On the morning of January 16, 2001, the UASBC undertook an expedition to get some more details on a “mystery” wreck in Plowden Bay near Port Mellon. The story went that it was probably an old YMS-class minesweeper that was being converted into a fishing barge. In the 80's (I think), it apparently sank due to neglect.
Mike Juren had this to say in one of the planning emails. I think he got a lot of details from Dave, who had dove it in 2005:
The wreck was 60% intact in 2005. The wreck was sitting upright on a slope, with the starboard side and the stern facing down slope. The slope was fairly steep, about 30 degrees. The wreck measured approximately 30' wide by 140' long. Most of the superstructure had been removed, but 3 hatches and compartments with bulkheads were still in place. The hull consisted of wooden planks and steel bulkheads. The engines had been removed. On the foredeck the windlass was still in place as were some of the stanchions. The anchor fairlead jutted over the bow. The wreck was orientated to about 60 degrees, or East-Northeast, with the stern to the south and the bow to the north.
We departed Horseshoe Bay aboard the Topline, from Seadragon Charters. Skipper Kevin and Jan were aboard, along with helper Shay. From the UASBC side there was Nicole and David, along with the 8 or so divers. We originally had 13, but there were several last minute cancellations. A not-complete list of divers was: Keith, Mike, Joel, Gary, Jason, Keith's son, and me.
We could not ask for a better day. It was overcast and raining in the morning, but it stopped pretty quickly. We got underway a bit later than planned. On the trip out, David gave a comprehensive briefing on the wreck and what we would be doing. It was very good. The wreck site was at Plowden Bay, near Port Mellon. Nicole did a pile of work putting together the diver slates and wreck diagrams, checking people in and out, and generally keeping the UASBC equipment side straight.
http://goo.gl/maps/Qw3S
It had been quite some time since the last survey of this wreck, so everyone was curious to see what we'd find. The general plan was to have four teams of divers. One would lay a survey tape from bow to stern, one would measure the width of the hull, one would check the stern area and one would tour around the whole wreck. Individual teams got more detailed instructions, and I wasn't present for all those, so I don't have all the details! On the first dive, Jason and I were tasked with measuring the width of the hull, as well as identifying any hatches and holes in the deck.
No wreck penetration was allowed or planned. We also got several reminders to be mindful of sharp metal and line, to be careful with the surveying tapes (entanglement), and to not sacrifice safety for any reason. Keith's son actually did tear his drysuit on the second dive, unfortunately. There were the ever-present waivers and release forms to fill out, along with the standard dive check-out and check-in depth, time and pressure. With the experienced boat crew and UASBC folks, this all went smoothly and without complication.
Keith and his son descended first, and shot a line and a surface marker at the bow. They ran the first tape from bow to stern as well. When Jason and I descended, we got the first view of the wreck itself. Visibility was pretty good for Howe Sound, maybe 10 to 15'. The bow was recognizable, if somewhat worse for wear. The anchor chain was clearly visible going down to the rocks at the bottom. We followed the port side hull from the bow to the stern to get an overview of the wreck first. There was no sign of the deck and hatches that had been reported in 2005. All that had either fallen in, deteriorated or been swept away by water action. Maybe 30% of the hull remained sticking up from the bottom. The ribs were clearly visible in many places, as were the several bulkheads dividing up the hull. Not much remained of each bulkhead either. There was some kind of inner hull coating in sections which appeared white, but I couldn't tell what kind of material it was. There was quite a bit of debris scattered about the main hull too. Several tires, line and pieces of wood for example. I didn't spend a lot of time looking at anything other than the main wreck though.
I had a camera along, and took a short video of the swim down the length of the hull.
After that, we got to work measuring the width of the hull. I had not worked with a tape underwater before, and it was doubly challenging using a survey tape meant for land use. At least once the end of the tape got caught on a part of the ship. Also, the main tape line got in the way more often than not. All this hammered home the point that any kind of line underwater has a mind of its own, and should be respected.
We got a measurement of about 8 meters for the hull width. From there, we spent a good deal of time documenting where the bulkheads were, and looking for the “hatches” (which didn't exist anymore). I did a lot of sketching on my underwater wetnotes, and toke a bunch of reference measurements from the main line.
Once back on the surface, we compiled a pretty good sketch of what things looked like. The mandate was "get it documented now, or you will forget". From my experience writing up dive trip reports, I completely agreed. My memory would fade even a few hours after a dive.
Here is another short video of the mess of stuff that was near the bow. Note the toilet tank! There always seems to be a toilet somewhere...
There was a question about whether or not to do a second dive, since the wreck had deteriorated so much. After reviewing the video, David decided that there was enough to warrant a second dive. My one mistake on the trip was opening up the camera housing to check the video. Once I did that, the inside of the housing completely fogged up and was useless on the second dive. I didn't have any desiccant/silica with me either. Too bad!
The assignments for the second dive were to document more of the physical layout of the wreck and to confirm its compass orientation. Also, we were to try and get the width between the hull ribs, and the dimensions of the ribs themselves. Those measurements could be useful in identifying the ship's origin. We also had to go down to recover the main measurement line, and the marker buoy that had been deployed at the bow.
On this dive, Jason took the tape measure, and I had the slate. We had some difficulty communicating measurements with hand signals even though we had ran through them on the boat. It always amazed me how the best plans and discussion can go out the window when you get underwater. However, no planning is certainly worse, so I'm glad we did something! The rib measurements were a bit tricky but we got most of them. I used the slate itself as a measuring tool to back up the tape measurements. It worked pretty well. I drew a bit more of the debris and locations of certain items. There were quite a few tires that had been hung along the side of the hull and they were scattered about. There was also a set of metal posts for mooring line that I noted. We went up to the bow and tried to look for the anchor. The anchor chain hung straight down from the bow and ended at the rocks. I tried to move the chain and it wouldn't budge. Either it was still connected to the anchor somehow, or it was so rusted that the links were fused together. There was no sign of the anchor. It looked to me like the anchor might be under the wreck itself. It certainly didn't exist at the bow.
Since we had been focusing on survey and documentation tasks, we didn't see much life on the wreck. Still, there were some decorator crabs and a couple of nice nudibranchs. One team found a clown dorid, which was pretty nice.
Back on the boat, we finished transferring our drawings and measurements to paper. In the end, we got some pretty good results for a group of "regular divers". The wreck certainly had changed in 5 years!
I certainly look forward to the next UASBC dive...
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