret that rests in what used to be the cargo bay, if not on the crumbling sidewalls.

Guy

 

[bsteg]

Gun turret? Cool, I am going to go back and check my raw footage to see if I can find a turret. Is it in the sand?

 

[Guy Alcala]

Gun turret? Cool, I am going to go back and check my raw footage to see if I can find a turret. Is it in the sand?

It's sitting in/on what was the bottom of the amtrack cargo bay, although most of that's long since rusted away or been buried. IIRR it's aft of what remains of the side walls,in between them and facing more or less straight aft. The gun turret will be there long after the rest of the amtrack has rusted away, as it's made of much thicker steel, .5" -1.5" armor steel instead of the 14 ga. mild steel of the hull. The top plates of the turret are gone as are the contents, but the front/sides/rear are intact. There's a horizontal oval-shaped hole in the front of the turret where the gun and mantlet used to be, and a vertical rectangular hole in the rear (shell ejection).

Here's a link so you can see what you're looking for:

Google Image Result for http://www.wargaming.net/tanks/usa_amph_images/lvt(a)-1-side.gif

Forward, sitting partially on top of the shelf that formed the floor of the driver's compartment, is what appears to be an entire track coiled up and lying on its side.

It's the presence of these two features together that makes me think this was a derelict that was deliberately sunk. there was only one model LVT that had the 37mm gun turret, but as you can see from the image the top was closed in; there's no way that the track could have been placed where it is with a closed top. But one of the open-topped cargo variants wouldn't have the gun turret. And I can't find any sign of an engine either, so I think what happened is that after stripping this thing (either an LVT2 or LVT4) of any useful parts, the army took an old track and a gun turret that was damaged in some way and placed them inside for ballast, to keep it from moving after they sank it.

And probably did some creative reporting too; I imagine that supply officers claimed that this thing sunk accidentally, and was carrying every piece of gear that had been lost or misplaced by the unit, despite the fact that it would have sunk carrying a tenth of that much. I believe this dodge goes back at least to the supply officers of Roman legions, if not further. I've certainly read numerous versions of it in different armies.

Guy

 

[Guy Alcala]

Reviewing the video, I believe the turret appears briefly from 1:34 - 1:37 - the rectangular shell ejection slot can be seen towards the upper right side of the video. Just after the mermaid's purse, at 1:43 - 1:46 or so, you can see part of the rolled-up track (with a Gopher or Copper rockfish hiding inside).

Guy

 

[bsteg]

I think you are right Guy. It appears disassembled? After looking at the diagrams you posted it appears there is a hole in the nose of the hull for an axle but no axle. There are spoked hubs strewn about and what looks like a set of tracks wrapped in a coil. Here is 11 long minutes of raw footage from the 40 something minutes of footage I shot that day on two dives if anyone is curious. Good shots of the hull, turret, tracks, and maybe even a gun barrel?

[video=vimeo;25613019]http://vimeo.com/25613019[/video]

 

[Guy Alcala]

I think you are right Guy. It appears disassembled? After looking at the diagrams you posted it appears there is a hole in the nose of the hull for an axle but no axle. There are spoked hubs strewn about and what looks like a set of tracks wrapped in a coil. Here is 11 long minutes of raw footage from the 40 something minutes of footage I shot that day on two dives if anyone is curious. Good shots of the hull, turret, tracks, and maybe even a gun barrel?

No, not a gun barrel. 4 years ago when I was surveying it, there was a long tube with almost no growth on it which contained electrical wires. It jutted out of the cargo compartment over the starboard side, and is almost certainly not part of the amtrack. As you surmise, the holes high up on either side near the bow were where the drive sprockets were attached, and your video shows the starboard one lying in the sand. The drive shaft came forward from the engine under the driver's compartment, then IIRR split and ran up either side to the drive sprockets, with brakes located on either side operated by hand levers.

There used to be single track plate lying near the starboard sprocket on the sand (which allowed me to narrow down the model of LVT to either the LVT2 or LVT4 because of its dimensions and tread pattern), but someone apparently took it for a souvenir a few years back. On the rolled-up track inside, you can see the curved M or W-shaped pattern on the individual treads of the track (in the video, because the track is lying on its side, they appear like curved Es or backwards curved E-shaped). The turret had the gun and mantlet removed (I believe before sinking) and most of the interior fittings removed as well, either prior to sinking or by scavengers after. Both top hatches (towards the rear of the top) of the turret as well as the forward top plate were either removed or else have rusted away, but at least in 2007 the support struts that they were bolted to were still in place. There's also a hole cut high up in the underside of the port bow, and I suspect that was done to allow it to flood - it's certainly not part of the vehicle in service.

Guy

 

[Guy Alcala]

Here's a photo of the track plate that used to lie on the sand, where the W-shape of the track grouser is easy to see. These provided propulsion in the water as well as traction on land

Guy

 

[bsteg]

Cool stuff, we did not see anything like that. When was the photo taken?