The MT6 is a 100 year old ferry (called The Tacoma), converted to a barge in 1917 (called Barge No.6) and then sank in 1950 due to a collision. The wreck is 150’ long by 50’ wide and rests in about 200’ of water, right there in Elliot Bay just 1500 feet from shore right off the famous and popular Alki Beach. Here’s some history. And here’s a sonar of the bottom of Elliot bay and the MT6.
I’ve talked to people who have dived it by boat, but no one I talked to knows of anyone having dived it from shore. So, my buddy and I are attempting to scooter to it from shore. Today was our first attempt.
We used GPS someone gave us and the sonar map, along with images from Google Earth to get a bearing from shore.
Our plan was to enter from Cove 1, head out to 200’ and then head south-east hugging 200’. We dived CCR’s and carried two 80’s each for bailout. My buddy was on an X-scooter Cuda and I was on a Serria.
The beginning of the dive looked promising with clear water – maybe 30’ vis. We surface-scootered out a ways, took another bearing and then dropped down to 93’. We scootered down the gentle slope and hit 200’ in 9 mins. The problem was, once we got deeper than 150’ the vis started to lessen, and at 200’ it was a terrible 4’ of dirty vis. We scootered along slowly, sticking close together, watching an unchanging silty bottom.
The only thing to see were the thousands of large shrimp that our HID lights reflected back at us as we moved over the silty, unchanging bottom. At some points we had only 2’ of vis, and after about 20 mins I started to get the willies and signaled to turn the dive. My buddy was leading the dive, and I was intensely focused on not loosing him in the low vis, so we could have easily passed within a few feet of the wreck without seeing it. We could have run right into it, but all it would look like in 4’ vis would be small patches of old lumber.
We got off the scooters at about 140’ and kicked lazily back up the long slope. The ascent was so slow that our only real stops were from 30’ up. Total dive time was 73 mins. Max depth 208’.
Well, it was a long way to drive to see the same silty bottom we can see 300 miles back home in the local ponds, but at least the water was a balmy 48 degrees.
Tomorrow we try again. Yup, we want to find the thing from shore and run a line back – not all the way where someone could get into trouble following it, but to a point where it is findable if you know where to look. We‘re carring 2 big wreck reels and some spools just for good measure.
Hey, it’s something to do. And even though I started getting a bit of the monkeys at depth in the low vis (no, not narked. I was on 68% HE. Just my normal chicken nature kicking in), I had a blast. We saw the usual jellies during deco, including one that had just gotten caught by a large crab who was having him for lunch while he tried to get away. And the other usual suspects.
So, two more dives tomorrow and one on Tuesday to try to find the thing.
I’ll keep you posted…
I’ve talked to people who have dived it by boat, but no one I talked to knows of anyone having dived it from shore. So, my buddy and I are attempting to scooter to it from shore. Today was our first attempt.
We used GPS someone gave us and the sonar map, along with images from Google Earth to get a bearing from shore.
Our plan was to enter from Cove 1, head out to 200’ and then head south-east hugging 200’. We dived CCR’s and carried two 80’s each for bailout. My buddy was on an X-scooter Cuda and I was on a Serria.
The beginning of the dive looked promising with clear water – maybe 30’ vis. We surface-scootered out a ways, took another bearing and then dropped down to 93’. We scootered down the gentle slope and hit 200’ in 9 mins. The problem was, once we got deeper than 150’ the vis started to lessen, and at 200’ it was a terrible 4’ of dirty vis. We scootered along slowly, sticking close together, watching an unchanging silty bottom.
The only thing to see were the thousands of large shrimp that our HID lights reflected back at us as we moved over the silty, unchanging bottom. At some points we had only 2’ of vis, and after about 20 mins I started to get the willies and signaled to turn the dive. My buddy was leading the dive, and I was intensely focused on not loosing him in the low vis, so we could have easily passed within a few feet of the wreck without seeing it. We could have run right into it, but all it would look like in 4’ vis would be small patches of old lumber.
We got off the scooters at about 140’ and kicked lazily back up the long slope. The ascent was so slow that our only real stops were from 30’ up. Total dive time was 73 mins. Max depth 208’.
Well, it was a long way to drive to see the same silty bottom we can see 300 miles back home in the local ponds, but at least the water was a balmy 48 degrees.
Tomorrow we try again. Yup, we want to find the thing from shore and run a line back – not all the way where someone could get into trouble following it, but to a point where it is findable if you know where to look. We‘re carring 2 big wreck reels and some spools just for good measure.
Hey, it’s something to do. And even though I started getting a bit of the monkeys at depth in the low vis (no, not narked. I was on 68% HE. Just my normal chicken nature kicking in), I had a blast. We saw the usual jellies during deco, including one that had just gotten caught by a large crab who was having him for lunch while he tried to get away. And the other usual suspects.
So, two more dives tomorrow and one on Tuesday to try to find the thing.
I’ll keep you posted…
), but I really don't believe it's an invitation for anyone to get into trouble with.
