On Saturday I went diving on the JP Morgan with JGarySmith, LarryHorne and their buddy Jim. We went on the Flying Fish out of VA Beach and it was a smooth 2.5h ride to the site. The dive itself was around 57F at depth and 20 feet vis.
The JP Morgan is a WW2 wreck at 100ish feet. A 7,176 ton Liberty ship sunk on it's maiden voyage on June 1, 1943 by being cut in half after colliding with the SS Montana. The John Morgan was loaded with lend-lease cargo which included trucks, jeeps, motorcycles, P-39 airplanes, 10 Valentine tanks, artillery guns, ammunition, and tons of assorted weapons. This is one of the most interesting wrecks off of the Virginia coast to explore. This is the best-known of the Virginia wrecks. It was built in Philadelphia in 1942. The stern sank quickly in 100 fsw with a long rubble field in front of it. The bow remained afloat for some time and its whereabouts are still uncertain.
Before we went down I talked to Jim about the plan. His plan was to fart around - which was great as I wanted to photograph stuff, maybe bring up a 90mm shell and maybe a flounder - I was easy to please. I told him that as he was diving with a much bigger tank than me (HP120 - maybe a 100, versus my 95) I would be happy making my ascent solo if he wanted to continue his dive. He was dead against that, which was fair enough - after all he was the one who would be getting his dive cut short right? Wrong!
By 12 minutes into the dive Jim had drained his tank to 700 psi. When he signaled he was low on air he followed someone's wreck reel to in the wrong direction (I figured he knew what he was doing). So he tied of his wreck reel and we surfaced using that to control our ascent and so we wouldn't get swept away by the surface current. After we surfaced, Jim spent the next hour or so telling anyone he could corner for 2s how bad he had it, how he had to surface with the wreck reel. I tried to console him saying he did the right thing and didn't panic and honestly although I was pissed at having such a short dive and coming up with half a tank (LP95), he followed the text book procedure, no harm done. The highlight of this dive was seeing a school of atlantic spade fish swim by us during our ascent - they are pretty fish.
Jim decided to sit out the second dive due to a dodgy breakfast burrito (still lamenting the loss of $4 worth of line and a $2 shackle from his wreck reel - missing the second dive on an $85 trip hadn't crossed his mind). I dove with Gary and Larry. I got a couple of photos of some fishies and saw some of those bell shaped jelly fish with the internal neon track lighting (that made my dive).
Gary at one point found an intact 90mm shell and picked it up, next thing he plunged head fist into the sand - those things are heavy! We swam a bit and I found an interesting sea shell and a fine example of a crushed 90mm shell which I tucked under my arm before crashing into the bottom. Yup, heavy, add more air to BC and everything was fine. After 15 minutes our time was done due to decompression obligations and we began our ascent. At around 30 feet my keep bag fell off my clip (note to self, get a proper clip next time) and plummetted into the depths. My face was a picture apparently more so because I had only bought the keep bag the day before.
Once we surfaced I heard that someone below us had picked up my keep bag and raised the shell for me (what a nice guy). It was a good dive. Then we had to just lay back on the deck and soak up some rays. As we were leaving we saw 3 divers from Wreck Masters divers (the boat which bills itself as for the serious technical diver and incidentaly charges $125 for the same trip) on the surface about 300 yards from their dive boat and steadily drifting away. We picked them up and took them to their boat, they thanked us, but the skipper and crew of the other boat didn't. Left a great impression.
The JP Morgan is a WW2 wreck at 100ish feet. A 7,176 ton Liberty ship sunk on it's maiden voyage on June 1, 1943 by being cut in half after colliding with the SS Montana. The John Morgan was loaded with lend-lease cargo which included trucks, jeeps, motorcycles, P-39 airplanes, 10 Valentine tanks, artillery guns, ammunition, and tons of assorted weapons. This is one of the most interesting wrecks off of the Virginia coast to explore. This is the best-known of the Virginia wrecks. It was built in Philadelphia in 1942. The stern sank quickly in 100 fsw with a long rubble field in front of it. The bow remained afloat for some time and its whereabouts are still uncertain.
Before we went down I talked to Jim about the plan. His plan was to fart around - which was great as I wanted to photograph stuff, maybe bring up a 90mm shell and maybe a flounder - I was easy to please. I told him that as he was diving with a much bigger tank than me (HP120 - maybe a 100, versus my 95) I would be happy making my ascent solo if he wanted to continue his dive. He was dead against that, which was fair enough - after all he was the one who would be getting his dive cut short right? Wrong!
By 12 minutes into the dive Jim had drained his tank to 700 psi. When he signaled he was low on air he followed someone's wreck reel to in the wrong direction (I figured he knew what he was doing). So he tied of his wreck reel and we surfaced using that to control our ascent and so we wouldn't get swept away by the surface current. After we surfaced, Jim spent the next hour or so telling anyone he could corner for 2s how bad he had it, how he had to surface with the wreck reel. I tried to console him saying he did the right thing and didn't panic and honestly although I was pissed at having such a short dive and coming up with half a tank (LP95), he followed the text book procedure, no harm done. The highlight of this dive was seeing a school of atlantic spade fish swim by us during our ascent - they are pretty fish.
Jim decided to sit out the second dive due to a dodgy breakfast burrito (still lamenting the loss of $4 worth of line and a $2 shackle from his wreck reel - missing the second dive on an $85 trip hadn't crossed his mind). I dove with Gary and Larry. I got a couple of photos of some fishies and saw some of those bell shaped jelly fish with the internal neon track lighting (that made my dive).
Gary at one point found an intact 90mm shell and picked it up, next thing he plunged head fist into the sand - those things are heavy! We swam a bit and I found an interesting sea shell and a fine example of a crushed 90mm shell which I tucked under my arm before crashing into the bottom. Yup, heavy, add more air to BC and everything was fine. After 15 minutes our time was done due to decompression obligations and we began our ascent. At around 30 feet my keep bag fell off my clip (note to self, get a proper clip next time) and plummetted into the depths. My face was a picture apparently more so because I had only bought the keep bag the day before.
Once we surfaced I heard that someone below us had picked up my keep bag and raised the shell for me (what a nice guy). It was a good dive. Then we had to just lay back on the deck and soak up some rays. As we were leaving we saw 3 divers from Wreck Masters divers (the boat which bills itself as for the serious technical diver and incidentaly charges $125 for the same trip) on the surface about 300 yards from their dive boat and steadily drifting away. We picked them up and took them to their boat, they thanked us, but the skipper and crew of the other boat didn't. Left a great impression.
