U853 video

[king_of_battle]

So I've been diving for a while but never got around to really filming it ever. Two weekends ago I dove U853 off Block Island through Giant Stride on Priority Too. I figured I'd film it with a new gopro. You can see the some of the video here.

Its far from a work of art - no music or anything just the sound of me breathing and clanking around inside - basically raw footage. Footage was from a helmet mounted gopro and you can tell by the shakeycamness of it. For those who haven't dove U853 before this is dropping into the blast hole forward of the conning tower and making my way towards the bow going through crew compartments and storage. As you go deeper into the wreck it gets progressively siltier and you can see in the last compartment before I turned that the forward section is almost entirely covered in fine silt. At about the 3 minute mark is a large cylinder to the left of the shot - a decaying torpedo I'm told. There's also one in the tubes at the stern but I didn't get any footage of it this dive.

This was a solo dive on a fathom ccr with an AL80 B/O. Max depth in this section was 120fsw with a temperature of around 52f.

 

[AfterDark]

You can do a lot with that video and some good software!

The U853 is a great dive into history. An easy penetration but the silt is always an issue. A lot of dive sites in RI have the same silt problem. It's what makes Fort Wetherill such a lousy place for vis, a good surge will kick the silt up!

The 1st time I dove it was 1985 from a private fishing boat that wasn't fishing at the time and would supplement his income by taking crazy divers wherever they wanted to go dive.

@king_of_battle check this out.
Edited later. I was wrong about the L-8 being surrendered it was a WWI US sub, I got the other info correct. check it out:
New images of Rhode Island’s historic sunken submarines help URI historian make case for protection

The L-8 was launched in 1917 and used as part of a top-secret effort during World War I to counteract German submarines. It was towed behind a decoy merchant ship to lure German submarines to attack the decoy, enabling the U.S. submarine to attack the German sub. After its active career ended, the L-8 was used in a secret Navy research program to develop a torpedo that detonated beneath a submarine rather than upon contact with the submarine. The L-8 became a test target for this new technology and was sunk at the entrance to Narragansett Bay in 1926

That could make the L-8 the 1st hunter killer sub to hunt other subs! The keel breaking torpedo also explains why the hull breach is in the sand.

He also took us to the L-8 off Bonnet Shores, a wreck less dived. No penetration on the L-8 unless you have a cutting torch. The last time I dove it the breach in the hull made by a test torpedo in the 1920's I think but not sure, was on the underside of the sub. My guess is it is probably filled with sand and is unreachable anyway.

I could be wrong however. A storm may have flip it over some and the hull is open and the inside clean. Who knows nobody dives it any more that I hear of anyway. You can bet your last dollar if I had a boat I'd find out!

 

[king_of_battle]

@AfterDark - maybe you can answer this. In the Wikipedia article for U853 it states that the hull was welded shut by the US Navy to block divers from penetrating. I can't find any truth to that from the people I know or online and there isn't a citation. Any thoughS? I've never seen anything that would indicate it had been welded up but if it was done in the 60/70s that's plenty of time for evidence to disappear.

 

[Protondecay123]

Nice Dive and video! What was your light set up? Looks like two head mounts and a left hand mount? Another great use of CCR. No bubbles to disturb the immense amount of silt.

 

[AfterDark]

@AfterDark - maybe you can answer this. In the Wikipedia article for U853 it states that the hull was welded shut by the US Navy to block divers from penetrating. I can't find any truth to that from the people I know or online and there isn't a citation. Any thoughS? I've never seen anything that would indicate it had been welded up but if it was done in the 60/70s that's plenty of time for evidence to disappear.

Did Red Giant strides owner go on the dive? You may want to talk to him. He has a lot of info and I think he had Bill Campbell at his store a few years ago to hawk his book. If anyone can answer your question Red can I'm pretty sure. Also Bill's book is still for sale at the store.

In the 1970's or early 80's when the sub started to attract divers after being "found" by I think Bill Campbell a local diving legend the German govt. complained that it was a war grave and should remain undisturbed. The Navy and the USCG did what they could to try and seal the wreck but local divers would return with a cutting torch and other tools and cut the welds. New England divers don't F around when they want to dive!

Failing at securing the boat they decided to do the next best thing. If the story I got was true the Navy collected as many crew remains as possible and returned them to Germany. This was intended to change it's war grave status but there are still remains on the boat. I'll never tell where I found some bones but I did try to hide what I found as well as I could.

A very despicable act was done with some bones in the boat's galley years ago. I'll leave it at that. It was undone by those who discovered it. Fortunately there are more good divers than bad. However down thru the years it seems to have remained mostly undisturbed. I know of divers finding small items in the sand around the boat and there is probably a debris field near the boat covered with sand by now I'd imagine.

 

[AfterDark]

Here's some links and a tidbit from one, that concerns a very grime job.

The U-853 German Submarine Shipwreck New York and New Jersey's Wreck Valley

On May 6, 1945, Navy divers from the vessel Penguin dove on the 853 and attempted to penetrate the wreck in order to recover records from the captain's safe. These divers were using surface supplied air and couldn't easily fit through the tight hatches of the submarine. The next day, Ed Bockelman, the smallest diver on the Penguin, volunteered himself for the task. He was accompanied by Commander George Albin. Bockelman was able to squeeze through the conning towers hatch, but the floating lifeless bodies of German crewmen blocked further penetration.

This appears to be to be the diving report from the Navy's 1st dive on the U853 in 1945.
U-boat Archive - U-853 -Divers' Examination

 

[king_of_battle]

Nice Dive and video! What was your light set up? Looks like two head mounts and a left hand mount? Another great use of CCR. No bubbles to disturb the immense amount of silt.

It was pretty basic - 1 cheap narrow beam lights per side of helmet and 1 wide angle cheapo on the left side as well. I think I got them on amazon or piranha dive's website. The light on my left hand was a Halycon Focus 2.0.

This was my first dive in U853 on CCR and turning around coming back out there was definitely a lot less 'snow' in the water from where my bubbles would have kicked things up on the ceiling. I have definitely enjoyed the difference when I'm in the siltier wrecks.

 

[king_of_battle]

Did Red Giant strides owner go on the dive? You may want to talk to him. He has a lot of info and I think he had Bill Campbell at his store a few years ago to hawk his book. If anyone can answer your question Red can I'm pretty sure. Also Bill's book is still for sale at the store.

Red wasn't on that dive (I think he said he was in NJ that weekend) but I'm making the long haul back down in a couple weeks to dive the Bass and I bet he'll be there. I'll ask. I see Bill about once a year at the SECONN Wreck Symposium so I'll have to ask about it next time I see him. I've been mulling getting the book - may be time to pull the trigger. Thanks for that little bit of history as well. Its a wreck that brings out the best and worst in some people. I imagine that is probably tied to its unique place in history as well as accessible location.

 

[Dark Wolf]

Thanks a ton for the video, and the entire thread!

DW

 

[AfterDark]

Red wasn't on that dive (I think he said he was in NJ that weekend) but I'm making the long haul back down in a couple weeks to dive the Bass and I bet he'll be there. I'll ask. I see Bill about once a year at the SECONN Wreck Symposium so I'll have to ask about it next time I see him. I've been mulling getting the book - may be time to pull the trigger. Thanks for that little bit of history as well. Its a wreck that brings out the best and worst in some people. I imagine that is probably tied to its unique place in history as well as accessible location.

If you can talk to Bill he'll give you the real deal, 1st hand because he was there as they say. Also Fred Calhoun comes to mind as having done some of the early sport diving on the boat. There is one more name nagging me that will not come to surface as also being among the 1st to dive it.

My friends and I sort of followed in their foot steps until fishing picked and we lost our "dive boat". There still wasn't any charters to the boat at that time. When charter boat diving started I wasn't interested in diving with people I didn't know (AD was the only one of the group still diving) also by that time CERTS were a common thing so I figured penetration was probably out of the question. As I found out later I would not have been allowed to dive at all without AOW! Diving had changed while I was rock hopping at night and harvesting lobsters!

So it wasn't until 2012 I got to dive the sub again a few more times. I was shocked at what time had done to her! I remembered teak decking that wasn't there anymore, rotted or eaten away. The boat was sitting lower in the sand and seemed to be listing more to starboard rather then more towards even as she was in 1980's. I keep telling myself this year will be the year I go back again but I never do. I'm still not comfortable on charter boats, and I really don't know why.