Why dive wrecks like Andrea Doria

[Crush]

It is certainly not worth anyone's life. But no dive site is.

All wrecks are just a "pile of junk".

Yes, the Doria is not what it once was. The wreck has broken down greatly and the treasures to be found there are becoming harder to find. (not that a bunch of China is "treasure" but you know what I mean)

The "Doria Trip" will always exist as long as people want to witness one of the true great shipwrecks in modern history.

You can call it "bragging rights" if you like but there will always be people that desire to see the thing for themselves and make their own decision about it's history and where that "history" fits into their lives and memories.

25 July 2011 at 8:34 MDT - the first time that I have read any of your posts that I: (1) agree with; and (2) didn't find to be condescending. In fact, I'll even call it insightful (but I will probably regret that). I don't know what to say. I kind of wish this hadn't happened.

Which of us is mellowing?

 

[JB]

The question I have always had about this dive, is why do it? There is nothing there but deep dark cold water, current, and a pile of junk. There is no history there, all the mystery about the wreck has been explored, why do it? Is it the deep dark cold water and current that motivates divers to make this dive? Or is it the pile of junk (if it's the junk, you can walk around any auto wrecking yard and see the same thing at almost no risk)?
I hate to say it, but I think it comes down to bragging rights. I have watched the tech community since the early 90's and you would think after 20 years it would have grown out of this mentality. Dora is not Everest, it's a pile of junk sitting in 200 ft. of current filled, cold dark water. This dive is not worth anyone's life.

I kind of agree with you, the first people to discover a wreck have that thrill of discovery, identification and salvage, and this particular wreck is deep and difficult. All that happened many years ago, and I think you are right it has become "the everest", and dived for bragging rights or personal challenge rather than the marvels that you see there.
Having said that, is it wrong for this to be the motivation? There are heaps of people who pay a lot to be dragged up Everest each year when they clearly are not "mountaineers". We all set goals and try and work to achieve them. Personally I don't get the wreck dive thing, unless you are discovering new wrecks, but if people set goals and train in order to achieve them, I can't fault them.

 

[Akimbo]

I grew up in the era where the Doria was the ultimate test of a diver's skill. Even if the challenge seems much smaller in the modern era, I would love to dive the Grand Dame, just once, and just "because". As Dr Wu says, whether you consider that "bragging rights" or nostalgia and a sense of wreck diving history is a question of perception.

To me, there is more to it than that. There is a grandeur I have not seen in any other wreck. All open-sea dark-water wrecks are frightening, but there is something haunting about her. However, I won’t go back unless there is a double-lock chamber onboard. I had my hopes up when Darkwater Expeditions bought a chamber, but it seems their deal on the boat fell through.

 

[Garth]

As far as the Doria... I have paid a good bit of money to dive on a boat that just before it sunk it was able to float and someone actually sunk it on purpose... Ie artificial reef dive. The see life is great but the wreck is one of a kind. These places are places that few have been. There is a small percentage of divers that ever get a chance to dive as deep, especially on a wreck like the Doria.

 

[rovic]

i don't know why divers wants to explore wrecked ships??? there's nothing much you can see inside a ship wreck other than rusting metals and reefs attached to it., ,,if you realize the danger a shipwreck post on divers ,it's all isn't worth the dive at all,,,IMO, it's better to just dive on open sea and explore and enjoy the underwater sceneries like fishes,coral reefs,plants,crustaceans ,squids....
shipwreck exploration should be prohibited by the government... it's a killer...gosh,i just registered last week and there were already 5-7 cases of shipwreck deaths...it means there were 5-7 families that lost their father or mother because of diving...fyi,i'm not against it but i think it needs to be regulated by the local government.

 

[AfterDark]

i don't know why divers wants to explore wrecked ships??? there's nothing much you can see inside a ship wreck other than rusting metals and reefs attached to it., ,,if you realize the danger a shipwreck post on divers ,it's all isn't worth the dive at all,,,IMO, it's better to just dive on open sea and explore and enjoy the underwater sceneries like fishes,coral reefs,plants,crustaceans ,squids....
shipwreck exploration should be prohibited by the government... it's a killer...gosh,i just registered last week and there were already 5-7 cases of shipwreck deaths...it means there were 5-7 families that lost their father or mother because of diving...fyi,i'm not against it but i think it needs to be regulated by the local government.

Thankfully you are only one vote because you clearly have no idea what you are talking about. In fact you admit it “i don't know why divers wants to explore wrecked ships??? “ The govt. probably gets more people killed than all the diving accidents combined. We dive wrecks because there are things to see and photograph and recover. We are all supposed to be free to live the life we want to not the one that others including you think we should. One of the guys that dived the Doria with my friend recorded his 200th dive on the Doria and he's still alive. There have been thousand of dives made on the Doria, I think 16 deaths have been recorded, not a bad record. Better than the airlines is my guess. I had a T-shirt made for me long ago aimed at people with your mindset it read: MAKE SOMEONES DAY MIND YOUR OWN BUSINESS. My family knows what I do and the risk that I may not return from a dive, they also understand I may not return from work either. Everything the govt. gets involved in they make into a worse mess then before they became involved.
We don't need govt. "help".

 

[DandyDon]

enjoy the underwater sceneries like fishes,coral reefs,plants,crustaceans ,squids....

Oh, we see all that on wrecks. Ships that are sunk intentionally after expensive cleaning are called "artificial reefs" as they attract so much life - including new coral growth. But regardless as to whether the wreck was sunk intentionally or by accident, it is still also interesting to dive on the ship itself if one knows the history of the vessel - more so perhaps on real wrecks.

Now most wreck dives are done in waters of recreational limits, 130 feet or less and accidents are uncommon, deaths rare. They can happen if the diver screws up, has a serious medical problem, or just maybe an equipment problem altho those are very rare if the gear is maintained correctly - but those are rare occurrences that can happen on a reef dive, etc.

I'm not much of a diver but I have enjoyed diving on history off of NC: one WWI wreck, a few WWII wrecks sunk by German subs, and one U-boat sunk by our Coast Guard, as well as wooden wrecks in the St.Lawrence, several intentional wrecks along the Florida Keys and one off of Roatan, one at Cozumel, and St.Kitts that I can recall.

The AD is a special dive, far beyond my capabilities so not much of this applies directly, but there is some commonality, diving on history, maybe collecting artifacts before they are lost to the currents.

 

[deepair]

I always tell my family and friends that I am more in fear of losing my life on the interstate getting to the coast then I am once the boat has left the dock. The Doria is called the Everest of Diving for a reason! But as Don said there are plenty of wrecks well with in the Recreational limits. Dive them with in the limits of your training and they are as safe as diving any reef. As far as government intervention, !

 

[DevonDiver]

i don't know why divers wants to explore wrecked ships???

....and you never will.

But that's ok. Some people were meant to spend their time online, others were meant for exploring.

 

[DevonDiver]

I don't know much about the Dora... not had chance to read the book yet, as I've not seen it for sale here in Manila (Ebook anyone?).

... but if I was in the area, I'd be on it like the wreck ferret I am