Up next in 10
Looking at the bow of the HMHS Britannic at 100 metres, I reached out towards the same railings Jack and Rose held on Titanic.
In this dive I take you from Britannic's bow — where identical railings to her famous sister ship still stand — through the forward mast and crow's nest, and onto the bridge itself. The telegraphs are still there. The helm is still there. And the crack that tore open when 48,158 tons of steel hit the seabed? That's there too.
This is the second dive of my Britannic expedition and we're visiting the forward section. The bridge of the Britannic sits on the starboard side Everything is intact. Everything is encrusted. And the scale is genuinely impossible to overstate.
I also cover the decompression system Kia Divers use in the middle of a busy shipping channel — and why it's unlike anything I've done in UK waters — the rebreather and bailout configuration for a 97m dive in the Aegean.
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*CHAPTERS*
00:00:00 — Titanic Scene… on Britannic
00:06:14 — CCR & Bailout Strategy
00:10:29 — First Sight of Britannic
00:15:13 — Inside the Bridge: Giant Telegraphs
00:21:11 — The Crack & Lost Artifacts
00:26:25 — Deco System in a Shipping Lane
00:30:03 — Mid-Water Logistics
00:34:09 — Final Deco & Surfacing
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*ABOUT THIS CHANNEL*
Deep Wreck Diver explores shipwrecks, submarines, and sunken aircraft from around the world - combining technical diving with detailed wreck identification and historical storytelling. Every dive uncovers a piece of history lost to the depths.
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0:00
We've all seen Titanic. And perhaps the
0:03
most iconic moment from that entire
0:06
iconic film is when Jack and Rose lean
0:09
over the bow railings facing directly
0:12
into the wind. Well, these are the same
0:16
railings, but on Titanic's sister ship,
0:19
Britannic.
0:21
It's nearly 100 m down in the pitch
0:24
black of the AGNC. But but for this
0:27
moment when I saw those railings for the
0:30
first time, I felt as though I was on
0:34
Titanic.
0:35
It didn't stop there, though. For our
0:37
second dive, we also visited the forward
0:40
mast, saw the crow's nest from which the
0:43
bell fell. First spotted in 2019
0:47
by the late Joe Maserani. It was
0:50
recovered last year by Richie Coler and
0:53
team. From there we moved to the bridge.
0:56
Saw the incredible telegraphs that would
0:59
have commanded the engines and also the
1:02
helm. Next was the crack that was
1:05
created when the bow of Britannic hit
1:08
the seabed. At that point, the stern was
1:11
still out of the water, which just gives
1:14
an incredible sense of the scale of this
1:17
vessel. Finishing up, we saw the lamp
1:20
locker. One of them has been moved
1:22
outside. It's incredible artifact and a
1:25
and a brilliant link with the past with
1:29
the people who served upon Britannic and
1:31
also for me provides that direct link to
1:35
the most iconic shipwreck of all the
1:38
Titanic. Now, of course, no one's ever
1:41
going to dive Titanic. It's so deep that
1:44
you need a submarine to get down there.
1:47
Britannic, on the other hand, that's
1:49
much more achievable. It's also bigger
1:51
than Titanic a little bit. If you want
1:54
to dive it, you need to go to the
1:57
beautiful island of Kia in Greece. Then
2:00
it's about a 20minute rib journey out
2:02
onto the site. Kia divers who were using
2:05
for this trip operate a two boat system.
2:08
You can probably see one of them is in
2:10
front of us there. That's arrived on
2:12
site, got the shot in. And then here,
2:15
here we are. This is a dive team. Only
2:18
three of us diving today. Henry on the
2:21
right, George on the left. We're super
2:24
excited. This is our second dive on the
2:27
wreck. The first one was an absolute
2:29
banger. So, we have super high
2:32
expectations for this. And here we are
2:35
on site. There's the other boat. There's
2:37
a shot line. And it's time to get ready.
2:41
>> 3 2 1 go.
2:46
Only a short amount of faf later. Henry
2:49
and myself get in the water. George is
2:51
already in. You'll see in a second that
2:54
he's waiting for us on the shot line.
2:56
And the reason we do that is is there
2:58
really isn't enough room in the boat for
3:00
three divers to get kitted up at once or
3:02
not without uh a bit of hassle. So, it's
3:05
just easier to kit up one or two divers
3:08
at a time. And as you can see there,
3:10
it's really easy for divers just to sit
3:12
on the shot line and wait for the rest
3:14
of the team to come in. If you've seen
3:17
my other video, and you know, if you
3:19
haven't, why not? Frankly, you'll have
3:21
seen that there was two divers on that
3:23
waiting for us. You'll also have heard
3:25
me talk about how important it is for us
3:28
to stick together as a team. There's
3:30
loads of reasons for doing that. The
3:32
first is that our bailout procedure
3:35
involved using each other's gas. So we
3:37
were operating a team bailout system.
3:40
And the other thing is that is part of
3:42
the protocols for doing this dive. So
3:44
it's what the Greek authorities, it's
3:47
what KIA divers expect. And that's
3:49
something that came out of a very sad
3:51
incident several years ago where there
3:53
were two fatalities. On the back of
3:56
that, there was a whole load of lessons
3:57
learned, a whole load of different
3:59
procedures adopted. And one of them is
4:01
that when you dive in this, you need to
4:04
be guided. And that's George. He's a
4:06
gentleman in the orange, well maybe red
4:09
dry suit. He's our guide. He has done
4:12
Britannic a vast number of times. I
4:15
think for the last 10 or so years, most
4:17
of the people who've dived the Britannic
4:19
have have dived with him. You can see
4:22
there he's making sure that everyone's
4:24
all okay and then giving us a sign. It's
4:27
time to go down. And we know, we've
4:30
talked about beforehand during our
4:32
briefing that we what we're going to do.
4:35
We know we're going to go to the bow. We
4:36
know we're going to go to the bridge. We
4:38
know that we are going to go through
4:40
that crack, which is pretty much a very
4:44
different form of diving to what I
4:46
normally do. You'll have seen on many of
4:48
my other videos that I arrive on wrecks
4:50
with no idea where we're going to land,
4:52
no idea what we're going to do. So, in
4:54
some ways, this is really nice in the
4:56
sense that we almost have an itinerary.
5:00
also means there isn't that element of
5:02
uncertainty or risk that there often is
5:05
during my dives. You might say, "But
5:08
what about the excitement? What about
5:10
the not knowing until you get on the
5:12
wreck?" Well, you do know that this is a
5:14
Britannic, don't you? So, this is one of
5:16
the most iconic wrecks in existence.
5:19
Total bucket list stuff. So, of course,
5:21
I'm super excited. But before we get
5:24
there, there's a small matter of the
5:26
descent. You can see George in front of
5:29
me there. He's occasionally using his
5:31
scooter. If you have a look also on his
5:33
right wrist, he's got a mirror and he's
5:37
using the mirror to check what I'm up to
5:39
and what Henry is up to. Henry's just
5:42
above George. I have to say, one of the
5:45
things that I was really impressed by
5:48
was how George controlled all aspects of
5:50
the dive. He was really good on all the
5:53
dives we did with him at making sure the
5:55
group stuck together, made sure we hit
5:58
what we were planning to do. And I
6:00
guess, well, that's what you get when
6:02
you're as experienced at this kind of
6:04
deep technical diving as he is. And
6:07
there's very few people do this. In
6:10
fact, I don't think I've ever dived with
6:11
a uh a deep technical guide before. So,
6:14
absolutely fascinating seeing what he
6:17
did. The other thing maybe to talk
6:19
about, as you can see, is Henry in front
6:22
of me there. We all had very different
6:25
rebreather configurations.
6:27
So, myself, I'm diving in my AP
6:30
inspiration and I've got two cylinders.
6:33
On my left hand side is a cylinder of uh
6:37
deep bailout. So, that's 120 m gas. On
6:40
my right hand side, I've got a travel
6:42
gas that I can get to on or about 80 m.
6:47
Now, that's not going to get me up to
6:48
the surface. What it does is give me a
6:51
whole load of gas that will give me
6:54
time. And that time allows us to do a
6:57
number of different things. Henry's
6:59
setup is different but kind of similar
7:02
in some ways. So, he's got a front
7:04
mounted rebreather, which is the uh
7:07
Scubron GBM. He has got on his left hand
7:10
side an Ali80 of deep bailout and then
7:13
on his back he has got twin 12 L
7:16
cylinders of his travel gas which once
7:19
again is about an 80 m mix. Same as me
7:22
he doesn't have decompression gas so he
7:25
doesn't have a 50% he doesn't have 100%.
7:28
George, who's the diver right at the
7:30
bottom of the shot line that you can see
7:32
now, he has got a Liberty backmounted
7:35
rebreather, so not the same as mine, but
7:38
similar to mine. And then he is carrying
7:41
four cylinders. He's got a deep bailout,
7:43
120 m mix. He's got a travel gas, once
7:46
again, about an 80 uh meter mix. They're
7:50
both on his left hand side. And then
7:52
he's got a leash and on the leash is a
7:55
50% mix and 100% mix. So unless
7:59
something really bad happens that would
8:02
get him to the surface. For Henry and
8:05
myself, the two cylinders on a leash, he
8:08
could also give give them to us when we
8:10
were shallow and they would allow us to
8:12
get to the surface. So between the team,
8:15
we have enough cylinders uh to get to
8:18
the surface and we've actually got a
8:19
whole load of gas to allow us to do
8:20
other things as well.
8:22
What there is also is at about 20ish
8:26
meters, 21 mters maybe on what they call
8:30
the laser shot is another in fact
8:32
there's two 50% mixes there and then on
8:35
the decompression trapze there is
8:37
another 100% nitrox mix which gives us a
8:41
load of options. So something happens at
8:43
the bottom. We can all individually bail
8:46
out. We can all start an ascent using
8:50
either the deep mix or the bailout or
8:52
the travel gas, the 80 meter mix. When
8:55
we get shallow enough, we can then take
8:57
other people's cylinders if we need
8:59
them, depending on what you want. Deep
9:01
bailouts, travel gas, whatever. And then
9:04
when we get up shallow enough, George
9:07
can lend us his cylinders. Ideally, of
9:09
course, what we want to do is get back
9:10
to the shot line. We can then come back
9:12
up the shot line and there is going to
9:15
be gas there. There's also going to be
9:16
support divers there who can come down
9:18
and help with things as well. And the
9:21
final thing is on board the boat there's
9:23
a whole load more stuff on a line. So if
9:27
we send up a yellow bag then all that
9:29
gas is going to come down to the down
9:31
the line and on that is a gas that we
9:33
can breathe at 40 m, another 50% that we
9:36
can breathe at 21 m and 100% that we can
9:39
breathe at 9 m. What that means is there
9:42
is a ton of gas available to us either
9:45
on the bottom during the ascent in all
9:48
the different possible scenarios that
9:51
may happen. And that's a great position
9:53
to be in. Some people will go, "Ah, no,
9:56
you've got to carry all your own gas."
9:58
And you know what? That's entirely fine.
10:01
If you want to do that, perfectly. I I'm
10:04
not saying you shouldn't. I'm just
10:05
saying that we made the riskbased
10:07
decision not to do that. But bailout
10:10
discussions are always great.
10:12
Everybody's got their own opinion and
10:15
this is big boys diving. What you have
10:17
to do is look at each individual
10:20
situation, decide what risks you
10:23
personally want to uh adopt and make
10:27
your own decisions. These were ours. I
10:29
just I share them with you so that you
10:31
can understand. But that of course isn't
10:34
the most important thing. The most
10:36
important thing is that we have arrived
10:39
at the Britannic.
10:41
And you can see there it is chuffing
10:44
massive. I said this on my other video,
10:48
the one where we dived at the stern and
10:50
the props. And I'm just going to say it
10:53
again because it is impossible to
10:57
overstate just how big this wreck is and
11:01
how intact it is. It's It literally
11:05
blows your mind. So, even though this
11:08
was my second dive, even though I was
11:10
expecting it to be big, the reality
11:13
again of the scale is well, it's it's
11:17
mind-blowing. I kind of I'm struggling
11:19
for words as you can see here, but there
11:22
those are those railings that I started
11:24
with. And the instant I saw those, the
11:28
Titanic music started going through my
11:32
head. You look at them and you wonder
11:35
about the people who stood holding those
11:37
uh holding those railings, what they
11:39
were looking at, what they were
11:40
thinking. Now, of course, Rose and Jack
11:43
aren't real, but I'm sure there were
11:46
other people. There were doctors and
11:48
nurses and sailors and wounded people,
11:52
perhaps. All those kind of things. Now,
11:54
if you're wondering what's going on
11:56
here, you'll see that the video has just
11:59
switched. So, this is Henry Castellanos,
12:02
senior scuba. This is his video of me
12:06
showing the bit that we've just seen.
12:08
And I'm going to do that through this
12:10
dive because I know people want to see
12:12
as much video of Britannica as they
12:14
possibly can. So, I'll do this. I will
12:16
show my video and then I'll show Henry's
12:19
video if I've got some. So, there you
12:21
go. That's me illuminating those
12:23
fantastic railings again in a background
12:26
there. The the diver in the orange suit.
12:28
That's George who's keeping us on the
12:31
straight and narrow. And moving on back
12:33
to my video. I've just gone over onto
12:36
the bow. Those are the two capston
12:39
there. I've just gone past and now I'm
12:42
going to turn right. So I'm now heading
12:46
towards the crack and the bridge.
12:49
that in front of me is something. It's
12:52
some sort of hatch or whatever. I I
12:55
would love to go in there, as you can
12:58
probably imagine. You can also see that
13:01
George in front of me has got his torch
13:05
on the forward mast. You can see there
13:08
he was just illuminating the the crow's
13:11
nest. We've seen it in the beginning of
13:13
the video, Henry's video from behind me.
13:15
So, he's videoing me looking at the
13:17
crow's nest. And then down there where
13:19
I'm pointing the scooter somewhere down
13:21
there, that's that's where the bell came
13:23
from. I'm sure I don't need to mention
13:26
that on Titanic, that's where they would
13:28
have been looking out for icebergs and
13:31
other ships and all those kind of things
13:33
famously without any binoculars, my
13:36
understanding.
13:38
What we can also see is George in front
13:40
of us there. He's leading us over the
13:42
crack. You can see the edge of the crack
13:45
off to the right hand side. And then
13:47
we're moving up onto the bridge. There's
13:50
a whole load of inviting places
13:53
everywhere I look in front of me. It
13:55
seems there somewhere I could go into,
13:58
but of course that's not allowed and I'm
14:02
not going to do that. Looking forward
14:05
again. There's the mast. There's Henry
14:07
just come over the top of it. Good
14:09
opportunity to see his gear really clear
14:11
clearly there. You can see he's got the
14:13
front mount GBM uh manual CCR. He's also
14:18
got the twin set on his back, bailout
14:20
cylinder on his left, and then that dive
14:23
tug scooter. We That was the bigger one.
14:26
We had the smaller one as well, and a
14:29
few people have asked me about them. All
14:31
really good. I'd not used one before,
14:35
but it was pretty similar to other ones
14:36
I've used, such as the Bonex and a
14:38
Piranha. This uh unlike the Piranha had
14:42
the additional bonus of an isolation
14:45
switch, which anybody who's watched the
14:48
video where I lost my scooter, you'll
14:50
know that I'm a big fan of isolation
14:52
switches.
14:54
Anyway, this I think shows just how good
14:57
the visibility is even though it's dark.
15:00
You can see George. He's up there on the
15:02
bridge waiting for us to get up there.
15:04
Henry's off. I'm following on behind
15:07
him. And I think what George is
15:10
illuminating is the first of the
15:12
telegraphs. I'm just having a look down
15:16
and you can see there is an amazing
15:19
amount of stuff down there. There's
15:23
lower decks on the bridge. You can see
15:25
just coming up in front of me. There's
15:27
whatever you can get into from those
15:29
cracks down there. All the way through
15:32
all three of my dives on the Britannic,
15:35
I was just desperate to go inside it. It
15:38
was a huge, huge temptation, especially
15:42
having spoken to Richie and seen some of
15:44
the incredible footage that he shared of
15:48
uh going inside.
15:50
You know, maybe maybe one day I'll be
15:52
able to do that. Who knows? But it would
15:55
be an incredible thing to do.
15:59
What I've got to do though is enjoy what
16:02
I can see. And what you can see in front
16:05
of me there are two of the humongous
16:10
telegraphs in the bridge now. They've
16:13
both fallen onto the bridge and actually
16:16
I think just held on by the the chains
16:20
and maybe a couple of bolts. You can see
16:22
they're super encrusted in whatever
16:25
those are, some sort of uh shells, but
16:29
they're unmistakably telegraphs and
16:32
really big ones as well. When you see
16:35
images of the inside of these liners,
16:38
when you see images of the bridge, these
16:40
things here, the the telegraphs are the
16:43
things that to me anyway dominate those
16:45
pictures. I've no idea why they made
16:48
them so big. I don't think they needed
16:50
to be so big. There was no particular
16:53
reason you didn't get any additional
16:56
benefits from doing it. I think they
16:58
just did it because they wanted their
17:01
ships to be grand and they wanted the
17:04
bridge area to look really special. No
17:07
doubt uh VIPs and guests and those kind
17:10
of people came up onto the bridge and
17:13
when they were up there they just wanted
17:16
the size and scale of the ship to be
17:19
reflected in the bridge instruments and
17:22
those telegraphs absolutely do that.
17:26
I've seen big telegraphs before. I've
17:28
seen them on shipwrecks. I've seen them
17:30
outside the water. I've never seen
17:33
telegraphs the size of that. The other
17:36
thing that I'm doing now is actually
17:38
looking straight down the deck. So, you
17:41
probably saw down there there's a few
17:42
windows. There's those two telegraphs
17:44
again. And there's me looking directly
17:47
up. So, basically, I've just pointed the
17:51
scooter down the bridge, up the bridge,
17:54
and hopefully you've seen that there's
17:56
some more telegraphs uh just above me
17:58
here. There's something there on a
18:01
pedestal. I'm not 100% certain on what
18:04
that is. Could
18:07
be another telegraph. Not really really
18:12
certain on that one. Might also be a
18:14
helm. Don't know.
18:17
A mystery. I think at the time I thought
18:20
it was a telegraph. But what I was
18:22
mainly doing is looking at these ones up
18:25
here, which is another set of those
18:28
massive telegraphs. I mean, that is
18:31
these things are incredible. And the
18:32
glass is still in them as well, which is
18:35
once again mind-blowing. There you go.
18:37
One on the right, one just above it.
18:40
Both hanging on. At some point, they're
18:42
going to fall down and they're going to
18:44
end up on the seabed. But for the
18:46
moment, just enjoy them where they are.
18:50
I'm also kind of aware, you probably saw
18:52
earlier on, that the other two divers
18:55
poked off. And I'm kind of sat here by
18:57
myself. I know that I need to behave. I
19:00
know that I need to follow George, but I
19:02
so want to go into uh whatever is here.
19:05
That thing that I'm looking at there,
19:07
that is uh definitely the teley motor
19:09
helm. I'd love to go over and have a
19:11
look at that as well, but they're there.
19:13
You know, the other divers, they're
19:14
like, "Come on, Dom, we need to get we
19:16
need to get moving. We've been
19:17
underwater at 15 minutes here." I think
19:19
we agreed that we weren't going to do a
19:21
super long run time on this one. So,
19:24
I've got to bite the bullet. I've got to
19:27
suck it up. I've got to say goodbye to
19:29
these uh this incredible bridge gear.
19:31
This beautiful moment.
19:34
What I can show you though is a little
19:36
bit of footage that Henry took. He
19:39
doesn't have the video lights that I do,
19:41
so he doesn't quite get as much
19:42
illumination on the subject as me. But
19:45
there in front of me, that is the or in
19:47
front of Henry is the teley motor helm.
19:52
That was a hydraulic system that allowed
19:56
the massive rudder on it to be turned
19:59
from here in the bridge. Probably above
20:02
it would have been another helm that
20:04
would have been connected by a rod.
20:06
That's a normal system. So, I assume
20:08
it's the same on Britannic as pretty
20:10
much every other ship from this period.
20:13
And I think you can see how much I'm
20:15
enjoying it here from some more of
20:17
Henry's footage. He's videoing me
20:21
videoing the bridge. I think this gives
20:24
a real sense of of what it actually
20:26
looks like. There's that massive wall of
20:29
ship to my right. I'm looking towards
20:33
the stern here. Also looking down
20:36
heading towards that helm, but in a
20:38
moment I'm going to realize that my time
20:41
on the bridge is done. I have just
20:44
enjoyed so much seeing these kind of
20:48
incredible, incredible artifacts. But
20:51
there we go. We're off. George is
20:53
leading us towards a crack. I'm sure you
20:55
sense a certain amount of reluctance by
20:58
me to leave. So much more to see. Uh I
21:01
would love to come back. I would love to
21:02
spend longer down here, but that's been
21:04
the case on every part of Britannic that
21:06
I've been so far and indeed the bits
21:09
that I I still have to see as well. So
21:12
this is the second dive. The third dive
21:14
which on the prominard deck is is an
21:17
absolute amazing one as well. But here
21:20
you can see that we're we're in the in
21:23
the crack. You can see the damage to the
21:25
ship. You can see how the hull is
21:28
cracked above there. You also probably
21:30
just saw the strobes in the distance as
21:32
well. Now George's told us that he would
21:35
lead us and show us where there was a
21:37
lamp. There was a lamp recovered from
21:39
this area last year by Richie Cola's
21:42
team and I believe is going to be in the
21:44
museum in Athens. People who watch my
21:46
videos know that I'm a big fan of
21:50
bringing artifacts out of the ocean and
21:52
putting them places that people can see.
21:55
And so I'm really pleased that that has
21:57
happened, that all the things have taken
22:00
place that have allowed that artifact to
22:02
be lifted. Because of course, although
22:04
three of us are going to see this today,
22:07
at some point this wreck is going to
22:09
collapse,
22:10
if that lamp is left where it is, at
22:13
some point that will vanish as well.
22:16
Now, I know people like to see as much
22:18
video footage as possible. So this is
22:20
the video that Henry was taking. You
22:23
probably saw from from that video
22:25
earlier on that I was videoing him
22:27
taking video footage. So you can see
22:29
there's a couple of mooring bolards.
22:32
There is the lamp. Regardless of what
22:35
anybody says, these sorts of things do
22:37
degrade underwater. Even the best
22:39
quality brass will eventually vanish and
22:43
lower quality brass also the um copper
22:47
and stuff gets leeched out of it and it
22:49
degrades in quality. So for me, you get
22:53
this stuff out of the ocean. I know
22:56
conservation is expensive. I know that
22:59
museums struggle to do it. My view is
23:02
what you do is you bring some artifacts
23:04
up. You sell some of them. There's
23:06
plenty of collectors out there. I mean,
23:07
that one there must be worth a fortune
23:10
because of the uh link with Titanic, the
23:12
Britannic link and everything. You sell
23:14
some and use the rest to protect the
23:16
ones that you want to keep. Now, what
23:18
you can probably see here is I am
23:21
looking inside and and there's a whole
23:23
load more lamps and various other bits
23:25
and pieces down there.
23:28
I would love to go in and have a poke
23:31
around and see what's there because
23:32
that's obviously where that lamp has
23:34
come from. I don't know who's brought it
23:35
out and put it there, but somebody has.
23:38
I would like to see the rest of those
23:40
things brought out, bring them out, send
23:42
them up to the surface, and as I've just
23:44
talked about, do do something with them.
23:47
Henry says when he he saw me sticking my
23:51
scooter and stuff in there, he was uh
23:54
half expecting me to kind of vanish and
23:56
just to see the the tip of my fins
23:58
diving in there. This is his footage, so
24:01
perhaps you can see uh what he's talking
24:04
about. You can probably see that I'm I
24:08
am considering it. But of course, I'm
24:10
not going to do it. I know the rules. I
24:13
don't want anybody to get in any
24:15
trouble. George Kia Divers, they've got
24:19
their protocols. We have to respect
24:21
those. We have to follow them.
24:23
Especially when you're doing something
24:24
like this, which is team diving.
24:27
We're relying on each other. We've got
24:29
to stick together.
24:31
As you can see, there is so much down
24:34
here, so much to explore. We haven't
24:37
even begun to really scratch the
24:40
surface.
24:42
A wreck of this scale to do it justice,
24:46
I can't imagine how many dives it would
24:49
need. What I can tell you is it needs a
24:52
lot more than the three that we did on
24:54
this trip. Even we could have done three
24:58
dives on just the area that I've seen.
25:01
I think one of the things that you're
25:03
about to see is a little bit of
25:04
frustration.
25:06
We've been underwater 19 minutes.
25:09
We said that we were only going to do a
25:11
2hour run time and that's what we're
25:13
going to end up doing. You see, I've got
25:14
about 100 minutes of TTS there. But I
25:18
feel that I want to spend more time down
25:20
here. I feel that there's a whole load
25:22
more that I want to explore. Frankly,
25:25
there's a whole load of stuff I'd like
25:27
to go back and look at again.
25:30
We never really got to the very pointy
25:32
end of the bow. There's like to spend
25:35
more time in a bridge. Like to go and
25:37
find the captain's bathroom. But for
25:40
now, we're back at the shot line. You
25:43
see my two buddies are starting to head
25:45
back up. You can see there the strobes.
25:48
They're a long way off the bottom. Stand
25:50
out really clearly. We've seen them a
25:52
couple of times during this dive.
25:54
And this is team diving. This is what we
25:57
have to do. We stick together. We obey
25:59
protocols. Said that loads of times as
26:02
well. I'm kind of really aware that
26:04
there's probably two groups of people
26:06
watching this video. One are divers,
26:09
whether they are technical divers or
26:11
recreational divers, just people who are
26:13
interested in diving. The other set of
26:16
people are the ones who are interested
26:20
in Britannic and Titanic. And I know
26:23
there's an awful lot of people that do
26:25
that. If you're one of that latter
26:26
group, you probably want to be finishing
26:29
this up. Now, if you're a diver or
26:32
you're somebody who's interested in
26:33
diving, then I'm going to talk a bit
26:35
more about what happens. Now, because I
26:38
think one of the really fascinating
26:39
things about Britannic is the way that
26:42
the decompression is managed.
26:45
The wreck is in the middle of a really
26:49
busy shipping channel. It was a busy
26:52
shipping channel when it was sunk. It's
26:54
still a busy shipping channel now. And
26:57
therefore we to dive it, you've got to
26:59
be really mindful of that.
27:02
>> Big lands.
27:04
>> Yeah.
27:08
>> On him. Look at that.
27:11
>> That's why we need to pay attention to
27:13
stay on the line.
27:15
>> Certainly Kia divers, it's one of the
27:18
things that's at pretty much the
27:20
forefront of their mind. They know that
27:24
if divers start interfering
27:26
significantly with the major shipping
27:28
movements that go past the Britannic
27:31
then at some point diving would be
27:33
stopped. So what they have come up with
27:35
is this quite you know probably unique
27:38
system of doing decompression. Normally
27:41
of course if I was diving in the UK we
27:45
would ascend up the shot line as we're
27:47
doing here. We would get to the lazy
27:50
shot. Once the last diver had got there,
27:53
we would uncip and then we would all
27:55
drift with the lazy shot. And we do that
27:58
even in the middle of the English
27:59
Channel where there are also significant
28:02
uh shipping movements. To avoid
28:05
conflict, we would rely on ships giving
28:08
way to the diver support vessel. And if
28:11
that wasn't happening, then the boat
28:14
would get onto channel 16 and tell the
28:16
ships they needed to get out of the way.
28:18
Kia divers tell me that they simply
28:20
can't rely on that happening due to the
28:22
quality or lack of of some of these
28:25
ships that come through this area. You
28:26
can imagine there's some really dodgy
28:29
countries that that transit this area,
28:32
Russia, all that kind of area. So they
28:35
don't they don't rely on it. They have
28:37
this fixed system for decompressing. So
28:39
you effectively stay on the shot line
28:42
above the wreck at all times. I'm going
28:45
to come back to that in a minute or two.
28:47
But the other thing I just want to talk
28:49
about is one of the other procedures
28:51
that we put in place. I've already
28:52
talked about the bailout cylinders that
28:54
I was carrying on the dive. I had a deep
28:57
bailout on my left. I had a travel
28:59
cylinder on my right. In fact, you can
29:00
see the travel cylinder just in front of
29:02
me there. And the reason is because I am
29:05
going to swap it for this cylinder here
29:08
that you can see on what Kia describe as
29:11
the the lazy. It's a 50% mix. So, I'm
29:14
going to take off my travel, clip it to
29:16
the line. I'm going to take that 50% mix
29:18
and I'm going to stick it on my unit.
29:22
And that means I've got rid of a gas
29:23
that's not much use to me, the travel
29:25
mix, and I've gained a gas that is quite
29:28
useful to me, which is that 50%. I'm
29:31
also going to get rid of the deep
29:33
bailout which is on my left hand side.
29:35
And I'll leave those both here on the
29:38
the lazy the shot or the shot line
29:40
depending on how you want to describe
29:41
it. And one of the support divers is
29:43
going to come in. He will take those two
29:46
cylinders that I no longer need and
29:48
they'll be back on the boat for when I
29:49
get there. Meanwhile, I'll do the rest
29:52
of my dive with the 50% bailout if I
29:54
need it. And further up at the trapze is
29:58
a 100%. So, I've always got plenty of
30:02
gas if I need it. Now, one of the risks
30:04
of transferring cylinders like this is
30:07
that you drop them and you lose them
30:11
forever. Not only do you lose a
30:12
cylinder, of course, you lose the uh the
30:14
reg that's on it. You lose the rigging
30:16
kit, all that kind of stuff. You got to
30:18
be careful that you also don't lose the
30:20
gas that's in it. So, you probably just
30:21
see me seen me there checking that I've
30:23
turned it off. And I'm now going to go
30:25
and collect that 50% and clip it on to
30:28
myself. Actually, that other cylinder
30:30
that I've just taken off the travel
30:32
might be buoyant enough to to get to the
30:34
surface by itself. But once again, I
30:37
don't want to risk it. You probably saw
30:38
that I took off the black the back clip.
30:41
I clipped that onto the line. I then
30:43
took off the front clip and clipped that
30:45
onto the line. So, at all times during
30:48
this procedure, it was attached to
30:50
either me or the the shot line. So, it
30:52
was never going to get lost. I have seen
30:54
people doing similar things in the past,
30:57
loose cylinders, and uh I don't want
30:59
that to happen to me. It would also be
31:01
super embarrassing, not least because I
31:03
think that cylinder belongs to Kia
31:05
Divers, the 50% that I'm just clipping
31:07
on. You probably also see that the
31:11
quality of the camera work isn't
31:12
particularly great here. At least partly
31:16
that's because the current has picked
31:17
up. It was fairly still on the bottom,
31:20
but by the time we got up to this kind
31:22
of depth, it was it was really start to
31:23
move. And you can see that in that that
31:26
cylinder that I've clipped on is
31:28
repeatedly banging me in the face, which
31:30
is a little bit irritating, but just one
31:33
of those things you got to deal with it.
31:34
You can see even George there, he's
31:36
hanging on to the line. We all We all do
31:40
this. We all hang on now all the way up
31:43
because if you let go of it, you're
31:45
going to be heading off away from the
31:47
the system.
31:50
If the scooter's okay, you can probably
31:51
get back. If for whatever reason your
31:53
scooter didn't work, then you would have
31:54
to put up a delayed SMB and start the
31:57
drifting. That is, of course, one of the
31:59
reasons that Kia divers have those two
32:01
boats, so they can always have one boat
32:04
on the on the shot system and the second
32:07
boat is available if needs be to go and
32:10
pick up other divers who for whatever
32:12
reason have got blown off. That didn't
32:14
happen to us, but it was nice to know
32:17
that it was there, that system was
32:20
present if something did happen. You can
32:23
see I've kind of come up a bit from that
32:25
cylinder. I'm looking down there and you
32:29
can see the travel gas is all clipped
32:31
off.
32:33
As you can see, I've ascended up a bit
32:36
and what we now going to see is the
32:39
support diver arriving. There he is.
32:41
That's Diego, who is Swiss but speaks
32:46
with a French accent. So, he was Frenchy
32:48
for the entire trip. As you can see,
32:50
he's coming in to collect cylinders.
32:52
He's borrowed a scooter. He's going to
32:54
uncip those cylinders, take them up to
32:55
the surface, and get them back on the
32:57
boat. He's also there if anybody has any
33:00
issues. We can let him know, and he
33:02
would be in a great position to sort it
33:04
out. Really reassuring having support
33:07
divers if you need them. Not something
33:09
I've used really before, but it was uh
33:13
it was great to have them. And Frenchie
33:15
Diego, he was an absolutely top bloke,
33:18
really good diver. So great to have him
33:21
as part of the team and available there
33:23
if we need him. Skip on a few moments.
33:26
You see French is gone. All the
33:28
cylinders have gone. But what I thought
33:30
it would be useful to do at this point
33:32
is I'm going to look up in a second so
33:34
you can get a feel for what the uh deco
33:37
system what the station looks like from
33:39
underneath. So you can see there there's
33:41
like a a triangular system. Um the main
33:45
shot line is on the sort of top left.
33:47
The lazy shot that I'm coming up goes
33:49
into the middle of the bar. There is a
33:52
100% up there if we need it. There's
33:55
also two weights which are the the long
33:57
things that hang down and they hold the
34:00
system in place. So this is another
34:04
view. You can see here I'm at 3 m
34:06
getting close to the end of my dive.
34:09
This is looking down on the system. So
34:11
once again the shot is at the well where
34:14
it's off the top of the screen. You can
34:15
see the scaffolding bar down there at 6
34:18
mters with the two ropes that hold it in
34:20
position. The support diver, I think
34:22
that's Pedro there, he's heading down to
34:25
20 m and he's going to pick up the 50%
34:27
cylinder that is still there. We had two
34:30
50% cylinders, the one that I picked up
34:33
and another one. You can also see
34:36
hanging down from the scaffolding bar is
34:38
that rope with a big heavy bit of chain
34:40
on it, which is the weight and helps
34:42
keep the whole uh system in place. So,
34:46
it does look a bit Heath Robinson, but I
34:48
can tell you it works really well. We
34:51
had some quite strong currents during
34:53
our our Britannic dives. And this system
34:55
kept the whole thing stable and allowed
34:59
us as divers to do what we wanted to do,
35:01
which is to decompress in relative
35:04
comfort. I mean, it was so comfortable I
35:07
was even able to watch videos on my uh
35:11
dive, which was really handy. There you
35:13
go. There's George. He's obviously
35:15
interested in how much deco I've got to
35:17
do. So, you can see there I've just told
35:19
him I've got one minute. He's telling me
35:21
when I'm done uh to get out the water
35:23
and he's going to follow on afterwards.
35:26
The other thing to maybe mention here is
35:28
you can probably just see there's a
35:29
whole load of weights hanging off the
35:32
the bar. Those weights are not only to
35:35
keep the bar down, but they're also
35:37
there if a diver for whatever reason got
35:39
to that point and found they were really
35:41
light. So, those weights could be taken
35:43
off and hung on the diver and would
35:45
would help with the buoyancy. I guess
35:47
that scenario might be if you lost part
35:51
of your your kit or perhaps if your
35:53
cylinders were really really empty and
35:56
and were therefore becoming really
35:58
buoyant. But we never used them. But
36:00
once again, reassuring to know they were
36:02
there. That's me just turning off my
36:04
heating system. It was, you can see
36:06
here, it's 15° in this water. So, it was
36:10
kind of very similar temperature to kind
36:12
of summer in the UK. As you've probably
36:14
heard me mention on other videos, I'm a
36:16
bit of a wuss, so I quite like having a
36:19
heating system. And I did use it for
36:22
kind of the last half hour, 45 minutes
36:24
of these dives. Some of the other guys
36:26
in the triam suits, they were getting it
36:28
on or they were putting it on when they
36:30
were leaving the wreck. I think that
36:32
just shows the the relative thermal
36:34
properties of our two two systems.
36:37
Skip forward a little bit again and my
36:39
deco is now complete. So, it's time to
36:43
surface. Always a nice feeling after any
36:45
dive knowing that you've you've cleared
36:47
everything. All is well. The next
36:50
challenge is getting out of the water
36:53
roundabout. Now, I was really hoping
36:56
that the one of these ribs would have
36:57
miraculously changed into a dive boat
37:00
with a lift. Uh not surprisingly, that
37:03
didn't happen. You can probably see here
37:05
that I'm hanging on the rope waiting.
37:08
Uh, so this is kind of trail boy off the
37:11
off the shot system and I'm waiting for
37:13
the the boat that's going to pick me up.
37:14
You can see it there and they're going
37:16
to let me know that I can release it and
37:18
then I'll drift over and they will pick
37:20
me up. They've been downstream picking
37:23
up Henry. And once again, this was
37:26
another part of the protocols, which is
37:28
that you don't leave the system until
37:31
you are cleared to do so by the boat
37:33
that's going to pick you up. You can
37:34
imagine if they had several divers had
37:36
surfaced at the same time and then let
37:39
go and there was, you know, divers
37:40
drifting on the surface, that wouldn't
37:42
be particularly safe. So, they pick up
37:45
one diver at a time. Getting onto the
37:48
rib is fairly standard rib diving stuff,
37:52
but with a full kind of technical gear,
37:56
not really the easiest thing in the
37:58
world. So, the first thing I'm going to
37:59
do is hand up all my extraneous stuff.
38:02
So, Scooter's going to go first. After
38:04
that, it will be my stage. You see here,
38:08
while that's happening, I'm fighting off
38:10
the boat. The wind and the uh the
38:12
current and everything are causing it to
38:14
bang into me. So, so that's uh a bit of
38:16
a pain, but of course got there in the
38:19
end and then you probably just seen on
38:21
the water the ladder at the back of the
38:23
boat to get out once everything is off.
38:25
It's been another spectacular dive
38:28
though. Absolute bucket list stuff. I'm
38:31
so privileged to have had the
38:33
opportunity to come and dive here. I
38:35
hope you've enjoyed following me along
38:37
on this journey. As always, I'm Dom
38:41
Robinson, deep wreck diver. Thanks very
38:44
much and I look forward to seeing you on
38:46
the next one.
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