Up next in 10
Torpedoed on 22 Feb 1945 by a German submarine, the HMCS Trentonian was the last Corvette to be sunk in World War 2. Very sadly, 6 men from the Royal Canadian Navy/Royal Canadian Navy Volunteer Reserve (RCNVR) lost their lives, most to the initial impact.
The shipwreck of this WWII Canadian Navy Ship has been frequently dived since at least the early 2000s and local myth has it that the bell had been spotted but never recovered. Lots of divers have unsuccessfully tried to find it, including me - until this dive. Join me as I find the ship's bell and then return it to it's rightful owners.
*Dive Signs*
If you want stickers for your diving gear, like those you see on Rick and me, then they can be bought from the excellent DiveSigns.com website - https://www.divesigns.com/
*Highlights*
00:00 Introduction
03:50 Yarrow boilers
07:39 Depth charge!!!
10:00 Myth of the Bell
13:04 Room of bronze?
17:02 Room of bronze 2?
20:29 THE BELL!!!
24:00 Reflections
*Thanks*
Rick Ayrton for his stunning photos
Aidan Davies Webb for his photos of the handover
Show More Show Less View Video Transcript
0:00
this is the moment that I found the bell
0:02
off his majesty's Canadian ship
0:05
Trentonian A World War II corvette
0:07
torpedoed in February 1945 with the loss
0:11
of six lives And here just two weeks
0:14
later is me handing the bell back to its
0:17
rightful owner the Royal Canadian Navy
0:20
I'm unbelievably chuffed Not just
0:23
because I found the bell although that
0:25
is clearly amazing but also the fact
0:27
that it's heading back to Canada aboard
0:30
another Canadian warship And once it
0:32
gets there it's going to be displayed in
0:34
a museum to commemorate those who were
0:36
lost but also those who served And for
0:39
me that's pretty much a perfect end to
0:41
this story Now I'm going to give you the
0:43
full story as I always do in my videos
0:46
But before I start I want to talk about
0:48
war graves because I know there's people
0:50
out there who were thinking it's not
0:53
appropriate to take objects like this
0:55
bell from a wreck where people have died
0:58
I guess the first thing to say is that
1:00
the Trentonian is not protected So
1:03
legally it's entirely fine to take stuff
1:06
off the wreck Whether the Trentonian
1:08
should be protected is an entirely
1:10
separate issue And I know the Canadian
1:12
government has tried to go down that
1:14
route I think it takes an age for that
1:17
to happen So it hasn't gone through yet
1:19
although I you know I'm sure it probably
1:21
will in the relatively near future I was
1:24
a bit nervous when I met all those
1:25
Canadian officers because I felt that
1:28
they were going to be a bit upset that
1:30
we'd removed the bell from a shipwreck
1:33
where obviously members of the Canadian
1:36
Navy had died It was really interesting
1:38
therefore to kind of hear one of them
1:40
say to me says "Look what you did was
1:42
absolutely right In a short period of
1:45
time there is not going to be anything
1:47
left down there These things are just
1:49
decaying and falling and ultimately it
1:51
will become part of the seabed He said
1:53
it's much better to have that bell on
1:55
the surface in a museum where lots and
1:59
lots of people will be able to go and
2:00
see it and where the people who died and
2:02
served will be commemorated And you know
2:05
what that's spot on with my view as well
2:08
I know there's going to be people out
2:09
there who disagree with that view and
2:11
I'm sorry I guess if you feel that I
2:14
shouldn't have done it Um I hope you'll
2:17
feel that by handing it over to the
2:19
Canadian military as quickly as I could
2:21
and obviously report it to receiver of
2:23
wreck and all those kind of things and
2:25
therefore you know I hope that you
2:27
perhaps may feel that the end justifies
2:29
the means One of the things that I was
2:32
really touched by is that the Canadians
2:34
gave me this beautiful challenge coin
2:36
and it's something I'm going to treasure
2:38
forever It'll always for me be part of
2:40
this story They also said some
2:42
absolutely lovely words as well They
2:44
said that I'm part of the family and
2:47
that if I was ever in Canada I should
2:49
definitely come and you know come and
2:51
visit it and that they would keep me
2:54
informed of what was going on which was
2:56
just really really nice Anyway I look
3:00
forward to hearing your thoughts in the
3:01
comments I'd also just like to take this
3:03
moment as well to kind of flag up that
3:06
Rick has got a new sticker on the back
3:07
of his Breather You might see it there
3:10
That's from the excellent
3:12
divesigns.co.uk I've stuck their link in
3:14
the description They're great these uh
3:16
these stickers I've had them on my gear
3:18
for years and years So if you're looking
3:20
for something similar that's where you
3:21
can get it from Now as you can see we're
3:24
arriving at the bottom of the shot line
3:25
You can see there's some strobes and
3:27
stuff on there I've done something I
3:28
don't normally do which is I've cut this
3:30
video a bit so you haven't seen me
3:32
putting my strobes on You haven't seen
3:34
very much of the descent but what you
3:36
can see directly in front of me there is
3:40
a Yarrow boiler really prominent
3:42
Tranonian had two of them in an inverted
3:45
Vshape They were classically fitted to
3:48
these kind of small ships They managed
3:50
to produce a lot of power in quite a
3:52
small space They weren't very uh beamy
3:54
So they they allowed you to have
3:56
relatively small uh thin ships So that's
4:00
the Yarrow boiler And obviously just to
4:03
the stern of that would be the engine
4:06
And this is kind of the area I'm going
4:08
now You can see in front of me there is
4:10
actually the second yarrow boiler So I'm
4:13
I'm in that bit in between the the two
4:15
boilers After this yarrow boiler is
4:18
going to be the engine or would be the
4:20
engine except there's not really very
4:23
much of it left So the Trentonian was a
4:26
corvette Corvettes were relatively small
4:29
ships This one was about 60 m long 10 m
4:32
wide mainly used for escort duties There
4:36
is a really famous book about corvettes
4:38
called The Cruel Sea And if you haven't
4:40
read it I would really recommend it It
4:43
was the book upon which the Tom Hanks
4:46
film Greyhound was based Obviously
4:48
classic American They take a British
4:50
book and they make it all about them But
4:52
uh hey doesn't matter It's a great film
4:54
and it shows what life was like aboard
4:56
these kind of vessels and the kind of
4:58
tasks that they got used for So loads of
5:01
navies operated them doing a whole load
5:03
of dogs bodies type duties that the kind
5:05
of the bigger sexier ships weren't
5:08
interested in Now there's another great
5:10
film um that I would really encourage
5:12
people to watch and it's on YouTube It
5:16
is actually about the Trentonian It's
5:19
called Sons of the Waves Now I'll put a
5:21
link in the uh top right of your screen
5:24
I'm going to put a link in the
5:25
description as well And if you want to
5:26
know more about the Trentonian I would
5:28
really really recommend going and having
5:31
a look at that It's um it's got some
5:33
kind of interviews and it's got some
5:35
actors playing different people on board
5:36
it Now here I am right at the stern and
5:40
one of the things I want to show you is
5:41
what's directly in front of me there
5:43
That is actually a fire extinguisher and
5:46
you can see it's kind of uh exploded So
5:49
I'm going to turn it over in a bit I
5:51
think Now I have no idea what caused
5:53
that fire extinguisher to explode
5:55
whether it was um something to do with
5:58
the explosion perhaps whether it was
6:01
heat Uh who knows uh I've seen this fire
6:03
extinguisher before so so I know it's
6:05
here And this is kind of the last big
6:08
bit of the stern of the ship I think
6:10
this is part of the engine actually This
6:12
bit just in front of me and to the right
6:14
Uh you can see over here there is a
6:16
mangled port hole and a whole load of
6:18
pipes Don't know what those are for
6:21
Don't know what happened to that port
6:22
hole but once again I've I've seen this
6:24
port hole before so I I I know it's here
6:27
Um and this is the as I say the stern
6:29
area of the ship You can see in front of
6:31
me there somebody else has come over to
6:32
have a look at it I guess one of the
6:34
questions you might have uh asked is
6:36
"How come I know that the uh the fire
6:38
extinguisher is there how come I know
6:39
the port hole was there?" Well this is
6:41
actually my third dive on the Trentonian
6:44
and um so I actually know my way around
6:46
it quite well because it is quite a
6:48
small wreck And it's one of those things
6:51
I wouldn't actually have been
6:52
desperately keen to come back here but
6:54
some other people on the boat hadn't
6:55
dived it so they quite fancied it So
6:57
anyway here we are Obviously I'm really
6:59
really pleased that I uh I did come back
7:01
here So probably worth covering what
7:04
happened to the Trentonian The
7:05
Trentonian was doing was escorting a
7:07
convoy in February 1945 and another ship
7:10
the Alexander Kennedy got torpedoed by
7:13
the U104
7:15
The Trentonian it was in fog heavy fog
7:18
supposedly The Trentonian went over to
7:20
try and offer support either to find the
7:22
submarine or to rescue survivors or
7:24
whatever Then it itself got torpedoed
7:27
and it got hit in the stern So So this
7:29
area where I am here bearing in mind
7:31
it's a small vessel Torpedoes on
7:34
submarines were were designed to sink
7:36
much much bigger ships than this So it
7:38
absolutely smashed up the back The
7:42
tronium went down pretty quickly and
7:45
although most of the people on board got
7:47
off Now I'm just going to come back to
7:48
that a second because this is really
7:50
interesting in front of me here This I
7:52
am pretty convinced is a bit of a depth
7:55
charge That white stuff inside it is the
7:58
actual explosive You can see the casing
8:00
around the outside You can see a bit of
8:02
the fusing mechanism or whatever in the
8:04
kind of top left as we're looking at it
8:06
So um yeah probably don't want to be
8:08
hitting that probably don't want to be
8:10
bringing it back up I have seen other
8:12
depth charges on the Trentonian not not
8:14
broken open like that one but there's
8:16
definitely still munitions because of
8:17
course this was a warship It was at war
8:20
It was escorting And if it had seen the
8:22
submarine before the submarine saw it
8:24
you can absolutely guarantee that it
8:27
would have um would have attacked it
8:28
because uh that was its job And if
8:30
you've seen as I've already mentioned
8:32
the film Greyhound with Tom Hanks in it
8:34
and everything you can see uh I'm not
8:36
sure how realistic that is but you can
8:38
see the kind of um sort of ways that
8:41
they would try and uh and sync things So
8:43
so this is right in the stern area here
8:46
and you can see there's not much There
8:48
are no props for instance There's that
8:50
depth charge again I've just just kind
8:52
of come back up on it You can see in
8:53
front of me there there's some uh brass
8:55
uh wheels just in the front right hand
8:57
side Th this wreck is absolutely covered
9:00
in brass despite the fact it's been
9:02
dived quite a lot and but this and this
9:05
one is is relatively close to the shore
9:07
So despite that it's still got loads and
9:09
loads of stuff on it So this is me
9:12
probably coming onto uh the port side I
9:15
have no idea what that thing is there
9:16
That might be part of the drive shaft or
9:19
something I think the flashing of the
9:20
torch there is me trying to indicate to
9:22
Rick that you should come over and take
9:24
a photo of that depth of charge clearly
9:26
uh doesn't work But anyway uh there it
9:29
is He he didn't see it I I showed him
9:31
the video afterwards and uh I think he
9:34
would have quite liked to see it So this
9:35
is me now coming up on on the port side
9:38
And if anything the Trentonian is
9:40
slightly lying on its port side on the
9:42
seabed As you can see though it's it's
9:44
really bad badly broken It's it smashed
9:46
to bits When it sunk it actually sunk
9:49
stern first I think the bow took a um
9:52
you know was sticking up in the air It
9:53
went down So presumably the stern would
9:55
have smashed in already badly damaged
9:57
would have put a whole load of shock
9:59
through the uh through the through the
10:01
ship and and then obviously it's had 80
10:03
years of decay 80 years of t 80 years of
10:06
tides and currents and everything and 80
10:09
years of people ditching big blue
10:11
plastic bags on it And the other thing
10:14
you will see on this wreck is actually
10:16
quite a lot of netting quite a lot of
10:17
fishing line It's really close into uh
10:20
places like Falmouth and also Foy which
10:23
and Plymouth which are you know fishing
10:25
ports So and it's quite close in shore
10:27
as well So now I guess before I go any
10:31
further I just want to tell you about
10:32
the myth of the bell So everybody who's
10:36
dived the Trentonian has been told by
10:38
their skipper or other people or
10:40
whatever that the bell is still on the
10:42
Tonian And not only is the bell on the
10:45
Tranonia but it was seen by one of the
10:47
very first people to dive it And whoever
10:50
dived it saw the bell for whatever
10:52
reason they couldn't get it And when
10:54
they went back down again to dive it
10:56
again they couldn't find it again So
10:58
there's been this myth that the bell is
11:00
on the Tonian And we've all you know
11:03
those of us who've done it a few times
11:04
have kind of gone "Yeah yeah yeah If it
11:06
is still on it it's buried under a load
11:08
of plate or buried in the mud or
11:10
something like that." So I never in my
11:13
wildest dreams believed that I would
11:15
actually find it So it's a really uh
11:19
nice thing I guess You know sometimes
11:21
myths are true sometimes urban legends
11:23
are accurate and it would appear to be
11:27
the case for the Trentonian Now
11:29
obviously nobody's ever going to get
11:30
told that story again but it was true
11:33
for one diver and that diver was me So
11:37
one of the things you've probably seen
11:38
as I've been swimming around is how much
11:40
cable there is on this wreck It's one of
11:42
the big differences between First World
11:44
War and Second World War vessels is the
11:47
fact that clearly in between the wars
11:48
they decided to electrify everything And
11:51
if you dive a ship like this and you see
11:53
this amount of electrical cables it's
11:55
almost a guarantee that is a Second
11:57
World War or later or later vessel So
12:00
really useful We dive a dived a wreck
12:03
not too far away from here and we
12:04
weren't certain what era it was until we
12:06
saw our first printed circuit board and
12:08
we're like okay yeah that's clearly
12:10
relatively modern So as you can see here
12:13
just coming over the the top of a bit of
12:15
wreckage there and there's what looks
12:16
like some big steam pipes down there So
12:18
this must be in and around the boiler
12:20
area or or the engine area Rick has
12:23
obviously found something to take some
12:24
pictures of down there Don't know what
12:25
it is I am going to slip past him and
12:29
carry on moving forward And the reason
12:30
I'm moving forward is because one of the
12:32
most interesting bits of this wreck is
12:35
near the front And it is what what can
12:37
only be described as a room made of
12:40
bronze It is non-ferris material of
12:43
something And it's really interesting
12:45
because one of the other wrecks that
12:46
I've dived of this kind of era is the
12:49
Eskale Bit bigger than this But the
12:51
Eskale also has a room made of of bronze
12:55
or some sort of non-ferris material The
12:58
only thing I can think is this must be
13:00
something to do with the um the compass
13:04
and actually I've had a look at the
13:05
plans for the Trentonian and there is
13:08
right buried in the bowels about where
13:10
this room should be is something that
13:12
says compass room or gyro room So I
13:15
don't know for certain whether that's
13:16
what it is but if there's anyone out
13:17
there who knows a lot about these kind
13:19
of ships and you could tell me why you
13:21
would have an entirely non-ferris room
13:23
on there I would absolutely love to know
13:26
and to to know a bit more about it So
13:28
please uh you know let us know in the
13:30
comments That would be absolutely
13:32
brilliant So as you can see the
13:34
visibility is actually pretty decent on
13:36
this dive I don't know what number it is
13:38
but you know certainly 6 7 8 m
13:41
visibility Quite dark as you can see but
13:45
if you got a decent torch you can look
13:47
out you can see quite a long way So once
13:49
again I've I've no idea what bit of the
13:51
ship is but it's sort of getting to be
13:53
just forward of the boilers So you know
13:56
I guess we're starting into part of
13:58
accommodation you know the bridge area
14:00
Those would all be forward of the funnel
14:02
You can see there's there's more divers
14:04
here And this is because this is the
14:06
most interesting part of the wreck and
14:08
is uh you know why I why I'm coming here
14:12
You may ask why I went to the stern
14:13
first if if the bit here and and the bit
14:15
near the bow is more interesting Well I
14:17
guess the main reason I wanted to do
14:20
that was to to go and see that fire
14:22
extinguisher believe it or not I I just
14:25
think it's a lovely kind of poignant
14:28
reminder of what happened to this wreck
14:30
So I do like to see it I do like to
14:31
check it's uh it's in that area and it
14:34
and it hasn't moved You probably saw
14:36
right at the beginning of this video I
14:37
had a photo of it the other way up You
14:39
can see there it's when I when I saw it
14:41
earlier on it was back the other way So
14:44
clearly um you know like all these
14:46
wrecks stuff moves stuff changes I don't
14:49
know what what did that whether it was
14:51
just current or whether it was somebody
14:53
you know another diver maybe moving it
14:55
around whether it was like a fishing net
14:56
Obviously there's a big ton of fishing
14:58
net in front of me here And you know
14:59
once again this stuff all moves around
15:01
in with the current and with the tides
15:03
and everything So uh who knows but it's
15:07
really important I think that people
15:08
understand that shipwrecks are not
15:10
static things They are constantly
15:13
changing And when I say constantly
15:15
changing what they're really doing is
15:17
constantly degrading That's an
15:18
interesting little thing I've seen down
15:20
there It's clearly non-ferris So uh I'm
15:23
just taking a bit of video of it And
15:25
that looks like some sort of box of
15:27
electrics perhaps Um who knows so going
15:31
back to the Trentonian service history
15:34
So once it came over to uh the UK it was
15:38
doing a whole load of different tasks
15:39
I've already mentioned one of the things
15:41
it got asked to do was to escort a cable
15:45
laying ship over to Normandy in the
15:47
aftermath of the invasion So this was
15:49
the 13th of June 1944 only about a week
15:53
after we'd gone ashore and an American
15:56
ship saw it and it got shelled in error
16:01
Fortunately um the Trantonian wasn't hit
16:03
but the the ship it was with was called
16:05
the Monach and the Monach did get hit
16:08
several times and I think um there was
16:10
quite a few casualties So coming back
16:12
onto the Trentonian here you can see you
16:15
know once again there is just a mass of
16:16
cables some sort of um brass uh thing
16:21
there which is you know a cable junction
16:24
box perhaps So you know this I guess
16:27
would have been in and around the bridge
16:29
area maybe the radio room or or
16:31
something like that where you would need
16:32
all of these all of these cables So this
16:35
is we're getting close I think to the
16:37
perhaps command center of the ship I
16:40
think it's probably worth mentioning
16:41
what sort of armaments the Trentonian
16:43
had Well it was it was because it was a
16:46
jack of all trades It had all sorts of
16:48
different bits and pieces It had a 4-in
16:50
gun It had uh hedgehog um anti-ubmarine
16:53
mortar which kind of fired these things
16:56
forward It had depth charges at the rear
16:58
and obviously had a fairly significant
17:00
anti-aircraft capability Unfortunately
17:03
none of that actually uh helped it in
17:05
this circumstance Uh now as you can see
17:07
here there's a there's a there's a big
17:09
net You see there's loads and loads of
17:10
netting But then just in front of me on
17:12
the right hand side is this room that
17:13
I've mentioned earlier So this room is
17:15
is non-ferris Um if it was iron or steel
17:19
it would this this room just wouldn't
17:21
look like this anymore I haven't
17:23
scratched it but you can see that it's
17:25
really clean around the edges And that's
17:27
a really good indication that's what it
17:29
is You can also see that there's all
17:31
sorts of interesting bits and pieces
17:32
There's some sort of box junction box up
17:34
on the top there And also on the left
17:36
hand side you can see I'm looking in
17:37
there There's a lobster just hiding
17:39
There's that plate in there You know if
17:41
I'm honest I would love to uh I'd love
17:43
to be able to get that plate but I can't
17:45
I can't get inside it Who knows what
17:47
that is it might be the maker's plate
17:48
Could just be another junction box like
17:50
that one that I've I've seen already But
17:52
it's uh it's pretty big and clearly
17:54
brass or or copper or something like
17:56
that But anyway there we go You see
17:58
there's a load more pipes and cables and
18:00
junction boxes There's there's some sort
18:02
of uh I don't know what that is
18:03
Ventilation system perhaps Um way of
18:06
letting water in and out Who knows uh
18:08
what it is Up on the top there that
18:10
looks to me like a a compass gimbal The
18:13
thing that's just um you know up from
18:15
the hatch Don't know but last time I
18:18
dived it that was kind of nearly hanging
18:20
off the edge of this So it's either
18:21
someone's either moved it up back in
18:23
there or it's been pulled up by you know
18:25
possibly some of these ropes around or
18:27
something like that But that has moved I
18:29
would say by a meter that thing Um it
18:32
wasn't me honest So um what else have we
18:36
got you can see just the top of this
18:38
this room here It's a really distinct
18:40
room It is is covered in all sorts of
18:43
nets and all sorts of bits of debris as
18:46
well Now if you look just in the middle
18:47
there I've just spotted something else
18:49
There's a a couple of brass things there
18:52
There's there's a thing to the right
18:53
which I don't have no idea what that is
18:55
And there's also a a window there as
18:57
well You can see I'm just going to pull
18:59
that out and I'm going to sit it on the
19:00
top Um so that you know it's not kind of
19:05
buried under nets and bits of plate and
19:07
all that kind of stuff Um this is what I
19:09
like to do cuz it it makes things a bit
19:11
more interesting So that broken port
19:13
hole that we store saw at the stern for
19:14
instance that was another one that I
19:16
pulled out on another dive and I just
19:17
left it on the top there And it's I
19:19
think it's quite interesting for other
19:20
divers to see things as they um they go
19:23
past Um obviously the instant you touch
19:26
anything on a wreck like this it just
19:28
comes up like you can see here with it's
19:31
really really silty But there you go I
19:33
brought that out Put it on the top there
19:34
And you can see that the glass is broken
19:36
I don't know whether that is something
19:38
that was caused during the the sinking
19:41
whether that's happened afterwards I
19:44
don't know But clearly to smash through
19:45
port hole glass like that takes quite a
19:48
lot of force Having said that we are at
19:50
65 m down here So um that's kind of 7
19:53
and 1 half bars pressure So that's
19:55
that's pretty significant But I can't
19:57
imagine that's what's broken it I I
19:59
would have thought it's it's something
20:00
else Right So here I am on the top And
20:03
I've always felt that if the bell was
20:05
anywhere this is where the bell would be
20:08
It kind of makes sense It's in and
20:09
around the bridge area all those kind of
20:11
things There's other bits and pieces
20:12
like that compass gimbal all that sort
20:14
of stuff But I'm not really looking for
20:15
the bell I am just swimming around and
20:18
having a bit of a look And in a moment
20:22
um I am going to see it And it's
20:25
incredible frankly not only that I've
20:27
not seen it before but also that nobody
20:30
else has seen it because it is there
20:32
just in the middle of the screen on the
20:33
bottom If you look in you can uh you can
20:36
actually see it really really well
20:38
Amazed that I hadn't seen it but I
20:40
didn't see the bell What I saw was a bit
20:42
of a rim So I've just switched my power
20:45
lens here and you're not going to get
20:48
any more GoPro video So it's all you're
20:50
going to see is a power lens And
20:52
unfortunately I don't have very much of
20:53
that either So one of my parallel it was
20:56
a bit of a nightmare One of my power
20:58
lenses doesn't work And this one the
21:00
battery is going to die relatively
21:02
shortly So it's a bit of a pity that
21:04
this video ends up getting cut shortly
21:06
after this But the important bit as far
21:08
as I'm concerned is I have got the bell
21:11
and I'm going to pull the bell out As
21:12
you can see there the viz just gets
21:16
absolutely horrendous because I am
21:18
wrestling with this thing I've put my
21:20
hand on it I've run my hand around the
21:22
ring and I felt the uh I felt it's a
21:25
bell and then as you can see here I'm
21:27
going to pull it out and the viz has
21:30
completely vanished in a cloud of of
21:32
black nastiness You can just about see
21:33
my gloves heaving away or something
21:36
there trying to get it
21:38
out So I've got the video just because
21:41
you don't want to see a load of uh video
21:43
of of of blackness But you can see there
21:45
there's another diver I've uh encouraged
21:47
him to come over and have a look at it
21:49
because obviously my heart rate is going
21:51
at an absolute rate of knots and I'm
21:53
really keen to show him what I found I'm
21:55
obviously so so excited Um and uh he's
21:59
uh yeah he's probably going "Yeah
22:00
brilliant Dom You've got a whole load of
22:02
uh whole load of silt and stuff there."
22:04
But no he can he can see what's in there
22:06
And what you're going to find is that
22:08
something like this happens a whole load
22:09
of other divers come over as well So
22:11
Rick is going to turn up in a minute and
22:13
uh and Will and various other people
22:15
They're all going to come over and want
22:16
to uh see what I found And there you can
22:19
see what I found is a whole load of silt
22:21
with a bell in it And and there we go
22:24
Rick is Rick is on hand which is
22:26
fantastic because you know what you
22:29
really want is is is a record of this
22:31
moment and that is what he's going to
22:33
he's going to provide for me
22:35
So yeah I am just uh really really
22:39
chuffed What I'm much less chuffed about
22:42
is the fact that my paral lens battery
22:44
is about to die and therefore I lose any
22:47
record of the last bit of the dive So
22:49
all I've got really is the photos that
22:51
that Rick takes and uh you're going to
22:54
see those in a minute cuz they're
22:55
absolutely wonderful But unfortunately
22:59
um I don't have a full record of the
23:01
dive My GoPro is busy videoing the
23:03
seabed In fact I I I don't know that my
23:06
paral lens has died and I turn it off
23:08
anyway So um yeah slightly poetically it
23:12
just gets my clenched fist then it dies
23:15
And then all we've got is these
23:16
brilliant photos from Rick And you can
23:18
see that one I absolutely love it You
23:20
know me and the bell Another one there
23:22
with me and my bell Obviously my
23:23
trademark signature yellow gloves which
23:26
is uh there's no doubt whatsoever it is
23:29
me He also got a load of other ones as
23:31
well So before he came over and took the
23:33
bell ones he got a photo of uh of three
23:35
of us there trying to uh trying to get
23:37
it out Paul on the right Will on the
23:39
left me in the middle there And this is
23:41
a cracking photo Unfortunately it's of
23:44
Will rather than me but hey it does show
23:47
I think it shows you know how awesome it
23:50
was And then the last photo we've got is
23:53
this is me arriving at the surface with
23:56
the bell in hand and obviously a massive
23:58
smile on my face
24:00
So dumb Um beautiful day up here So how
24:04
was your dive
24:06
so my dive was freaking amazing It's not
24:10
often that this happens You recover a
24:13
bell off a World War II warship
24:17
and Yeah So absolutely brilliant So how
24:21
are you feeling right now yeah Yeah I
24:25
think Yeah Tell us this has got to go up
24:28
there with one of my best dives I think
24:30
Tell us about your dive itself So the
24:33
dive pretty standard We all know the
24:35
story of the bell of the Trentonian
24:39
and I never really believed it was true
24:42
until today I found it exactly where it
24:45
was supposed to be So absolutely
24:47
incredible So what's going to happen now
24:50
so this bell is going to go back to the
24:54
Canadians and I'm hope really hopeful
24:56
that the Canadians are going to put it
24:57
in a museum Five guys died at the
25:00
Trenton and I think it's really
25:02
important that we don't forget that So
25:04
what are you over the next couple of
25:06
days going to do with this bell i'm
25:08
going to take it home and put it in my
25:10
bed and I'm going to sleep with it
25:13
And how's your wife going to feel about
25:14
that i don't know She'll be somewhere
25:16
else
25:18
So what do you have to do six guys died
25:22
What was that six guys died One officer
25:24
five sailor I don't have You can edit
25:27
this So um what's so important about
25:30
this ship so the Trentonian was the last
25:34
corvette to be sunk in the Second World
25:36
War Corvettes really important class of
25:39
ship They were used for all sorts of
25:41
things escorting convoys anti-ubmarine
25:44
activities and they were kind of like
25:46
the workh horses of the navies
25:51
What do you have to do in the next
25:53
couple of days because you've uh lifted
25:55
and recovered this bell so the receiver
25:58
of wreck is going to get a message from
26:00
me telling me telling him that I found
26:03
this bell and that I want his support in
26:05
getting it back to the Canadian
26:06
government So does that mean we're going
26:08
to have a party with the Canadians well
26:11
the Canadians do know how to throw a
26:12
party That is definitely true So but I
26:15
think they're probably not going to do
26:17
that for this I think they're going to
26:19
uh do the right thing which is to have a
26:21
proper commemoration and remember the
26:23
people who died on that ship
26:26
Anyway I hope you won't judge me too
26:28
harshly It was an absolutely epic dive
26:31
It was a great experience And you know I
26:35
think I've done the right thing Anyway I
26:37
hope you've enjoyed this video As always
26:40
I'd love it if you could leave me a like
26:42
if you could drop us a comment uh if you
26:44
could subscribe all that kind of stuff
26:46
And I look forward to seeing you on my
26:48
next adventure
#Diving & Underwater Activities