Up next in 10
In this video Rick Ayrton shares insights on his deep wreck photography and his decades of wreck diving adventures including his dives on HMHS Britannic and work with Deep Wreck Mysteries. He talks about the challenges of underwater photography and the equipment he uses, including his underwater camera.
Rick also discusses his recent trip to dive the amazing World War 1 wrecks in Jutland and shares some of the discoveries that they made
*Thanks*
Thanks to Rick Ayrton for taking the time to speak to me and putting such a fabulous collection of images together. If anyone would like to buy his book then it can be bought here:
Dived Up Publications - https://www.divedup.com/shop/expedition-britannic-diving-titanics-sister-ship/
Amazon- https://amzn.to/4md9yW6
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*Highlights*
00:00 Introduction
05:00 Deep Wreck Mysteries
12:24 Trying to get the bigger picture
21:00 HMHS Britannic
24:25 Pee system failure on 115m dive!
30:40 SM U-95 German submarine (75 metres)
32:02 HMS Victory (78 metres)
42:11 Unbelievable visibility on SS Andre (80 metres)
43:50 USS Jacob Jones (115 metres)
45:08 U-1021 Submarine (50 metres)
47:53 SS Hans Jensen (80 metres)
49:35 HMCS Trentonian
51:42 Jutland expedition - 2025
54:55 HMS Defence
59:30 HMS Invincible
1:01:00 HMS Shark
1:03:20 SMS Lutzow
1:04:50 HMS Indefatigable
1:07:00 HMS Queen Mary
1:08:00 SMS Frauenlob
1:11:21 Photographic Settings & a magic plugin
1:12:35 Backscatter Exterminator!
*Videos of dives discussed in this interview*
HMS Victory - https://youtu.be/2TBCVnfqir4
HMCS Trentonian - https://youtu.be/PrFKYTDs8M4
USS Jacob Jones - https://youtu.be/zmns3tZYgxQ
SS Apollonia - https://youtu.be/3HnNOvRg5pE
Hans Jensen - https://youtu.be/H-8aPEjMm0M
SM U-95 - https://youtu.be/Vo01ty6B3YI
SM U-1021 - https://youtu.be/TtCluUD9wfA
*Kit I Use*
Note, some of these are affiliate links so help support making my videos:
- Gloves are Ansell Alphatec 87-063 - https://amzn.to/4jDHhX4
- Main torch is an Orcatorch D630 - https://amzn.to/4jlT4tA
- Backup torch is an Orcatorch D710 - https://amzn.to/4jhddRk
- Drysuit is an O-Three Ri2-100 - https://www.othree.co.uk/drysuit-range/ri-2-100-drysuit/
- CCR is an AP Diving Inspiration (XPD) - https://www.apdiving.com/
- Backup computer is a Shearwater Perdix v2 - https://amzn.to/42FXZOW
- Reels are by Kent Tooling - https://www.divingproducts.co.uk/
- Cameras are Paralenz Vaquita
- Video light is NiteScuba NSV60 - NiteScuba NSV60 - https://s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_onHEKQZ
- Phone housing is Divevolk Seatouch 4 Max - https://s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_omJlNKL
- Stickers for gear by Dive Signs - https://www.divesigns.com/
*Strobes*
I use two different strobes (also affiliate links)
-- Prozhaozhu 3000 Lumen Diving Strobe - https://s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_oBMRF3X
-- Prozhaozhu 4000 Lumen Diving Strobe - https://s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_oCTEses
- Jon clip - https://s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_oDqq0RW
Show More Show Less View Video Transcript
0:00
Hello again everyone and welcome again to my channel as always. Lots of you
0:06
will have seen on my videos that I've done loads of diving with Rick and and I know loads of people have asked me to uh
0:13
to get him on here to uh to talk to tell us about some of the epic diving we've
0:18
done together, but also I think to talk it to talk about the fabulous photos that you've all seen during my during my
0:25
videos and you know how he manages to capture them and and all that kind of stuff. I'm really pleased to have uh
0:32
Rick here with me today and uh hello Rick. Hi Dom. It's good to see you again. It's
0:38
only a couple of days since we were together on the boat. Absolutely. So we were diving at the
0:43
weekend. We dived together. We had dolphins on deco stops. Fantastic. It was
0:50
it was an unexpectedly amazing dive. It was it was snatched out of the jaws
0:56
of the weather. Absolutely. And I think one of one of the things that I personally find really
1:02
fascinating about your diving career, Rick, is the longevity of that you that
1:08
you've had in terms of deep diving. So, I mean, you've been all the way through from open circuit through to close
1:14
circuit, carried on doing it, and you're still doing it now, which is which is amazing. So, please can you a bit of a
1:20
flavor of of how you got here, right? Okay. Well, my first ever dive,
1:27
you'll be horrified to hear, was under Swanage Pier um in 1980 something. Um
1:34
horrible thought, but um it it all moved on from there. Um I I particularly
1:40
enjoyed it, you know, from an ear early stage in my career. En enjoyed the deeper stuff, but at that time it was
1:47
probably, you know, 30 mters was was deep. um gradually went even deeper um
1:54
on open circuit air down to 50 60 meters sometimes which I would hate to do now
2:00
but uh I I did it back then fairly happily um but I think I think it was um
2:08
it's probably late 1990s uh I did my open circuit try mix course
2:16
with the legendary Richard Bull um who ran at that time ran a dive shop in
2:23
Bristol called current state diving. Um and having done the open circuit try mix
2:28
course, it didn't it opened up um those sort of deeper wrecks which you could
2:33
actually do on a with a relatively clear head. Um
2:38
at that time I wasn't taking any photographs at all. I didn't have a camera. Um
2:44
but I I sort of carried on and um it it was a strange strange sort of time
2:50
because there were these whispers about rebreathers coming into the uh
2:55
recreational diving market and um
3:00
about 2000 friend of mine got one um and uh I remember particularly 2001 I was on
3:08
this expedition on loyal watcher to North Cornwall looking for new shipwrecks. I was an on open circuit. I
3:14
had twin 15s at the time and um we it
3:20
was it was the expedition that located the wreck of the St. George which was
3:25
quite special. We found a bell um massive pile of copper ingots and we we
3:32
were able to then sell the marks to a salvage company and and basically all of us paid with the the proceeds of that
3:40
for our trip uh on on on the loyal watcher. Um and at that time I I was it
3:48
sort of suddenly became clear that uh if I wanted to go any further I needed to get a rebreather. Um, and so in 2002 I
3:56
got a rebreather, did my course. Um, virtually the week after I'd finished my
4:02
course, a friend was selling a a video camera for small money and I I decided
4:08
to purchase it and started taking underwater video, which thoroughly
4:13
enjoyed. I enjoyed the process of putting the films together. Um,
4:19
and I I guess being Bristolbased helped a bit with the uh the progress of um
4:28
film making. Um, for those that might not be aware, Bristol is is a center of
4:34
sort of wildlife photography um of the BBC. Um, and so it has a has a
4:42
big um element of sort of underwater photography for the media. And I sort of
4:50
got to know Chrisen Sadler who was producer of Deep Wreck Mysteries and myself and in particular Dan Stevenson
4:58
were um in enrolled by him to help out in the
5:03
the first couple of series of Deep Wreck Mysteries and and that was a real eye
5:08
opener for me. Um, instead of having a a sort of relatively inexpensive video
5:15
camera, I had one of these fantastic Sony broadcast quality videos um, in an
5:22
amphibico housing, which was worth a small fortune. Um, which I have to say
5:27
nowadays a GoPro will do a much better job, a fraction of the cost. Um, but uh, that
5:36
that's beside the point. Um, it it was that that sort of turned me away from
5:41
taking my own video actually because I I realized at that time I couldn't afford
5:46
to invest in broadcast quality video. Um, and so I moved over to stills and I
5:53
I bought a still camera in 2007. Um, and I've I've I've got some um I've
6:00
put together some photos which sort of take me through my journey and of um
6:07
underwater um photography. And one of the things that really captured what I
6:13
want to do was to sort of get the the full picture of shipwrecks. and not just
6:20
sort of little details which um seem to be what people were were sort of getting
6:26
especially on UK shipwrecks because you know as you know we're we're not blessed
6:32
with the best visibility in the world although sometimes it can be quite good
6:37
um so I don't know if you want me to at this stage um share my presentation and
6:43
we can talk over it as we go along um that would be fantastic Rick just before
6:48
we do that though I start. We have to go back to deep res wreck mysteries. We can't just skip past three.
6:56
You know that's that's like a major TV series, isn't it? And you kind of Yeah, I suppose it is.
7:01
Yeah. So So which episodes were you on and tell us about the shipwrecks? Yeah. So So I I suppose the um the sort
7:09
of the big biggest one I was involved in was um the Armenian story. So that I
7:17
think that was search for the bone wreck. Uh where we we were looking for
7:22
this liner off off North Cornwall which um was carrying mules to the for the
7:29
western front. Um we we started we thought we'd found it and we'd actually
7:35
found the patia which was also a fantastic shipwreck which you and I dived I think a year or two back. Um, it
7:43
is and I have to say a year or two back it had changed significantly since I'd previously dived it. Um, the the bow had
7:50
all collapsed quite significantly. Um, but patio was a fantastic dive and then
7:57
we went on to find the Armenian and and I did several letters off the patio as well, Rick.
8:02
Yeah, I've got the letters, haven't we? I've got the letters and I've got the makaker's plate which is currently in
8:08
possession of Lee Bishop who's polishing it up for me which is very not kind of him.
8:14
So, so obviously so so for those people who don't know the story um you found
8:20
most of the letters of the name correct? Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. I've I've got I've got a P, an A, a T, and another
8:27
A, but I've not got an I,
8:32
which uh Yeah, I I could fabricate one, but it doesn't seem right.
8:39
Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. But that was a real treat. The letters are about I don't know if
8:45
you can see sort of about so big um would have been put on the side of the ship and obviously were taken off I
8:51
presume to uh stop enemy ship enemy pe
8:56
ships sort of identifying it. Um but they were they were up in the fol area
9:02
of of the ship when I when I found them. We we never found the bell of the patio and we think it was so I I the the the
9:11
bow was sort of lying on its trying to think port side and so the upper side of
9:17
the folks on the starboard side I went in and found the letters the port the the lower side there was a load of old
9:25
fishing net over it and a number of us think that the bell was probably under
9:30
there somewhere but um when we dived it a couple of years ago that's all collap aped and I you know I think it's
9:37
probably gone forever although who knows it might suddenly turn up you never know
9:43
but uh yeah um so yeah so there was the patio there was um the stealth sub episode that was
9:50
an interesting one because I I remember we we charted um skin deep um to go and
9:57
take some footage of that in one May and it just happened to coincide with the
10:04
the the the peak of the May plankton bloom, the visibility was about half a
10:09
meter and we were hopefully trying to come back with some footage. Um I think we got something but it was very
10:15
difficult. Um and probably worth mentioning what depths all these things are. So what depth was
10:21
the patio? What depth is the Armenian? So patio is about 80 mters. The Armenian
10:26
when we found found it was about the very bottom was 99.5
10:32
or something like that. we didn't get over the ton. Um the the stealth sub was
10:38
about 40 m. Um so they were they were a bit varied. Um and I I did I did the um
10:46
I think with this there was one about the um the 1021 which I know you've
10:52
posted about just recently. We we did we did did that as well which which uh was
10:59
as you know is about a 55 m meter dive. Uh and then the other one that that was
11:05
a was quite a big thing which is not part of the the main series we we did a
11:12
uh an episode about the AE2 the Australian submarine in Turkey. Um which
11:18
which was really nice because we all got taken out to to Turkey to go and film this thing. Although the expedition
11:25
itself was a bit of a there were some issues that caused problems, but we we we got away with it and they and the
11:32
program was made. Excellent. So I I unfortunately I wasn't involved
11:38
in any of the um Northern Irish stuff um for for one reason or another. I
11:44
couldn't I couldn't get the time off. I you know I had a day job at the time. I couldn't drop everything and go and go
11:49
and do uh the these film shoots uh when they when they were all needed. But uh I
11:58
I was involved in some which was really nice. Yeah. Fantastic. Yeah.
12:03
So yeah. No, I mean so thanks thanks a lot, you know. So I guess now um if you
12:08
want to flash up your presentation and we'll have a look at through your your journey in photos. Yeah. And this is going to be a treat
12:16
for, you know, lots of people have seen your photos, but to see them see a load at once is going to be fabulous. Thank
12:21
you. Does that work? Yeah, we have uh I've got it. I'm just
12:28
going to um uh Yeah, I I I put this together last night
12:35
actually because I I thought a bit of structure in it would would actually be quite
12:42
worthwhile. And it and it's un unfortunately part of the um
12:48
sort of improvement in the photographs people can get these days is due to the
12:54
improving technology in cameras. And so the the the newer cameras will
13:01
undoubtedly get better results than the older ones. But um I
13:09
if I just There we go. Let's say that this is my this is my first picture. Um
13:16
and I titled the presentation trying to get the bigger picture and the bigger picture is trying to get a a scene um
13:25
in. And so this was 2007. This this was the first trip I did with a stills
13:31
camera. Um and I I suppose I'd I'd learned some basics of composing
13:37
pictures and things by you using the video cameras. Um, but this is the first trip I did using a still camera. The
13:44
millionaire. This is a shallow wreck obviously in the Red Sea. You can see uh the surface there. Um, it's quite
13:49
spectacular though and you you could actually go right inside it. It was it was great fun. Um, and I I particularly
13:57
like this shot because it sort of shows, you know, big machinery and things off in the distance. Um, wi-i which is which
14:04
is quite nice. And the Nikon D200 was was a great camera in its day, but it's
14:11
it's was incredibly d is incredibly dated now. Um the the thing about it was
14:17
that it needed an awful lot of light to get a shot like that. And the only the only shot that I've got I think you
14:24
might recognize this because of Jimmy Lane in Plymouth. So this is about 18 mters in the UK. Um, and some of some of
14:33
the viewers might recognize this from the James Eaggan lane. It would be difficult. You can still get into that
14:39
space, but the the roof has collapsed significantly now. Um, I don't know when
14:45
you last dived the James Eaggan lane, but um I actually dived it earlier this
14:50
year with Liz and um we we we managed to get some shots in there, but uh it's
14:57
it's squashed down significantly. Well, you know, going back to this shot,
15:02
2009, the the Nikon D200 was able to get a a sort of bigger picture view of a of
15:09
a shipwreck in the UK, but it's only 18 m and there's quite a lot of light in
15:14
there. And anything deeper and and it was really struggling. So, we then move
15:21
on and I changed cameras in 2013. And I don't know if you if you've been to
15:26
Malta and dived the Polynesian, but I have. one of the most stunning
15:32
that I that I'm aware of in Malta. And this is a view of one of the um helms.
15:38
You can just about make out the uh the boss of the of one of the wheels on it
15:44
um on on towards the stern uh of of the ship. And
15:50
we need a depth. We need a depth for all these things, Rick. Okay. Depth. Um depth of the Polynesian
15:56
is about 63 meters. say if if I'd had um the D200 on this the image I' I'd have
16:05
been able to use lights to light up that that helm, but more than likely
16:10
everything else would have been black because the light wouldn't have been coming in. I'd have had to introduce it
16:16
myself. But with with the the upgrade to the 610 increase in the performance of
16:23
the sensors on the camera, it it um it it sort of was able to do a much better
16:29
job. So I love the fact you've got the diver in that one as well. Yeah. Yeah. Diving divers in wreck photos just make
16:36
it so much more interesting. Divers do give it scale. Um, sometimes it's
16:42
nice to have shots that don't have divers in, but often it's nice to have
16:48
them have them in. So, I think this is this particular one now is over sort of the engine room area of the Polynesian.
16:55
Um, and you know that yeah, it's stunning wreck. Uh, I remember me me and
17:01
that guy and I I can't remember who my buddy then we we got a telling off because we overran our time on that
17:08
dive. But what what you can also see is there's a bit of color on the wreck in
17:14
the foreground. I'm using some strobes to at that time to to sort of add a bit
17:21
of extra light in and and the camera handles it quite well. Um, I was I I was
17:27
also playing with and you've probably never seen me um use a tripod underwater. Uh,
17:36
although although I I have a plan for our fourthcoming trip on the um V the
17:41
Victory to consider taking a taking a tripod down, you you can you can you can
17:47
get a very different effect with um using a tripod. And so this is on the
17:54
Kiara. So, KR is 30 m. Um, when you're using a using a tripod, um,
18:01
what I will do is I will set it in, um, interval timer mode. So, it'll take a a
18:08
shot every 5 seconds or something, and I'll go over and and then pose myself um
18:15
to to to get the shot. Um but it does mean you you can um
18:21
extend the shutter the shutter speed. So you can you can make the shutter speed
18:26
quite long. You can you can have half second shutter speed which means you can get a lot of light in. This is obviously
18:32
the steering quadrant on on the Kiara lit. I've got a couple of video started using video lights a bit more um and to
18:40
to provide sort of lighting away from the the actual camera. But, uh, I
18:46
thought I'd put that one in. So, that's 2015. Um, I'm I'm then moving. I check,
18:52
you'll see I've changed cameras again. Um, Malin. Um, Malin is the place where
18:58
I think I honed my um,
19:04
skills in underwater photography um, particularly and it wasn't on this this
19:10
particular trip. So I went in 2016 and I I I went and obviously this is the
19:15
Audacious that's the prop that's between the two rudders on Audacious. Um it was the
19:23
following year I went and I I somehow something clicked. It I I I think it was
19:30
it was the trip. Uh, I was I was with a a a sort of well-known Danish um
19:36
underwater photographer called Renie Anderson, who you might have heard. He's done a load of uh fantastic shots of
19:42
Baltic wrecks. Um, and uh I he also done
19:48
a load from the Battle of Jutland, which we'll come on to a bit in in a bit. Um, but but somehow these shots suddenly all
19:56
made made sense. And we've got the bigger picture, you know, massive prop and couple of divers there to give it
20:02
scale. And then this shot of the one of the Sherman tanks on the Empire Heritage
20:09
lit up lit by a couple of divers. In fact, you can see several tanks there. There are the others on their side. Um,
20:16
you know, I I was just so pleased to to get a shot like this and bring it home and and precisely what what I'm after. I
20:24
I could have done a whole PowerPoint full of shots from from this particular trip. Um,
20:31
so these are all about 65 meters, aren't they? That's all about 65 m. But the the thing about
20:36
Malin is that, you know, on a good day when there's when there's the light there, it is just absolutely phenomenal.
20:44
Uh, and at this stage, I've started to not use strobes. Um just using the
20:50
natural light and and people carrying offboard lighting like here. Um yeah.
20:58
Yeah. I mean that those Malin is just unbelievably good. It it is just absolutely incredible.
21:04
Yeah. Um but but then then we move on to um
21:11
this one slightly slightly famous one from um Greece. uh sister ship of the
21:18
Titanic, uh the Britannic. Uh so the depth here is is about 116 mters. Yeah,
21:25
it's it's just amazing that there's that much uh ambient light there. Uh I remember I I went down to the seabed and
21:32
placed that uh video light to light up the uh the lower prop. And yeah, the
21:39
frustrating thing is that there's that net dangling down from the uh from the
21:45
rudder which is snagged on it. But I'm not sure that the ghost fishing lot would go and move that one. I think it's
21:51
a bit of a job. It's going to be about 100 meters to do that. I'll tell you at this point, Rick, we
21:57
probably just need to give your book a bit of a plug. By the way, give the book a plug. Yeah. Yeah, sure.
22:02
Um so I on the on the back of um diving
22:08
Britannica and and probably the fact that in 2020 there was the horrendous
22:13
COVID time and I had lots of spare time on on my hands. I put together my book
22:20
um Expedition Britannic uh which um documents the the story of of the
22:28
expedition that I was involved in to to Britannic um which yeah was really you
22:34
know a real highlight of my diving career although
22:39
it it it's fading into into the past now. It's it's amazing how how time
22:45
flies and I I think it was on the back of that book that I first came into contact with yourself and asked you to
22:52
asked you to have a look at his as one of the reviewers which uh was was greatly appreciated at the time. Um but
23:01
sorry for for those people who are interested in Rick's book I am going to put a link to it. Um
23:06
thank you very much. I I I should have made a slide of it shouldn't I missed a trick there. You're you're too modest,
23:12
Rick. So, I'm going to put a link in the description. The reason I'd like to highlight is because it is a brilliant book. It has got obviously a ton of
23:18
slumbing photos in as you would expect. And this is this one here is just one of many. But the thing that I think is
23:24
particularly interesting for um you know, people who um are diversing
23:34
aspects of of the dive. You've got that annex, haven't you? you talk about the dive plans and the gases and the
23:39
procedures and all those kind of things and it's I think for me that's something that's often missing from diving books is is
23:46
that real level of detail. So it's it's really good that you've included it and I'd encourage everyone to go and buy
23:52
Rick's book obviously and to go to go and read it. It is it is fantastic. Um
23:58
and and as well as the Britannic, it also covers the Berigalo which which is an amazing rack. Yeah. Yeah.
24:04
which is like the shakeout dive for Britannic, isn't it? Yeah. And is as a wreck dive, it's
24:10
probably a better wreck dive than Britannic because you get so much so much more time on it.
24:16
Yeah. And once again, stunning stunning photos of that. And the other thing I think, Rick, is I've heard you tell this
24:22
story, but other people won't have done. I think your um your your problem with your P system on the Britannic is is is
24:29
a is a story that I don't know if you're happy to share it, but Yeah. Yeah. No, I'm happy to share it. It's it's one of those things that every
24:35
every male diver who uses a P valve should be aware of the possibility of it
24:41
failing and not working as as intended. Uh obviously there are times when uh
24:47
they don't work and they just leak and that's fine. Um you don't have a problem, but mine failed. it blocked and
24:55
I had hours of decco to do and the only thing I could do in the end and
25:01
fortunately and I'd dread to think what might have happened if I'd not had a front entry dry suit uh I actually undid
25:09
the zip and pulled the the damn thing off to to get relief and so completely
25:15
flooded my dry suit. I I was in the shallows by this time so you know Mediterranean water it was actually
25:21
fairly warm. Um, but nevertheless, you know, it's quite chilling even, you know, if you're surrounded by 25°ree
25:28
water. Um, it still gets quite cold. Um, I was certainly glad to get out of the
25:35
the water on that dive. Yeah. And I guess one of those things that, you know, I think it's really
25:42
interesting because small numbers of people know about these kind of things, these kind of, but that was potentially
25:47
a really nasty absolutely. I you know I I I remember
25:53
thinking what can I do to mitigate I tried all sorts of things you know you're trying to sort of yank the thing
25:59
from outside your dry suit and nothing worked and um in in the end I I realized
26:08
that either I had to surface which I really did not want to do because it I' I'd have put myself at massive risk of
26:15
major decompression incident um or I had to um release it
26:23
some of the way. And that would involved opening my dry suit and and reaching in and and and getting getting it
26:29
disconnected. And that's what I did. And I remember I was diving with um Jacob
26:34
McKenzie and I I I wrote on a slate what I was going to do because I I sort of
26:40
needed both hands to deal with it and try not to think about buoyancy and
26:46
stuff like that. And so he was really good. He he went behind me, got hold of my rebreather so that I was basically
26:53
handsfree and I could reach in and do what I needed to do and get myself sorted out. Um and and that was great.
27:01
And and the only other thing I think the the it was really difficult climbing out of the water cuz obviously my suit was
27:08
completely full of water by then and you know a lot it has you know pounds and
27:13
pounds kilos and kilos of water in it. um when you're trying to climb up a ladder. There were no dive lifts on on
27:19
the boat in in Greece, so we had to come up a ladder. But I got there. I got I I
27:24
was able to get my knees up and then I could lean forward and all the water
27:30
drained out of the suit and then I was fine. Yeah. And uh you know I guess that how
27:36
long did it take you from that kind of from realizing you had a problem to accepting that the only way to deal with
27:43
it was to was to flood your dry suit? Yeah. I I I pro probably 20 minutes half
27:49
an hour cuz I you know I knew I I I was at that
27:55
when when you start using the p valve view you you sort of oh it's you know it
28:01
can often be a bit of a struggle to get it started. So to begin with it's not an issue. It then obviously became an issue
28:07
and from that that point on you start thinking about ways of getting around it. It's probably about half an hour. Um
28:14
you know I I would hate it. I I if I was in the UK and you had to do the same
28:20
thing um I think at this time of the year as long as you weren't having to do
28:26
it for longer than about an hour um I'd probably still do it. But, you know,
28:32
early season it would be a really hard call to know whether that's the right thing to do. But
28:39
hopefully that'll never happen again. And I know test it before you get in the water now,
28:45
don't you? I'm meticulous about testing it now before getting in the water. Yeah. Yeah.
28:50
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, this picture you can see that again the camera changes and I
28:57
changed the the Nikon Z6 which was a bit of a double-edged sword. It was it was new tech from Nikon and the sensor
29:06
performed really well as you can see. You know the these are pictures captured in very low light that have actually a
29:14
significant amount of detail. The the problem with that particular camera was that the focusing
29:20
left a little bit to be desired. Yeah, it was it was fine, but I I from the Brit Britannic trip in particular, I've
29:27
got a lot of images that that are out of focus and I'm I'm hoping at some I've
29:32
still got them and I'm hoping at some stage some tech will come out that will enable me to make them make them sharp.
29:40
You never know. But um yeah, I think there's an there's
29:45
I like this shot at at the bow. This is this is a the diver there is Scott Roberts who was the expedition organizer
29:54
uh for for Britannic. Uh particularly like this shot because you know that
29:59
anchor is you know it's it's iconic. It came from the West Midlands. It was it
30:05
was forged in the West Midlands, taken across the Irish Sea to Belfast and installed on uh on Britannic just the
30:13
same as the the anchors from Titanic and and Olympic.
30:18
So great color in that shot as well, I think. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I you know that and
30:24
it's that shot that sort of illustrates how good the the the cameras had got by
30:30
that stage when when when the focusing worked. But, uh, I I stuck with the, um,
30:36
the Z6 for a while. And, and you, you might remember this, this dive. Um, this
30:42
is, um, Fran on the U95. Uh, that was about 80 m, I think, wasn't
30:49
it? Uh, 70ome, I think. But, yeah. you know, you can um I've actually done a video of
30:56
uh of this dive uh of our um you know, you know, scrubbing the prop and
31:01
identifying the 95. Yeah. So, it's it's out there. Yeah. So, so I I was still using the the
31:08
Z6 on on this one. I'd sort of got to work out how it how well it w you know, what its strengths were. And I I've I've
31:17
got some video as well of the of the prop scrubbing of that which was taken on the Z6. Um, which uh which I I
31:24
thought worked worked pretty well. Um, yes. And that is Sorry, that that previous
31:29
photo is is an absolutely stunning photo, by the way. Yeah, it it ended up as a cover shot on
31:35
Scuba magazine actually, this one. It had been cropped into a vertical, but
31:42
um yeah, it was it was still a lovely shot. Amazing shot of a submarine
31:48
underwater. Yeah, I like I like the the reflection of the mask in in the uh the
31:55
light sort of adds something somehow. Yeah.
32:02
And then then I think I've got the first of several pictures of yourself. The v the victory. Um so the victory is
32:11
an amazing an amazing dive. It's it it's one of those dives that has so much and yet so
32:18
little at the same time. Um it has these cannons scattered on the seabed, but
32:24
otherwise it's basically just sand and a few bits and pieces, but it is just
32:30
quite amazing to go and visit this this place where you know that you know over
32:35
a thousand sailors lost their lives in a storm. uh as this wooden warship went to
32:42
the bottom with its uh cargo of cannons. Yeah, quite incredible. And I'm looking
32:47
forward to going back again actually. Yeah, me me too as well. I mean, so a
32:52
couple of things about Victory. I mean, first thing is that that photo won a uh won a prize, didn't it?
32:58
Yeah. Yeah. Um second thing with that photo is I've got a copy of it blown up that's
33:03
actually on the wall at my office. Um because it is it is it is a a wonderful
33:09
wonderful photo and really grateful to you for taking it.
33:14
Yeah, you you'll see. Yeah. So, yeah. Go, Rick. Sorry. I I was going to say
33:21
you can see I've changed cameras again to the Nikon Z9 and and all the
33:27
remaining pictures with with that camera um which is my current current camera
33:32
which it it addresses all the focusing issues that the uh the previous camera
33:39
uh had. And you know, I I I you know,
33:44
occasionally you you underwater cameras misfocus and it's usually because there's um say a bit of
33:51
plankton or something in the water that it decides it wants to focus on rather than the subject that you you're
33:57
actually looking at. But uh the the numbers of dud dud shots these days are
34:03
few and far between to be quite honest. Do you want to mention a bit about housings as well, Rick? Because I mean I
34:09
know I know obviously there's some particular challenges with housings, aren't there? Yeah. Yeah. So um
34:17
going back my my first Nikon was uh housed in a CNC housing, aluminium
34:24
housing. Um work worked worked well. It it I I actually had that one down to
34:29
it's only rated to 60 meters, but I had it down to 100 on one occasion. Um,
34:37
but when I when I changed it to the um the fix 10, the there was a new kid on
34:44
the block um called Nicam and um I a a
34:50
fellow photographer who I had known quite well. Alex Tatisil was the dealer in in the UK of Nordicam and and I
34:57
decided to jump ship to the Nordicam housings and I've I've basically stayed with them ever since. They're made in
35:06
Hong Kong, I think, but the the tech in them is absolutely phenomenal. They're
35:12
they're built incredibly robustly and I'm able to, you know, I I don't know
35:18
what mine would be worth if I slice on the open market because it's all scuffed, you know, flies around the the
35:25
the boat deck on rough days and it it it just soaks it all up. Um, it's
35:33
an amazing bit of kit basically and it and it and it sort of keeps me in in the game and uh uh I I've
35:40
Yeah, I mean you are you are certainly a lot less precious about your camera and your uh and your housing than than than
35:47
a lot of people I've I've seen, Rick. And well, they're tools. It it it it's
35:54
designed to do a job and it has to put up with the vagaries of of how we deal
35:59
deal with things. You know, I I you go on some boats, especially if you're overseas, and you the the crew will pass
36:06
people down their cameras. You know, I you I couldn't do that on on a on a boat
36:11
when we're jumping in on Rex in the English Channel. If I don't take my camera with me, it doesn't come. So, I've got to jump in with it. And uh they
36:18
they can handle it. they they've got all this sort of anti- leak tech in them which makes them much more watertight to
36:25
to sort of jumping in. So, uh I I think that's much less of an issue these days.
36:32
Uh the fact that it gets a bit battered is is just one of those hazards of of
36:38
doing this sort of diving. And for instance, I I will tend although I do
36:45
have some glass um ports which go on the front of the camera behind in front of
36:50
the the the camera lens um I I don't like to use them on the sort of diving
36:56
we do basically because if they get scratched they're toast. You have to throw them away and get another one.
37:02
Whereas with an acrylic port, if it gets scratched a bit, you can polish the scratch out and and live
37:08
live another day. And so I I tend to use acrylic ports for for technical diving.
37:14
If I'm in the tropics and and it's all a bit more calm and then I'll I'll get the
37:20
the glass port out. They're allegedly slightly better quality. Um optical quality, should I say, but uh yeah.
37:28
And what about depth ratings as well? So I mean I know So I when I when I was
37:35
doing Britannic, I knew it was going to be over 100 mters. And so when I got the
37:40
the housing for Britannic, um I specifically got a 150 m rated
37:48
housing. Uh, and what that means is you get uprated springs that work all the
37:54
controls because what you find is is that if you don't have the uprated
38:00
springs, you go to depth and the springs all push in because they can't oppose
38:05
the the pressure and things become nonfunctional on the housing. Um, when I
38:12
changed to the Nikon Z9, I thought, "Oh, I won't be doing much deep M stuff anymore.
38:19
That was a bit foolish." Um, but in actual fact, the Zed 9 didn't come in
38:24
150 m rated form and I had to go with a 100 meter rated rated housing. Uh, and I
38:31
have had one or two issues when I've been doing deep diving where I've not been able to control it properly. um
38:40
not a you I I can usually change things that involve turning something, but the
38:46
push buttons sometimes don't work. And um I I've had one or two situations
38:53
where it's got into an odd mode and I've not been able to swap it out until I've ascended. Um but it normally I I'd set
39:02
up the camera how I'm going to use it as I jump in and not much changes. to be
39:07
quite honest. So, uh yeah, I think one of the things probably to highlight to people um is you know what
39:14
we're talking about here is is you know doing a 100 odd meter dive of you know occasionally in some you know some
39:21
pretty challenging conditions. So as well as all the normal diving stuff that has to be done
39:27
on top in terms of monitoring kit and you know keeping live and all that kind of stuff on top of that you then put
39:34
this huge extra task load of managing technology the camera.
39:41
Yeah. Um and I think you people often don't you know when you
39:47
look at your photos you go oh that's a brilliant photo. what people don't appreciate I think anyway is is in order
39:53
to get that photo you have put this you know massive additional workload on yourself
39:58
um and and I I would say that I think you can only achieve that because you have such a um
40:06
you know history of both you know really deep diving and um you know taking
40:13
photos underwater and because of that you you both of those things come you know much easier to you than they might
40:18
do other people. Yeah. Yeah, possibly. I I think I I think I have a feeling that if if it if
40:26
things ever hit the fan, um I would be happy to jettison the camera. Um and I
40:33
and I I think um you have to have that mindset that the
40:40
camera is is is not that important. and
40:45
um you know if it if it got um into a real bad situation you you you'd just
40:51
get rid of it. Um but thankfully it's case earlier this year wasn't there of a
40:58
I believe a a female diver somewhere out in the tropics who chased her GoPro down
41:04
to 50 odd meters and come up again and Yeah. Yeah.
41:09
Um it's not you know if something like that happens it's it's it's not worth it. I I know. I I had a If you recall
41:16
last year on the uh on the Kingsbridge, I I so I I'd finished the dive and I was
41:21
going back and I was I I'd taken my camera off to do something else, came
41:27
back up to the shot line with my camera, forgotten that I'd not clipped it on and went to remove my strobe, dropped the
41:34
camera back to the seabed and had to go and chase it chase it and probably added an extra half an hour of decompression
41:41
at that time, which was a bit embarrassing for me as as much as
41:46
anything else. But but didn't crucially didn't put you
41:51
you know you weren't you curing extra eco but you were not that wasn't a lifethreatening situation.
41:56
That's right. Yeah. Other than the ribbing that you got on the boat. Absolutely. And having to buy pints all
42:02
around that evening.
42:08
So I guess where do we go from victory then on our um I I think we go to
42:15
Plymouth when it's when the conditions are good and yeah I I I I think James
42:22
always had a has a has a James Belooa skipper of seeker always
42:28
has a fond memory of of the St. Andre and we just had the most epic conditions
42:35
on that particular day in 2022. And it I've never seen anything like it.
42:42
Um I I I thought it was a one-off, but I have to say we have seen conditions as
42:48
good since then. Uh but when it happens, it is just phenomenal, isn't it?
42:53
Absolutely phenomenal. um to being to be able to see a site like that. You know that you can see a bit of silt um has
43:01
been kicked up, but that's only because people have been rooting around in the wreckage looking for stuff. Um just
43:08
incredible. So we got the you can see the engine. Sorry,
43:13
that's 75 m. 75 m. Yeah. And ambient light, nice and
43:19
clear. Lovely. So you you can you the diff the distance
43:26
between the the two outer divers must be you know 10 10 meters or so at least
43:32
consider you know a diver must be 2 mters across from head to to fin tip. So
43:40
uh yeah quite incredible and I think I'm the second one from the left in that photo but you are. Yes. Yeah.
43:48
The the other big thing in 2022 was was obviously this one which is a very
43:54
memorable dive for myself for first spotting the bell and you know you were
44:00
my buddy on that particular day and it was an inc it was an incredibly challenging and yet in incredibly
44:07
rewarding dive. Um quite very memorable. Very memorable indeed.
44:13
115 m, Rick. 115 meters. And thankfully the camera I
44:18
I was concerned a that the camera would flood. Uh and b that the camera would
44:24
would would not let me take pictures because buttons pushed in. But thankfully it it behaved itself and and
44:31
uh and took some lovely shots of of the bell and so on. Yeah, it was fantastic day that one. really great,
44:39
really good, great thing to be involved with that dive. And once again, another video of this on my on my channel for anybody who
44:45
wants to know more about the Yeah. the first dive, the discovery of the USS Jacob Jones.
44:50
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Then what else have we got? So, you you you put a a 1021 shot
44:57
in, so I thought I ought to as well. Uh you've just recently done a 1021 story.
45:02
Uh this this is the shot that um got third place in the British wide angle
45:09
category in underwater photography of the year a couple of years ago. And
45:14
yeah, I I I just loved it as a as a sort of wide, you know, view of a whole
45:21
shipwreck. Just incredible really. And I I I think what what I've learned more
45:28
than anything over the years is um identifying divers who are happy to pose
45:37
and who know what to do and get in the right place um to to to to make a nice
45:45
picture. and and you know this this guy does um and it's
45:54
it it makes such a difference. You you you you can you can sometimes
46:00
you sometimes know people would like to be in pictures but somehow when you take the picture it just just looks too too
46:07
posed. Um and although this is obviously posed it it just somehow looks right.
46:14
But, uh, amazing to see these these these U boatats underwater when when the viz is is so good.
46:23
And then I think we move on to the Negro. Um, which was again
46:30
another fantastic and I'm sure you've got you've got a a video of this one, have you? I have indeed. Yeah. And th this was
46:38
again a a fantastic um fantastic day. You can see it's it's you know despite
46:45
the the quality of the the latest sensors in in cameras there's there's
46:52
still not a lot of light down there and uh there's a lot of lot of darkness and
46:59
I think that's the thing that um I found anything weirdly you can go down
47:06
to about 80 m and still get reasonable ambient light but I've I've never had much below below 80 m. It's all or
47:13
certainly in this country anyway. Um it's always been rather dark as you can see there.
47:20
And then last year the Appalonia which was a a epic dive in absolutely
47:27
fantastic visibility. Um yeah which is
47:33
is is quite something. Yeah. I mean those two diesel engines like that are wonderful, aren't they?
47:40
Yeah. Yeah. Once again, actually, I've got a video of this dive and this dive. So,
47:45
yeah. So, so you might not you you've probably not This isn't the the usual picture. This is a new shot that you
47:52
won't have seen of the Hans Jensen. Um, obviously the the the one that um that I
47:58
I got a photo award for is a is a vertical shot and this is a a landscape
48:04
shot. And weirdly, I the more I look at this one, the more I actually like it better. It sort of shows shows a
48:12
slightly sort of wider view of of of the of the of the ship. I think you can see
48:17
more light inside the folks there which uh which is quite nice. So yeah know
48:23
lovely uh lovely shot and you know it it it it looks right with with you lighting
48:29
up the bow there. It's fantastic. I mean I guess 80 odd meters English
48:35
channel that kind of makes your point about the ambient light being there, doesn't it? Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. And
48:42
then we come come to this year. Um this is this is one of the gun or the gun on
48:47
the ruia which we we did early season, wasn't it? Sort of in April, I think. So it was pretty cold at at that time. But
48:55
um that was was again some good light on on the re is about 50 mters I think,
49:01
isn't it? Or maybe a bit less but uh around about 50. um
49:09
Brentonian earlier this year with your bell which ended up being given back to the Canadians. But fantastic to find it,
49:17
wasn't it? Absolutely fantastic. Uh to get a photo of it.
49:22
Yeah. Well, you you you can see also that sometimes you you can you can get an a a great photo that actually
49:31
it it it shows a moment in time. It does. It's not it's not a fantastically
49:36
composed image and there's loads of silt around but it it sort of shows the excitement of of finding something like
49:43
a bell. Um I was going to put in the picture of Will holding it but I I I
49:49
thought this one was would work better. That would certainly get my vote.
49:54
Obviously, Will Will I I punctured my dry glove while I was picking up the
49:59
bell and while I was while I was sorting out my dry glove, Will snuck in, grabbed the bell, got a load of photos.
50:06
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I have to say the ones will clearer. He he pulled the bell out of them out of the silty area, I think.
50:15
Yeah. Yeah. And then last weekend the the East Point which
50:22
um lovely wreck and I I've dived it in
50:27
better conditions than we had last weekend, but uh it's it's still a fantastic uh fantastic wreck. It was
50:36
well one of the this this is your with that torch you were trying out and I I don't it looks as though it was in the
50:42
mode of wide with a central beam at that point. I don't know. But um it's quite
50:48
bright that the brightness of it. I don't know whether you found it was
50:54
very much brighter than other things that you've been using. Yeah, I mean certain certainly certainly
51:01
seems to be um seems to be that way. I mean the it's up there with kind of some of the really really strong video lights
51:07
that occasionally Yeah. we use. So yeah, it is it's an incredible incredible thing.
51:12
Yeah. So, so the only thing I would say about it is that with it being that bright, it you do get sort of these high
51:20
spots on on it which get a bit burnt out. So, um when you're doing the
51:26
photography, it's probably better in the pure video mode rather than with the spot
51:31
for future use. Understood.
51:39
And then I'm going to talk a little bit about the the trip to Jutland which I've
51:45
I've just been on. Um for those that don't know the Battle of Jutland was the
51:51
the sort of major engagement between British and German forces in the First World War took place in the day and
51:59
overnight on the 31st of May 1916. Um there were more British ships than
52:06
German ships lost uh and ended up at the the bottom of the sea. Um but we had
52:14
many more in reserve whereas the Germans didn't. So ultimately we came out on top
52:20
and and the Germans having retreated to their home port never really came out
52:25
again in in the first world war. So we we had we were on Placina which
52:33
you will recognize well and this is in Tyberon Harour in in Denmark which is
52:40
where the expedition was was based. Um
52:45
I drove there. Probably it's probably worth making the point, isn't it, Rick, that that the Jutland that everybody
52:51
knows there's some huge battleships, huge ships out there, but it's really, really difficult to get to. And also
52:58
very, you know, well, you're going to tell us, I'm sure, about the weather. Yeah. Yeah.
53:03
But it's not dived very much because it's so difficult to get to, isn't it? It is. It is difficult to get to. So, um
53:10
the the I think the closest um wreck to
53:16
Tyberon is 75 miles away. And Placina
53:22
travels at about 9 knots or something like that. And so you only have to do the arithmetic to realize it takes a
53:28
long time to get there. Um you you have to be sure that the weather's going to behave itself. Um, so
53:37
this is what we were faced with. Uh, the little blue dot is Tyberon and um the
53:44
red bit. So sort of virtually due west of that
53:51
blue dot um is where we were diving. And
53:56
we were there for 2 weeks and obviously the we were all thinking we're
54:03
going to go out and we're going to die for 14 days continuously. In actual fact
54:08
we managed a single day where we left at sort of midnight, got on site at 8:00 in
54:16
the morning, dived and then had a second dive and then had to come come back because the weather was closing in
54:22
again. And then we went out for a four day spell where we're able to to dive
54:28
con, you know, two dives a day for four days. Um,
54:33
it was it was challenging. We, you know, we we were fighting the weather the whole time. And it it was it was it was
54:41
difficult and the problem was that when we got there, um, the visibility wasn't
54:48
very good either. So we we got we got onto the Rex and um this was our first
54:54
dive on HMS Defense. Um I've got a little bit of information about HMS
54:59
Defense. So Defense was built in 1907 uh in Pemrook in South Wales. Um and she
55:08
was actually a pre- dreadnaugh battle cruiser. So as she was launched she was
55:14
obsolete um because the dreadnots had come in and displaced the um the these
55:21
ones. So um the dreadnots tended to have turbine propulsion whereas defense had
55:29
triple expansion engines. Um, and I think she was just over about 14
55:37
12,000 tons. Um, HMS Defense. Um,
55:43
as you can see visibility wise, it was probably
55:48
6 m, something like that. Um, and that was probably the best visibility we got
55:54
on the whole trip, unfortunately. Um but what you can see is is a you know a
56:01
turret with the gun pointing out ready for action. Um this is from the other
56:07
side of it. Um and it it to be to see
56:13
these things in position was was just incredible. And I I was diving with Jen
56:19
Smith who who is here and she was on a mission. And if you remember on on the
56:26
Negro, we found the the foot plate of uh HMS Negro. She had had the same idea
56:34
that there was bound to be a foot plate on HMS Defense. And sure enough, we were
56:40
able to find it. And this is her using her wet nodes booklet to scrape the
56:46
encrustation off the the letters uh of of the foot plate. Um which you know
56:53
just incredible to see really. Uh something like that. So so memorable to see it and to find something like that
57:00
was a real a real treat. Yeah. And I guess people who don't know um Jen
57:06
Smith is actually a serving officer in the Royal Navy. So, you know, she I think it's fair to say she always feels
57:12
a real kindred with the kind of the people who lost who lost their lives on these kind of ships. And I think one of
57:19
the things about defense is my understanding is the entire crew got killed when it was sunk. Um and there was like 770 odd people on
57:27
it. So, you know, unbelievable, you know, lost life really. Yeah. Yeah. It it it's it's very
57:34
sobering when when you when you dive these ships to know that so many people have have lost their lives. There's some
57:41
amaz there's an amazing museum in Tyberon and also a big memorial park um
57:47
celebrating the the lives lost by on both sides in actual fact. Um
57:54
this is right at the stern of of defense and the admiral's walkway that uh that
58:00
sort of goes round around the stern which you could which you can see there. Um the there should be some
58:08
um some letters of defense defense there but uh we couldn't find any any trace of
58:15
them. Um but again you can see the the the poor quality visibility that we were
58:21
faced with but I say you know it it's it's a struggle to come back with
58:26
pictures that uh on in a situation like this but I was determined to do so and
58:32
and it was you have to sort of pull out all all stops to to sort of to get the
58:38
goods that uh you've not dived Jland before. Is that correct Rick? No, I've never dived
58:45
Jutland, so it it was all new to me. Um
58:50
I've I think you know Darren Hatton had had organized the trip and um he'd been
58:57
there before and had got some lovely shots in good visibility, especially on HMS Defense. Um but we weren't going to
59:05
have the same conditions, unfortunately. And it then, you know, it went it got
59:11
even worse. This is HMS Invincible. Um, so a battle cruiser. Um, you can
59:18
probably see the pink line which is the distance line from from the shot line to the wreck. Uh, and the visibility there
59:25
was probably less than 5 m. You can just about make out that there's
59:32
um the the twin turret 12in guns there
59:37
which were just incredible. And I I've got a whole series of shots around these and of the breaches and so on. But
59:44
again, Jen was on a mission. The um there'd been an expedition the previous
59:50
week to ours and they'd located a a space where the emergency steering gear
59:57
could be seen. And we managed to find that. And the the what what happened was
1:00:03
that Jen went in on the other side of the wreck to provide some light from the other side.
1:00:09
And I was able to light it from this side. Uh and we got this pretty incredible shot of the um the emergency
1:00:17
steering position in invincible. So I think there were six survivors and
1:00:24
a,026 lost on Invincible. It's just it, you know, it's and the stories of how these
1:00:33
these things went went up. They were magazine basically magazine explosions.
1:00:38
And um reading between the lines, the um
1:00:43
the British attitude to um explosive hygiene, if you like, was
1:00:50
pretty poor. and they'd have the magazine doors open underneath the
1:00:55
turrets and um obviously if a if a shell
1:01:00
hit sparks would get into the magazine and and the whole things would go up and and you know the the eyewitness reports
1:01:07
of the these ships disappearing in a matter of seconds. Um ju just
1:01:13
incredible. Yeah. I mean there's a f famous quote, isn't there? I'm not entirely sure who
1:01:18
it's by. Yeah. with from bey there's something wrong with our ships but it there was
1:01:23
nothing wrong with the ships what was wrong was the the the naval attitudes to
1:01:30
looking after the the vast quantities of explosive ordinance that that was stored
1:01:37
in them prior to use yeah this is this is
1:01:42
these days they talk Rick they talk about insensitive munitions
1:01:48
which is which is trying to capture the idea that munitions don't explode if if they you know if they get hot or
1:01:54
anything like that. I just love the idea of having you have sensitive munitions and you have insensitive munitions.
1:02:00
Yeah. Yeah. But I I think after Jutland they changed how things um worked and
1:02:07
they they had things a bit like safes in banks where you one you'd open a hatch
1:02:13
and a some the ordinance would come out but close behind it and and and then it
1:02:21
would you you you'd go back and and get the next one. So it everything changed
1:02:26
after Jotland because because of these these things that that happened. So this
1:02:31
this was a destroyer wreck which was was was a bit a bit special because we think we were the first team to to dive it.
1:02:38
Now obviously this is at the stern of HMS Shark um being a destroyer was much
1:02:45
smaller wreck but it was it was really nice to do it. Um
1:02:50
thought better better better social pictures of a of one of the German wrecks. This is a L. Um some German
1:02:59
munitions there um being being lit up. Um I I was diving with with Jen and also
1:03:06
another um diver called Claire Pratt who who both used GoPros in that same
1:03:13
configuration. So, uh, it it was really nice to have people to light things up for me, and that that's why it was
1:03:20
particularly good for me to to to dive with them.
1:03:25
And so, this is both Jen and Cla lighting up some some projectiles from
1:03:31
the Lutzo. Uh, I think the Lo probably had marginally better viz than than the
1:03:39
even the defense in actual fact. It was it was a super
1:03:44
great it's I guess a real pity for you guys to go out there
1:03:50
all the time in the event and then you know not to be rewarded with decent vids is really you know disappointing. I
1:03:57
guess it's the way it goes isn't it? It's it's one of the you you'd think in you know mid June all the plankton would be
1:04:04
finished and gone but it but it wasn't you the the frustrating thing was we jumped in and the first 20 to 25 m were
1:04:11
like jin and then it just closed in was sort of thermocline and it was all murky
1:04:16
below that at one of those things and this is all 50 m stuff isn't it I
1:04:22
guess it's all 50 m or thereabouts so yeah the this one's the inddehaticable which um
1:04:30
um ra rather embarrassingly myself, Jen, Claire and a Danish diver lost the shot
1:04:36
and we had to bag off and got a good ribbing afterwards.
1:04:44
It was it was one of those situations where the the the dive plan
1:04:50
was that you go down a shot line, come back to the shot line to go back up the shot to the deco station. But uh on on
1:04:58
this particular dive, we got disorientated and lost and uh we all four of us had to bag up separately.
1:05:06
Yeah. I mean I notic you did use a distance line on I think you you use a distance line on
1:05:12
Yeah. Most most of them you could there was there were enough navigational aids
1:05:19
to sort of help. Um, I think the inddehaticable is a bit of a scrapyard
1:05:25
and that's probably why we got a bit lost that we shouldn't have got lost to be quite honest. It it was um
1:05:33
just one of those things that that we did. Uh and and I think on Invincible the the problem was the shot line was a
1:05:40
little bit on the sand away from the wreck. Um so when we got down there we actually couldn't see the wreck at all
1:05:46
and had to do a little bit of a a a search to find it. Once we'd found it,
1:05:51
we then realized didn't really need a distance line if we if we just left the strobes on on the shot line. But uh um
1:05:59
because it was then easy to to to find your way around. And many of these wrecks have been
1:06:05
salvaged as well, haven't they? I think so. Yeah, they have. Um, so, um, I'm not
1:06:10
sure to to to what extent, um, they've been salvaged, but I know
1:06:16
some of them have have had sort of non-ferris stuff taken off them and and so on. But, um,
1:06:24
the once we'd found that uh, defense um, foot plate, there was obviously some
1:06:31
concern as to whether someone had come along and take that as a souvenir.
1:06:36
There's there's obviously such a good um museum in Tybron. It would if if it is
1:06:43
going to be lifted, it should go there really. But uh we'll have to see what see what happens. But for the for now,
1:06:49
as you know with Bob has a no artifact recovery policy on his boat. So uh we
1:06:54
weren't going to to to lift it.
1:07:00
Then I thought I'd put this one in. This was on the Queen Mary, which is another one that exploded and was lost in about
1:07:06
4 seconds with massive loss of life. Um, spotted this. You know, one of the
1:07:13
things about taking photographs on these, you know, the Vist doesn't look too bad there, but it was probably just as bad as anywhere else. But you you
1:07:21
sort of take pictures of details as well, and and this this is one of those. And the next shot sort of shows shows it
1:07:29
a bit close. And there's obviously some sort of uh scale or dial on that. Nobody had any idea what it was. Uh that's the
1:07:36
whole thing again. Um so if any of your viewers know what it is, it would it
1:07:43
would be good to to to know, but obviously it's some something of of importance from back in 1916, but uh we
1:07:52
don't know what it is. Yeah. And then we we did do another German
1:08:00
wreck, the frown lob. And this this this is actually uh Bob Anderson who was uh
1:08:07
diving on this trip. He he was not driving the boat. And this is the fire
1:08:12
control top on uh the frown lob uh which was an interesting thing to to come
1:08:20
across. And as as you again as you can see the visibility is just pretty shocking but
1:08:26
reminds me of Scapper actually. I'm pretty certain I've died spotting tops in Scapper in viz like that.
1:08:32
Yeah. Yeah. Very similar and and there's a real link between Scapper and
1:08:38
the Jutland Drex because a lot of them like Mark Grath and uh Crown Prince
1:08:44
William and were obviously in the line on on the German side and and they fought at Jutland. Uh but when you see
1:08:51
them in um Scapper, all the munitions have been removed. Um whereas here the
1:08:57
munitions are still still in in place. Uh I think these were ships in fighting
1:09:04
order, weren't they? This this was a proper battle and you know Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, I think this this is my last
1:09:10
slide, which is back to defense and Jen lighting up the the lettering on on that
1:09:15
foot plate, which uh yeah, it was a great great thing to see. Um shame we
1:09:21
didn't have better viz, but there you go. One of those things you um you you
1:09:26
have to accept what you're given and try and work with the conditions you've got. And I suppose that's the that's the
1:09:33
thing. when when when I when we jumped in at the weekend, we weren't to know
1:09:38
whether it was going to be cuz you I think you dived on Friday and had really gin clear viz and we were we were then
1:09:45
diving actually fairly close to that position, but we had much less viz, I think,
1:09:52
um than than you'd had the previous day um and a relatively, you know, small
1:09:58
distance away. But that, you know, it's just the way it is. And you have, you have to work with with the conditions
1:10:03
you've got. And uh there we go. That's
1:10:08
my trip to Jutland. Fantastic. Well, thanks a lot for thanks a lot for sharing that with us and
1:10:14
talking about it because, you know, it's somewhere I would love to dive Jutland. You know, it's it's kind of bucket list
1:10:20
stuff. I think it's it's one of those um locations that often because it is so difficult to get to,
1:10:26
people kind of forget about it or don't think about it, but um you know it would be you know I'm
1:10:32
really jealous of the fact that you got to go there. Hopefully I'll die. Hopefully I'll get better than you.
1:10:38
I I would I would seriously consider going again to be quite honest. I I I
1:10:44
think it's um it's it's relatively easy diving. It's,
1:10:49
you know, it's 50 m diving. It's so you you you know, you get best part of an hour on on the on the Rex
1:10:58
for about an hour's deco. Um, which which is which is a really good return compared to the 100 meter stuff anyway.
1:11:06
And it it would be great to go back in good visibility if I could guarantee that.
1:11:13
Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Well, um, you know, thanks a lot for thanks a lot for sharing with us.
1:11:19
I I didn't talk about much about photo photographic settings, but um that
1:11:26
that's the boring side. It's it's uh it's it's all fairly
1:11:31
you get away with what you can. High ISO is your friend on on wreck diving. And I
1:11:37
have to say there are um for the the people who might be a bit
1:11:43
sort of more interested in in the photography um I use D noiseis in Lightroom quite a bit
1:11:51
because if I'm shooting at 20,000 ISO, which almost certainly a lot of the shots you've just looked at will have
1:11:57
been shot at 20,000 ISO on the Z9, um they are noisy when they come out of
1:12:03
camera. You have to use D noiseis. And the other thing which um is something that materialized
1:12:10
late last year is a an add-on to Photoshop called back scatter
1:12:15
exterminator which um has been developed by Erin Quigley in
1:12:22
the states and just gets rid of horrendous bank scatter really well. Um,
1:12:30
I I've not got any before and after shots, but I could show you some which are absolutely amazing. It's it's it
1:12:37
works magic actually. So, if you're if you're doing wreck photograph because you know sometimes you have to add a bit
1:12:44
of bit of light and you get back scatter kicking up and if you can remove it, it
1:12:49
makes all the difference. So, yeah, that is that's uh you know, I'm sure
1:12:55
there'll be people who'll be interested in that. What I'll do is I'll get the details off you Rick and I'll put I'll put the details of that in the in the um
1:13:01
comment in the description for this video so people can know know where to get it. I'll tell you what I mean that's
1:13:07
that's awesome Rick you know to have a kind of journey through your diving career and a journey through your you
1:13:13
know photographs has has been absolutely amazing there. Yeah. I guess I'm gonna I'm gonna I didn't
1:13:19
warn you about this so I'm going to put you on the spot. I'm gonna I'm gonna say of all the photographs that you've
1:13:25
taken, which is which is your which is your favorite, do you reckon?
1:13:31
Um, I've probably got two actually. Well,
1:13:36
one is one is that shot of the anchor on Britannic. Um, and the other one is the Jacob Jones
1:13:43
bell. Ah, yeah. And and to be honest, they're both bangers. And I think they both got,
1:13:50
you know, they both have their own things really. Yeah. Yeah. You know, the the Jacob James Bell shot
1:13:57
is is a real de close in detail shot. Um whereas the the Britannic shot is a is a
1:14:05
a wide, you know, take taking the scene shot. Um they both both have their
1:14:10
merits. Yeah. And and I guess have special
1:14:16
significance to you. I mean, particularly the Jacob Jones bell because you obviously found it, didn't you? And
1:14:21
yeah, and and uh you know, for those who don't know, that bell has was lifted by the
1:14:27
Royal Navy and is um somewhere being preserved, I think, before you know, at some point we we very much hope it will
1:14:33
go on display in a museum somewhere. Yeah. Yeah. Um but yeah. Okay.
1:14:40
Brilliant. Yeah. Well, that's um that's been awesome. Thank you so much for your for your
1:14:45
time. No worries. And um yeah, I hope everybody listening,
1:14:51
I hope you've you've enjoyed this as always, you know, if you could like and comment and and subscribe and all those
1:14:58
kind of things. And you know, if you've got any questions or you want to say something, you know, stick them in the
1:15:03
comments and, you know, I'm sure Rick will be uh will be reading. I I'll keep an eye on the comments and if anyone has
1:15:09
any photographic questions that I can answer in the comments, I'll I'll do so.
1:15:16
So, that's awesome. Okay. Well, thank you very much, Rick. Thank you for listening and
1:15:21
Okay. Goodbye. Cheers then.
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