Diveral
Contributor
This is the third trip report of the series.
We got up and started off very well this morning. Maybe we were getting used to Eastern time. It also helped that we now were in a routine. We had been together for 3 days now and everyone was getting along really well. By now it was very evident that we had put together a good crew for this trip. Even though putting a trip together like this and keeping everything going is a pain in the *****, this group of divers and this trip was making all of that effort worthwhile. Everyone was jumping in and doing their share.
The only minor complaint I had is that we included a few nightime lumberjackers in the group. Thank goodness the champion lumberjacker had grabbed the only solo bedroom in the lodge. After listening to his nighttime serenade
and watching the windows vibrate one evening while meditating in the back bathroom, I did not begrudge him his solo bedroom at all. In fact for any future trip he accompanies us he will automatically be assigned the bedroom furtherest from mine that is physically possible. We will not request to see his cards or logbooks to allow him to go solo.
We made it down to Discovery in record time with minimum fuss. We pitched in and now knew what we were doing and had the Seaquest II loaded and ready a good 20 minutes earlier than on the previous 2 days. We also picked up 2 additional divers today as well. One from Ohio and one from (?)Pennsylvania(?). We had 14 divers same as the previous day but the boat didn't seem as crowded today.
Weather and seas were the best of the trip. We pulled off of the dock and headed out to sea. Our destination the U-352. The main reason we had come here. The U-352 is a WWII German sub that was stalking merchant ships off of the North Carolina Coast in 1942. She fired a torpedo at a Coast Gaurd ship and missed and had the subsequent distinction of being the first German U-boat sunk off of the coast of the US by the US Coast Gaurd.
These were the happy times for the German navy. They were sinking merchant ships at a prodigious rate off of the US Coast in 1942. I had served 4 years in our navy in the 80's and had two great-uncles in the US Navy in WWII. One of whom served on a Destroyer whose job was to chase German subs out of these waters. I was really looking forward to this dive.
The ride out was very pleasant. The upper deck was great and I dropped in on Captain Jerry for a long chat. Then an EA6B prowler buzzed us, it was awesome.
Byron, one of our Minnesota divers had suffered from a bad motorcycle wreck years earlier and only dove with one fin. He had been diving with the Alabama/Georgia foursome led by George our photographer who has a tendency to swim at great speed between photographs. Steve B has problems keeping up with him using 2 fins. So Byron dove with us today. He was diving air but was using 120's. Jeb and I were diving 80's and carrying ponies. Jeepbrew used a 130 on his first dive and an 80 on his second. So Byron had plenty of air to hang with us.
Jeb, Jeepbrew, Byron, and I splashed at 10:01 and met up on the hangbar. You could see the entire sub from bow to stern from the hangbar.
As I descended onto this wreck I was aware of the history surrounding it. The U-352 had made 3 war patrols. One to the north Atlantic on the convoy routes in the triangle between Greenland, Iceland, and Ireland. One on the Murmansk run and her final cruise off the coast of NC in 1942. She was a hunter, a dealer of death. She and her sisters had made life for our British cousins very inconvenient and perilous from 1939-1943. Britian was on the verge of starvation and nearly driven out of the war.
As we descended a ring of life became evident circling the sub, Jacks, Spadefish, barracuda, baitfish, and sandtigers all formed a constantly moving ring of life endlessly circling the sub. Reminded me of an underwater version of the Talladega 500. We hit the sub well aft of the conning tower. The sub is sitting in 115 feet of water with a 30-40 degree list. We swum up the side of the sub. There was a good current sweeping across the sub.
We crossed over at the conning tower continuing forward pausing occasionally to examine every opening in the sub. We'd pull out our divelights and poke our heads into the sub and look around. I was amazed at the size of the openings, they were tiny. All munitions, personal effects and food for the crew of 40+ submariners as well as the submariners themselves had to pass through these tiny openings.
We continued around the bow and were now exposed to the current. The sub was bigger than I expected. We crossed back over the sub to get out of the current and made our way back to the the conning tower. All too soon Jeb and I had run down our air and it was time to ascend. Bryon and jeepbrew stayed behind. It was the first time that I had really felt envious of the guys diving the big tanks.
Jeb and I ascended to our planned deep stop at 60'. We had orginally planned a 1.5 minute stop but everything had gone well and I was relaxed so we extended the stop to about 5 minutes. It was a zen like experience hanging above the wreck. The visibility was exceptional. You could see the entire length of the wreck. The circle of life around the wreck and see and identify all of the divers still on the wreck. It was incredible and I can't find the words to express the sheer joy and completeness I felt at that moment.
I also thought back to the crew on that boat and those that are still aboard. What were their last moments like, knowing the warship they had just shot at was bearing down on them. The ocean too shallow here for them to escape. The crew could hear the steady thrumming of the screws of the coast guard ship getting louder as it closes the distance. They probably could heart the splashes the depth charges made 60 feet overhead. They definitely could hear the clicks of the detonators and the bangs of the charges themselves progressively getting louder as as the pattern got closer and closer. click-bang, click-Bang, click-BANG, click-BANG and then WHAM, WHAM, WHAM, WHAM as the pattern reaches them. The sub heaving and bucking with each explosion, everything being thrown around the sub, men getting thrown against equipment and the deck heaving with each concussion. All of the glass gages inside the sub shatter and then the sub goes dark as every light bulb shatters.
Then the concussions are over, the emergency lights come on, the air is filled with dust and hard to breath, the screams of wounded fill the sub and over all other sounds there is the horrific sound of seawater spraying inside the sub, the death knell. They realize that the sub is mortally wounded and they have precious few moments to drive her to the surface to make their escape before she slips to her final watery tomb taking about 1/4 of the crew with her.
Reluctantly I bring myself back into the now and complete my ascent. This is a transcendental dive. Jeb and I spend 22 minutes on her, I hit a maximum depth of 110 feet, temps are 77F, no thermocline and visibility in excess of 100 feet. Incredible, absolutely amazing.
We get buzzed by a Marine AV8B Harrier jet while we slowly make our way to the USS Spar our second destination of the day. Cool! We have a 1:41 surface interval.
We got up and started off very well this morning. Maybe we were getting used to Eastern time. It also helped that we now were in a routine. We had been together for 3 days now and everyone was getting along really well. By now it was very evident that we had put together a good crew for this trip. Even though putting a trip together like this and keeping everything going is a pain in the *****, this group of divers and this trip was making all of that effort worthwhile. Everyone was jumping in and doing their share.
The only minor complaint I had is that we included a few nightime lumberjackers in the group. Thank goodness the champion lumberjacker had grabbed the only solo bedroom in the lodge. After listening to his nighttime serenade
and watching the windows vibrate one evening while meditating in the back bathroom, I did not begrudge him his solo bedroom at all. In fact for any future trip he accompanies us he will automatically be assigned the bedroom furtherest from mine that is physically possible. We will not request to see his cards or logbooks to allow him to go solo.We made it down to Discovery in record time with minimum fuss. We pitched in and now knew what we were doing and had the Seaquest II loaded and ready a good 20 minutes earlier than on the previous 2 days. We also picked up 2 additional divers today as well. One from Ohio and one from (?)Pennsylvania(?). We had 14 divers same as the previous day but the boat didn't seem as crowded today.
Weather and seas were the best of the trip. We pulled off of the dock and headed out to sea. Our destination the U-352. The main reason we had come here. The U-352 is a WWII German sub that was stalking merchant ships off of the North Carolina Coast in 1942. She fired a torpedo at a Coast Gaurd ship and missed and had the subsequent distinction of being the first German U-boat sunk off of the coast of the US by the US Coast Gaurd.
These were the happy times for the German navy. They were sinking merchant ships at a prodigious rate off of the US Coast in 1942. I had served 4 years in our navy in the 80's and had two great-uncles in the US Navy in WWII. One of whom served on a Destroyer whose job was to chase German subs out of these waters. I was really looking forward to this dive.
The ride out was very pleasant. The upper deck was great and I dropped in on Captain Jerry for a long chat. Then an EA6B prowler buzzed us, it was awesome.
Byron, one of our Minnesota divers had suffered from a bad motorcycle wreck years earlier and only dove with one fin. He had been diving with the Alabama/Georgia foursome led by George our photographer who has a tendency to swim at great speed between photographs. Steve B has problems keeping up with him using 2 fins. So Byron dove with us today. He was diving air but was using 120's. Jeb and I were diving 80's and carrying ponies. Jeepbrew used a 130 on his first dive and an 80 on his second. So Byron had plenty of air to hang with us.
Jeb, Jeepbrew, Byron, and I splashed at 10:01 and met up on the hangbar. You could see the entire sub from bow to stern from the hangbar.
As I descended onto this wreck I was aware of the history surrounding it. The U-352 had made 3 war patrols. One to the north Atlantic on the convoy routes in the triangle between Greenland, Iceland, and Ireland. One on the Murmansk run and her final cruise off the coast of NC in 1942. She was a hunter, a dealer of death. She and her sisters had made life for our British cousins very inconvenient and perilous from 1939-1943. Britian was on the verge of starvation and nearly driven out of the war.
As we descended a ring of life became evident circling the sub, Jacks, Spadefish, barracuda, baitfish, and sandtigers all formed a constantly moving ring of life endlessly circling the sub. Reminded me of an underwater version of the Talladega 500. We hit the sub well aft of the conning tower. The sub is sitting in 115 feet of water with a 30-40 degree list. We swum up the side of the sub. There was a good current sweeping across the sub.
We crossed over at the conning tower continuing forward pausing occasionally to examine every opening in the sub. We'd pull out our divelights and poke our heads into the sub and look around. I was amazed at the size of the openings, they were tiny. All munitions, personal effects and food for the crew of 40+ submariners as well as the submariners themselves had to pass through these tiny openings.
We continued around the bow and were now exposed to the current. The sub was bigger than I expected. We crossed back over the sub to get out of the current and made our way back to the the conning tower. All too soon Jeb and I had run down our air and it was time to ascend. Bryon and jeepbrew stayed behind. It was the first time that I had really felt envious of the guys diving the big tanks.
Jeb and I ascended to our planned deep stop at 60'. We had orginally planned a 1.5 minute stop but everything had gone well and I was relaxed so we extended the stop to about 5 minutes. It was a zen like experience hanging above the wreck. The visibility was exceptional. You could see the entire length of the wreck. The circle of life around the wreck and see and identify all of the divers still on the wreck. It was incredible and I can't find the words to express the sheer joy and completeness I felt at that moment.
I also thought back to the crew on that boat and those that are still aboard. What were their last moments like, knowing the warship they had just shot at was bearing down on them. The ocean too shallow here for them to escape. The crew could hear the steady thrumming of the screws of the coast guard ship getting louder as it closes the distance. They probably could heart the splashes the depth charges made 60 feet overhead. They definitely could hear the clicks of the detonators and the bangs of the charges themselves progressively getting louder as as the pattern got closer and closer. click-bang, click-Bang, click-BANG, click-BANG and then WHAM, WHAM, WHAM, WHAM as the pattern reaches them. The sub heaving and bucking with each explosion, everything being thrown around the sub, men getting thrown against equipment and the deck heaving with each concussion. All of the glass gages inside the sub shatter and then the sub goes dark as every light bulb shatters.
Then the concussions are over, the emergency lights come on, the air is filled with dust and hard to breath, the screams of wounded fill the sub and over all other sounds there is the horrific sound of seawater spraying inside the sub, the death knell. They realize that the sub is mortally wounded and they have precious few moments to drive her to the surface to make their escape before she slips to her final watery tomb taking about 1/4 of the crew with her.
Reluctantly I bring myself back into the now and complete my ascent. This is a transcendental dive. Jeb and I spend 22 minutes on her, I hit a maximum depth of 110 feet, temps are 77F, no thermocline and visibility in excess of 100 feet. Incredible, absolutely amazing.
We get buzzed by a Marine AV8B Harrier jet while we slowly make our way to the USS Spar our second destination of the day. Cool! We have a 1:41 surface interval.
