What's the craziest thing you ever found?

[knowlimits]

House keys

 

[knowlimits]

A large bag in local lake about 20 m deep. Brought it to shore: inside was BMW car keys, other keys, iPad with charger and other personal belongings. We were able to track owner because personal things revealed that he was in icehockey goalkeeper in local club.
Another time we almost bumb into semi rotten dog carcass in about 4 meters depth. That was a bit of shock.

Yeah, that dog carcass had to be startling!

 

[billgraham]

A whale vertebra sitting on the bottom in Cape Hatteras. Left it, it would probably smell awful!

 

[johndiver999]

I've found a $50 bill under the reef once. One spot in Maine, found a new pole spear and a new weight belt with like 34 lbs of lead. Put the belt on and figured I would crawl to shore. Went another 40 feet and found an identical pole spear and weightbelt.

Also have found a brand new fiberglass folding ladder, more than one cell phone- one with credit card and drivers license, a brand new dive computer in 12 feet under a dock, a wallet with ID and no money, a bunch of weight belts (at least 20), masks, fins, snorkels, at least one gear bag, several pole spears, several spearguns, a scuba regulator, medical oxygen bottles, many fishing poles (some like new), many fishing kites, dozens of anchors, a very cool custom roach clip on a set of keys (I had for a long time), many hats, some nice sunglasses, unopened beer I ended up drinking, hundreds of pounds of lead fishing weights, many lures, many pounds of lost dive weights/pouches, many catch bags, lost oxygen deco bottle and regulator.

Items keep coming to me as I think. Sea shells probably don't count, but perhaps turtle bones and an alligator skull in salt water, might? A ton of dive knives, many dive lights, marker buoys and weights and rope, landing nets for fishing, many lobster loopers/nooses, one 40-ft dive boat filled with a half a dozen sets of gear (but we kinda knew where to look since it sunk that day), many fishing gaffs and.. a stolen and dumped auto, a full set of golf clubs still in the bag,

 

[Redleg0811]

About four months ago I found an 18 cylinder engine off the coast of Okinawa. I've been back three times and am still trying to figure out what it came from. View attachment 837262

It could be a F6 Hellcat or an F4u Corsair as they both had a Pratt and Whitney R-2800 Double Wasp with 18 Cylinders.

 

[Redleg0811]

Not me, but a guy I knew when I was stationed in Okinawa back in 96 found a flame thrower.

 

[Eric802]

... one 40-ft dive boat filled with a half a dozen sets of gear (but we kinda knew where to look since it sunk that day), .

So what's the protocol for this? You knew the boat had gone down, so what did you do with the gear? Return to the shop or pick it over for good stuff to keep?

 

[joebob24]

I am not sure it is that crazy, but the most valuable item I found was an outboard motor. It had been down long enough to have a few barnacles on it. Took quite a bit of work to get it running again, but it runs great now.

 

[johndiver999]

So what's the protocol for this? You knew the boat had gone down, so what did you do with the gear? Return to the shop or pick it over for good stuff to keep?

It only sunk that day. I was sending up scuba units with bc's attached, it all went back to the customers. My buddy owned the boat.

 

[jllee]

It could be a F6 Hellcat or an F4u Corsair as they both had a Pratt and Whitney R-2800 Double Wasp with 18 Cylinders.

I think so too. I've spent far too many hours looking at technical drawings to help figure out what I need to measure to be sure. You'd be surprised how similar the WW2 18-cylinder engines are, even from the US and Japan.