Museum of New Jersey Maritime History

Last weekend Danny and I took a break from diving to take a little field trip out to Beach Haven, NJ (LBI) where we met up with Capt. Bartone to check out the Museum of New Jersey Maritime History. This non-profit museum contains a ton of information on the Jersey coast and is a great resource for wreck divers. There are lots of artifacts recovered and donated or on loan from divers from local wrecks on display as well as binders full of shipwreck research and photos. In addition there is a nice library and DVD collection that are all available to borrow. There is a great S-5 exhibit complete with personal artifacts recovered from the wreck and underwater images of the wreck as she sits today. The museum is definitely worth the trip out to LBI for the serious wreck diver on anyone with a general interest in the maritime history of our coast.

Bell from the Bidevind


Gun sight from the Ayuruoca (Oil wreck)

Engine room telegraph from the Resor

It's been a summer

1-12-2008

With the spurt of spring like weather the last couple days I let John talk me into switching from Sunday (weather looking terrible) to Saturday for the Tuna Seazure’s season ending trip to the Glory wreck. This large steel wreck in 70 fsw has never been properly identified and is thought to possibly be the Kennebec or Lake Frampton. There were some decent 4-5 foot swells as we cleared the inlet but they quickly laid down and Capt Bill punched it. The short ride barely gave me enough time to get dressed to tie in. Heading down it was nice to see the visibility much better than the past two weeks in the 15 foot range with nice ambient light. The water temperature was ~44F top to bottom. The anchor line came down across the two large boilers providing a nice view. We were hooked in on the top of the engine just aft (nearly touching) the starboard boiler. I took my time exploring and had a great time checking out the wreck from stem to stern for a solid 90 minutes. I was surprised how many little pieces were off the sides of the wreck that I hadn’t noticed before. There was a decent surge on the bottom which made running my reel a little tricky. I even managed to tangle myself up twice. Other than that it was a great dive for what will probably be my last ocean dive until spring. Until then you may refer to me as the Quarrior! (cue Scandal)

PS: Mad props to Bill Trent for letting me borrow his meg head while mine is in the shop for "upgrades".

Theme music

Sucker for winter sunrises

01-05-2008

The Astra was my first dive of 2007 so it was only fitting that we made it out on the Tuna Seazure today to the Astra for my first dives of 2008. Headed out around 0800 in slightly bumpy 3-4 foot seas. Temperature dropped a few degrees from last week and was 42 top to bottom. Visibility on the wreck wasn't the best in the 10 or less range. We were hooked in next to the prop shaft about equidistant from the boilers and the (semi) intact stern section. A decent number of very small bugs were spotted with only 1 keeper boated.

Best wishes for 2008.

San Jose 12-30-2007

Today the Tuna Seazure sailed with a full boat to one of my favorite southern Jersey wrecks the San Jose. This 330’ passenger freighter sank in a collision with the Santa Elisa in January 1942 in the very early days of “Operation Drumbeat”. Today she sits in 110 fsw off Atlantic City. The wreck has been blown up and dragged and although the term “steel junkyard” definitely applies, the outline of this old banana boat can still be found and followed by the careful eye. Also there are some spots that survived intact allowing some minor penetrations. My favorite spot on this big wreck site is the huge steering quadrant in the stern, which is picturesque even on the poorest days. You can get underneath and looking up at the silhouetted “wheel” with fish swarming it is really cool. Unfortunately it can be hard to get divers to fill a trip to this wreck as the bottom in this area is silty mud which gives this wreck a bad rap based on the potential for lousy bottom conditions.

The day started off brisk and required nimble footing on the frosty dock but we got loaded up a little early (or late depending on who you ask…) to try and beat feet to the weather that was supposed to pick up later, and headed out just as the sun was rising.

Meg vs. Optima

The Atlantic cooperated and was nearly flat as we cleared the inlet and only picked up slightly as we got further out. Dan Martinez got us tied in pretty quickly and we wasted no time heading in. I was excited as this was the first taste of salt for my new Meg. Conditions on the bottom were dark but the visibility was decent in the 10’ range and I could make out other divers lights from much further away. Water was about 44^oF from top to bottom. We were tied into a high spot on the starboard side of the wreck. I followed the hull forward for a bit and examined a row of empty portholes hoping one had been missed by previous divers to no avail. I turned back to the tie in when I reached the end of the section and tied off my reel before heading aft. I managed to find the steering quadrant which never seems to get old. There are also some rooms you can penetrate in this area. Proving the old “different day, different wreck” adage, I rounded a corner and in the dark conditions found what I thought was a large opening into the wreck which turned out to be a very cool swim through between the rudder and hull that I had never noticed/done before. I took my time poking around back to the anchor and headed up at the 60 minute mark for a chilly deco. Everyone opted for 1 dive which made the sweetest part of the trip… back at the dock by 12:30!

Not a bad day

More info on the San Jose

Operation Drumbeat (copies currently $0.34!!)

Let there be light

Finally getting around to cleaning up some artifacts from this season... so here are a couple quick shots of the cleanup progress of one of the cage lamps I got off the India Arrow earlier this season. It came out pretty nice and when I get time I'll probably put a new light fixture in and restore it to working order. This particular lamp had a hook so it was actually a work lamp rather than a fixed lamp for lighting (makes sense since I found it in the engine room).

Before

The lamp actually comes apart into 3 pieces...

The base

The cage

The globe

Put them all together and voila...

I guess the cat's out of the bag (or loop?)

Coming soon to a blog near you...

Pinta 11-11-07

Sunday the Independence headed out with full complement of 10 customers + crew. Most of the usual suspects along with some new faces were onboard making it a fun day out on the ocean which was much more inviting than NOAA would have us believe. There was a gentle swell as we headed out the inlet which turned into a 3 foot chop as we got further out. With the horizon looking like the teeth of the devil we stayed closer to shore and hooked into the Pinta. There was some surge on the top of the wreck but if you got down in the shadow of the wreck the conditions were pretty nice. The visibility was variable depending where on the wreck you were and I would say ranged anywhere from 10-20 feet, so not bad at all. With the water temperature still in the mid 50 it was a very nice dive.

My only dive on the Pinta prior to this was a few years ago when I signed up for a night dive to test dive my brand new canister light. In my excitement to try it out, I neglected to charge it and left my reel on the boat. Needless to say I didn’t see much of the Pinta that day, so even though a lot of people will groan at the mention of “Pinta” I was happy to be back for a proper tour. Today the Pinta is a much different wreck then it was (as I’ve been told) just a year ago. She has broken down significantly and many new areas are open for exploration including the engine spaces. I spent about half of my 60 minute bottom time breaking in Capt. Dan’s new pole spear (I only got 1 sea bass) and the other half poking around the wreck. I think only 1 lobster came on board, but I think it’s safe to say everyone was just happy to be out and sneak in a late season dive in the ocean.

More info on the Pinta

U-869

10-30-2007

With the democratic presidential debate taking place at Drexel I decided it would be in my best interests to avoid the zoo and take a break (plus my parking lot was closed) and take the opportunity to sneak out on a late season trip to the U-869 on the Independence with some friends.

I'm sure most wreck divers are familiar with the story of U-869 which lies in 230 fsw off the coast of New Jersey, but in case you have been stuck in space for the past 10 years be sure to check out the links below. Bill Trent and I were tasked with tying in which was a snap since Capt Dan dropped the shot literally right next to the gun mount which is just aft of the blast damage at the control room. The conditions on the wreck were pretty nice with at least 20-25 feet of dark visibility. We headed forward and poked around looking for some of the monster lobsters known to reside on this wreck. I watched as Bill reached for a lobster practically in the open next to a life boat canister when I realized he was about to grab a decent sized monkfish by the tail. For a second I almost let him land on it because I’m sure it would have been entertaining, but I had a change of heart and flashed him with my light, and he was able to take an alternate route to the bug and bag it. I moved forward and grabbed 2 “smaller” bugs in the 3-4 lb range. Coming back I spotted a huge claw through a hole in the top of a pipe. I managed to get my hand on the beast. I thought I had it by the carapace but it turned out it was its knuckle! After an epic battle, I extracted the 8.5 pound sea monster from the pipe and into the bag it went with the other 2. Now that I had dinner (for a while) covered I poked around the conning tower and control room area (which appears to have collapsed a bit since last year) before heading up. I really need to upgrade my camera system so I can take it on these deeper wrecks because there are some really spectacular shots to be had.

U-869.com

Hitler's Lost Sub (highly recommended)

Shadow Divers

The Last Dive

Stolt Dagali 10-21-2007

The Independence headed to the Stolt Sunday for some sweet late season dives. When the weather cooperates, this really is my favorite time of year to dive. We had a full boat of 10 customers +crew, including some folks that came down from Boston. The original destination was the Lillian, but with 6 foot ground swells the day before and this wreck’s proximity to the Mud Hole, Capt Dan opted for the Stolt which has enough relief to get up out of the bottom haze. There was some pea soup on the surface but below 40 or 50 feet it opened up to a solid 25 feet on top of the wreck where we were tied in at about 60 feet. The warm 65^o surface water was on the top of the wreck and down as far as 80 feet where the 55^oF bottom water kicked in. I heard reports of 5-10 feet of vis on the bottom, so we were glad we opted out of going to the Lillian.

In between dives Charlie relayed his story about the “biggest lobster he’s ever seen” and formulated an attack plan to go back for the bug with claws “bigger than his head”. With an assembled crew and a new “tickle stick” he went back down for it but was unsuccessful in bagging the beast. He did however get a nice 4-5 pounder and a few other bugs came up.

For as often as the Stolt gets hit I think I have only managed to get on her once before so I was looking forward to doing some more exploration. For my dive I dropped down into the engine room which is pretty wide open from the continued deterioration of the wreck. I erred on the side of caution and tied my line off since this would be my first time in this area. I took my time scanning the machinery and engine spaces for goodies and it wasn’t long before a came across a nice stainless and brass gauge with the glass face still intact but cracked. After some mild coaxing I managed to break the copper pipe it was attached to and into my goodie bag it went. I continued my journey in and down and hit about 120 fsw before turning and heading back. Back outside the wreck I spent some time poking around some of the opened up areas up top and was surprised at the number of brass backing plates still present. Just goes to show even the popular wrecks that get hit weekly during the summer still have goodies for the taking.

Weekend in Virginia Beach

Virginia Beach, VA – Oct 6-7 2007

Bedford and I left Friday afternoon to head down to Virginia Beach with the plan to check out a new wreck in 250fsw that Capt. JT had checked out with some fisherman earlier in the spring. We were quite excited to have the opportunity to dive a virgin wreck and the oppressive traffic on 95 did nothing but add to the anticipation of the trip. After everything was loaded and set up we left the dock on the Under Pressure around midnight for the ~6 hour trip out to the wreck site. I managed to catch a few z’s on the way out and woke up around sunrise just as we were pulling up on the target. JT had some concern that the “new” wreck might actually be the UB-148 which was part of the Billy Mitchell fleet sunk in aerial bombing tests in the summer of 1921. He had another set of numbers believed to be the UB-148 so we motored over to check it out to confirm if the new set of numbers was in fact a new wreck. The numbers he had for the UB-148 turned up nothing so it became apparent that we might end up diving the sub instead of a new wreck. We headed back to the mark and JT snagged it pretty quickly. The plan was for the tie in team to check what we were on, then let Bill and I know on our way down whether or not to pull the hook if we were on the sub so we could head somewhere else.

UC-97, UB-148, and UB-88

The seas had laid down a bit, but there were some good sized swells rolling through as we geared up in overcast conditions. We splashed and met up with Mark and Andrew who were already hanging and giving us the “cut it” signal meaning we were in fact on the UB-148. Heading down the line, the water made a sharp transition from blue 75^oF water to cooler darker water at about 80 feet as we passed through the thermocline. Approaching the wreck there was an unidentified structure sticking up 20 feet or so off the wreck that resembled a mast but it quickly became obvious that this was definitely a submarine. The top of the curved hull was ~230fsw and the bottom at about 255 fsw (I only dropped to 245 and there was at least 10 feet to the sand). The visibility was a dark 30-40 feet and the temperature 48^oF. I’m not sure where we were on the wreck but I followed the hull for a few minutes before following the top of the hull back towards the tie in. I noted several hatches still sealed tight and covered with long pink “grass” that was some kind of growth. In this grass and all over the wreck were chain dogfish sharks that you only see on these deeper wrecks. We cut our dive kind of short since we were going to be moving to another wreck for the afternoon dive and after pulling the hook out of a net/rope we began our ascent.

For the second dive we decided to dive the other new wreck that Capt JT first dive last year and dove again a few weeks ago thought to be the O.B Jennings torpedoed in WWI (Incidentally the Jennings was sunk by the U-140 which was also sunk with the Billy Mitchell fleet and now rests nearby). With reports of an intact tanker sitting upright on the bottom in 280fsw it didn’t take much arm twisting to convince us to check it out. We only had gas for 250’ but we were promised the wreck came as high as 235fsw. I had a nice afternoon nap as we motored over, and awoke as JT was getting back on board after attempting to tie in. Unfortunately the hook had fallen into one of the forward holds and he was unable to get it out as he didn’t have the gas to go to the ~300’ where the hook was. He promised we could see the high part from the line as the conditions were unbelievable with ~100’ of visibility. Mark and Andrew splashed first and were nice enough to pull the hook up to the starboard (high) side of the wreck at 250fsw for us. Heading down the line we were greeted by an unbelievable sight. At about 200’ I could see Mark and Andrew’s lights a good ways in the distance approaching us (they had scootered the whole wreck) and at 210’ the wreck came into view. The image of that huge ship listing to its port side and stretching into the distance as far as I could see will be burned into my mind for some time. The house on the bow was easily identifiable and there were service large holds heading aft. After admiring the view for a minute or two we touched down on the starboard railing at 250’. We headed forward and explored around the bow superstructure and counted several intact portholes. There was also a fire hose lying on the deck just aft of the house. The side door of the house looked inviting but it meant going deeper, and I had to reluctantly keep reminding myself that 250 was my limit on this dive. I took a couple minutes to inspect the hull on the bow looking for a name but didn’t see anything. Heading aft again, we following the starboard rail past the first hold and turned back as we got to the second hold. I spent some more time poking around the bow and noted some machinery on the deck. Time went by way too fast and we headed up at the 25 minute mark after pulling the hook. Deco was uneventful until the 20 foot stop. I was just relaxing on my long hang when I saw something coming up out of the deep blue. Before I knew it a pod of about 8 or so dolphins came buzzing right by me to add a little excitement. The icing on the cake was popping my head above the surface just in time to catch the sun dipping below the horizon and a beautiful sunset. This wreck really is in pristine condition and has only been dove a couple times, and probably one of the best wrecks I have ever dove. Definitely time for a rebreather!

Capt. Jay hooked up

Got it on board just as the other guys were finishing decompressing

90 pound tuna

Overnight Capt JT headed a bit inshore and hooked us into the wreck of the Ocean Venture which we dove in the morning. This freighter was torpedoed in WWII and is now in 160fsw. The visibility on the bottom was excellent and in the 50-60’ range. The first thing I saw when I got to the bottom was dog of a porthole sticking out of the sand. Not a bad start. A little digging revealed a pretty mangled porthole and without any tools I moved on. I had a nice relaxing dive poking around the busted up wreckage. I managed to find the “cathedral” that Capt JT had described to us. This huge box like structure rises probably at least 30 feet off the bottom and light comes through the top and sides giving it a cathedral like feeling and was indeed very cool.

After what felt like a quick hang we were on our way back to port. The seas had only improved as the weekend progressed and it was a relaxing trip home. You can’t ask for more when you can get in 3 great offshore dives in October.

Ocean Venture

CHECK OUT

Gary Gentile's Shipwrecks of Virginia

Capt JT's website