SS Burdigala - The Best Shipwreck Dive You've Never Heard Of

0:00
November the 14th, 1916.
0:04
The SS Burdigala is running south
0:07
through the Kea Channel. It's empty.
0:10
It's heading back to Toulon.
0:12
15 minutes earlier,
0:14
this was a routine journey. Then,
0:17
boom. A mine on the starboard side, a
0:21
huge explosion.
0:23
The blast rips open the hull and floods
0:26
the engine room within seconds.
0:30
The captain gives the order to abandon
0:32
ship.
0:33
15 minutes later,
0:35
another explosion.
0:37
The ship breaks in two
0:39
and sinks to the bottom of the sea.
0:43
7 days later,
0:45
1 nautical mile to the northeast,
0:48
another ship hits another mine in the
0:51
same minefield.
0:54
That ship's name is Britannic,
0:56
sister to Titanic,
0:59
one of the most iconic shipwrecks in the
1:01
world.
1:03
Now, today you're joining me as I dive
1:07
the SS Burdigala.
1:09
It's 70 m to the seabed.
1:11
It's in the Kea Channel in Greece.
1:14
And as I run through the dive, I'm going
1:17
to tell you everything about the
1:19
extraordinary story of this ship.
1:22
A ship that failed at almost everything
1:24
it was designed to do.
1:26
A ship that was dismissed, renamed,
1:30
and then, after it sunk, forgotten.
1:35
These days, the Burdigala is best known
1:37
as the warm-up dive for Britannic, which
1:40
is super super unfair because it is an
1:42
incredible wreck dive. When people heard
1:45
that I was coming out to dive the
1:46
Britannic, everyone who'd been here
1:48
previously said, "Look,
1:50
it Although the Britannic is great, you
1:52
are going to enjoy the Burdigala, you
1:54
know, just as much and possibly even
1:57
more."
1:58
Which is, you know, that's a big claim
2:00
when you think about Britannic, you
2:01
know, and where it sits on people's
2:03
bucket list. So, I've been really
2:05
excited to do the Burdigala ever since I
2:07
heard that.
2:09
You can see us here. We're at the bottom
2:11
of the shot line. The individual divers
2:14
are sticking on their strobes, just
2:15
sorting themselves out.
2:17
One of the things that we're using this
2:19
dive for is to practice our team
2:21
procedures.
2:23
When we dive the Britannic, we are going
2:25
to be working as a team. All four of us
2:28
are going to go down together. We're
2:30
going to stick together during the dive,
2:32
and then we're going to come up
2:33
together.
2:34
This dive is our opportunity to practice
2:36
this. We We've done another dive before
2:38
this in about 50 m, so we're getting
2:40
those team skills together.
2:42
The three of us who are visitors,
2:45
there's myself, there's Henry, and
2:47
there's Greg. And we're being led around
2:49
the wreck by George.
2:51
One of his responsibilities, as well as
2:53
taking us around the wreck and showing
2:55
us everything, is also to make the
2:57
decision as to whether he thinks the
2:59
team is up to diving the Britannic. So,
3:02
although it's not stated, there's a
3:03
little bit of self-pressure on all of
3:06
us, I think, just to make sure that we
3:08
do everything properly, we stick with
3:11
the guidance that he's given us, and
3:13
frankly to be as good as we possibly can
3:15
because he is a top-class technical
3:18
diver, one of the
3:20
best-known
3:21
technical dive instructors in here in
3:24
Greece. And he's also done all of these
3:26
wrecks an incredible amount of time. So,
3:29
he's just in front of us there. You can
3:31
see that's him on the scooter. We're all
3:33
We're all on scooters.
3:35
The Burdigala is broken into two bits.
3:38
The biggest bit, which is the bow,
3:41
and actually all the way back to after
3:44
the engine, and then there's the stern,
3:47
which is a much smaller bit, but still
3:50
actually really significant. And then in
3:52
between them, there's about a a 10 m gap
3:54
you've seen. I've just crossed over that
3:56
gap and so we're we're heading to the
3:57
stern here. We're on the deck. You can
4:00
see the depth.
4:02
Behind me are the other two members of
4:04
the team.
4:05
We're on a a bit of a mission because we
4:07
want to see as much of this wreck as we
4:09
possibly can. We've given ourselves a
4:11
2-hour run time.
4:13
Now we'll be doing longer than that on
4:15
the Britannic, but for this dive it's
4:17
the opportunity particularly for
4:19
everybody to understand what their
4:21
thermal protection is like, whether they
4:23
need more or less for doing those longer
4:26
longer dives. So it's it's all part of
4:28
our our build-up. We did a shorter dive
4:30
the day before. We're about 2 hours
4:32
today, and then when we dive the
4:34
Britannic it will be about 3 hours.
4:37
What you can see here is is I'm
4:39
fascinated by the
4:42
fixtures and fittings that are on the
4:43
ship. It has never had any sort of
4:46
salvage. You saw there there was a row
4:49
of square porthole windows. There was
4:51
just a porthole there in that little
4:54
uh whatever it was that I went in. You
4:56
can see I'm just going over the lifeboat
4:57
davits here.
4:59
There is George in front of me. And what
5:01
he's doing is he's letting us know that
5:04
we're about to descend down to the
5:05
seabed to get our maximum depth and to
5:08
see the props which are absolutely
5:11
beautiful on this wreck. And the stern
5:13
is is well known for being totally
5:16
lovely. So we're going to see that in a
5:18
second. While we're waiting for the
5:20
other divers to catch up, probably just
5:22
a moment to say all this video from this
5:25
dive is shot from the GoPro on the front
5:27
of my scooter.
5:29
I you probably saw when I would go in
5:31
the water I did have two power lenses on
5:33
my helmet.
5:36
One of them was brand new. I didn't have
5:37
the exposure settings correct, so that
5:40
one
5:42
basically the video footage is unusable.
5:44
The other one
5:45
had died and I couldn't get it off the
5:48
mount. I had a spare one, I couldn't get
5:49
it off the mount, so
5:51
I like to have two on cuz it it sorts
5:53
out the balance.
5:54
But anyway, so neither of my power
5:56
lenses came out. It
5:58
really really frustrating. But the good
6:00
news is I've got some fairly decent
6:02
GoPro footage. I've also got some
6:04
footage from Henry, who is the diver
6:08
who's just gone to my right. You might
6:10
be wondering what was just going on
6:12
there. So so Greg, who's the diver in
6:14
the red drysuit,
6:15
had managed to don't know how get the
6:19
part of the leash from his scooter
6:21
wrapped around part of his equipment. I
6:23
think he used O2 cylinder, so it was it
6:25
was really uncomfortable for him to
6:27
scooter. The good news is that that
6:28
George sorted him out there as you can
6:30
see,
6:31
Greg is
6:33
all all good now and he's cracking on.
6:35
One of the many interesting things about
6:37
this dive is we got a real variety of
6:39
equipment. So you can see Greg in front
6:40
of me there. He's got effectively side
6:43
mount with a chest mounted rebreather.
6:47
It is his own rebreather, so Greg
6:50
is the owner of Scubatron.
6:53
He has designed, manufactures, and sells
6:57
the Golem chest mount rebreather, which
7:00
is what he's diving and is also what
7:02
Henry is diving as well. We'll probably
7:04
see him in a bit.
7:06
I had the opportunity to have a go with
7:08
one of those the day after this.
7:10
Absolutely absolutely incredible
7:11
experience. I'm going to put together a
7:13
video explaining all about that, but
7:15
that's that's for another moment. So
7:17
Greg is diving it in that side mount
7:19
configuration. Henry, we'll see in a
7:21
bit, has got the same rebreather. He's
7:22
diving it with a twin set.
7:26
Now here you go. You see I've come off
7:28
the side of the wreck here, and the
7:29
reason I've done that is I just want to
7:31
get the scale and also so you can see
7:34
all the the divers. The one in front
7:36
there, that's George. He's our guide.
7:39
You can see Greg there with the orange
7:41
fins on, and then just behind him, there
7:44
we go. There's Henry. You can see him.
7:46
He's got those big uh twin 12s, the
7:49
doubles.
7:51
I
7:51
I think this the other bit of video
7:53
there.
7:54
It's great to see the divers. Also shows
7:56
how fantastic the visibility was even
8:00
down here where, you know, we're nearly
8:01
70 m. You can start to see the props
8:03
coming out of the gloom there.
8:05
One of the things that Henry had asked
8:07
me to do was to get some video of him
8:09
with the prop. So, what I'm doing out
8:11
here is I'm going out onto the seabed. I
8:12
think you'll you'll see George in a
8:14
minute. And then I'm going to to kind of
8:16
come in and and capture that video of of
8:19
Henry on the props.
8:22
Here he is. He's He's just there. And
8:24
you see just just above me.
8:26
You can see, I think
8:28
you can see how big this wreck is. And
8:31
it's even though this is the warm-up
8:33
dive for the for the Britannic, and it
8:34
gets stuck into that kind of
8:37
um I guess box of being the warm-up
8:39
dive,
8:40
it is
8:41
an unbelievably good dive. And it's also
8:44
the interesting thing about it is it's
8:46
it's not just a good dive. This ship has
8:48
got a brilliant story associated with
8:51
it. I kind of touched on a bit of about
8:53
that at the beginning, but I'm going to
8:54
be coming back to it it because
8:57
it's fascinating story. It's actually a
8:59
fascinating ship in itself. The The
9:01
design and the construction
9:03
and what happened to it during its life.
9:05
The The sinking is just one small part
9:08
of that.
9:09
Number one. You can see here is this is
9:11
me off the back end of the wreck. You
9:13
can look up there. You can see that that
9:15
beautiful stern. The scale, obviously,
9:18
by the size of the divers, you can just
9:20
see how big it is. I mean, this ship is
9:22
20,000 tons,
9:25
which is
9:26
very, very large.
9:28
It's extremely rare that we get to dive
9:31
or I get to dive a shipwreck as big as
9:33
this.
9:34
Particularly rare to dive one that is as
9:36
intact as this. And as you've seen so
9:39
far,
9:40
this ship is significantly significantly
9:42
intact. One bit that isn't intact there
9:44
is you have a look at that prop where
9:46
Henry is is modeling, you can see that
9:49
it's got three blades. Well, it would
9:51
have had three blades, but one of them
9:53
is missing. And when we get round to the
9:55
prop on the other side, you'll see
9:56
there's a blade missing on that. So, my
9:58
guess is that the prop was still turning
10:02
when it hit the seabed. And that's
10:05
what's broken off one of the blades on
10:07
each prop.
10:08
The other thing that George mentioned
10:10
before we got in the water, he said,
10:12
"When you're on the seabed at the stern,
10:14
look around because there is a load of
10:16
ammo around there." Now, I'm a bit of a
10:19
sucker for ammo, and sure enough, as you
10:21
can see here on the seabed, that is a
10:24
case for one of the guns.
10:27
Like a lot of ships of the time, the
10:28
Berwick Castle was defensively armed.
10:31
So, it's got four 140 mm 5 and 1/2 inch
10:35
there or thereabouts guns, and this is
10:38
one of the shell cases for one of them.
10:40
There's also a smaller gun on the bow.
10:43
Two of the 140 mm guns are mounted on
10:46
the stern, and two of them are on the
10:49
forepeak.
10:50
And we're going to see the two forward
10:52
ones in the video.
10:54
We're also There's also another smaller
10:55
one right on the bow. I don't know what
10:58
caliber that is, and it's it's got an
11:00
interesting thing, but we'll see that
11:01
later on. You can see there's some shell
11:03
cases. I also think there's some
11:06
actual warheads for these as well.
11:10
But not 100% certain. You can see
11:13
there's also the thing back there that
11:14
looked a bit like a Clarkston case.
11:16
Wasn't entirely certain, but to me
11:19
anyway, it looks like this ammunition is
11:21
multiple piece. So, you have a shell
11:24
case,
11:25
then you potentially have some more
11:26
propellant, and then you have the actual
11:29
projectile that's going to get fired.
11:32
Those would normally be steel, so
11:35
you've seen, I think, back there a
11:36
couple of the projectiles. You've seen a
11:38
few of the cartridge cases and that
11:40
thing that looks to me a bit like a
11:42
Clarkson case.
11:43
What I'm doing here, though, is uh,
11:45
going back to the prop.
11:47
And you can see there, you can see two
11:50
of the blades on that prop.
11:52
You can also see that the other divers
11:54
have headed off. They're not as
11:56
interested in this stern as I am.
11:59
One of the things is is that we have to
12:01
be on a bit of a mission with this wreck
12:03
because it is so big and we've given
12:04
ourselves that 2-hour run time that
12:07
clearly there wasn't much opportunity
12:09
for dilly-dallying. Especially here
12:12
because this is the deepest part of the
12:13
wreck. Our plan was to come round onto
12:16
the starboard side, go along the
12:17
starboard side side until we saw the
12:19
mast that is that is broken off and laid
12:22
laid over that side, which you can see
12:23
in front of me. Once we hit the mast, we
12:26
were then going to come up onto the
12:27
wreck and then travel along the wreck
12:30
again. I mean, that is incredible there.
12:32
Once again, shows how how great the
12:34
visibility is. Well, great by my
12:36
standards. George said that he's seen
12:38
much better vis on the Berta car, which
12:40
would be would be would be super
12:43
impressive. Well, the other nice thing
12:45
about this, and you won't catch me
12:46
saying this in many of my videos,
12:48
there's also quite a lot of fish life on
12:49
this wreck. You can see all the small
12:51
ones around the mast. And just in a
12:53
second, you're going to see this school
12:54
of much bigger ones. I I'm not 100%
12:57
certain what what they are, but if we
12:59
were in the Red Sea, I'm pretty certain
13:01
they would be calling these jacks or
13:03
something like that. But, you can see
13:05
there they go.
13:06
Just um, a huge shoal of them. Loads of
13:09
fish. Really nice to see.
13:11
My previous dives in the Med,
13:13
I haven't seen that many fish. It's kind
13:15
of My perception is always that the the
13:18
Med is
13:19
very heavily fished and kind of
13:21
overfished. So, it's really nice to see
13:25
marine life of that kind of size on on a
13:27
wreck always adds a little bit to it.
13:30
What I'm trying to do though, as you can
13:31
see, is catch up with the rest of the
13:34
divers. In front of me there are Greg
13:35
and Henry, and somewhere in front of
13:37
them is George.
13:40
So, I want to stick together. Remember
13:42
that was our plan. I don't want to get
13:44
any
13:45
I don't want to get any bad marks from
13:46
George for for not sticking together
13:48
with the rest of the group.
13:50
But what you can also see is I've just
13:51
gone past on the left is that one of the
13:54
things about the stern and it is known
13:56
to be covered in this really big net.
13:59
And what I've done is just stopped for a
14:01
moment there so you can see you can see
14:03
that net.
14:05
There it is covering a whole load of the
14:07
wreck. It would be fascinating to see
14:09
what's under there. I'm going to show
14:11
you the bells later on, but there is a
14:13
thought that there might be a third
14:15
bell, a stern bell, somewhere underneath
14:18
underneath this net, but getting
14:20
underneath it would obviously be really
14:22
dangerous and taking it off is going to
14:23
be a load of hard work.
14:26
What is also a bit of hard work is the
14:27
fact that I am by taking that video I'm
14:30
starting to lose the two divers in front
14:32
of me or the three divers in front of
14:33
me. So, I'm going to
14:36
once I stop looking around Oh, I know
14:38
what I'm looking at here. This is a deck
14:40
light. You can see there that that thing
14:43
there would have some prisms and it
14:45
would allow natural light to go below
14:47
decks.
14:49
Obviously in this kind of period
14:50
electric lights weren't particularly
14:53
great and also
14:56
um not every ship had them. I don't know
14:57
whether the Birdie Gallant had so
14:59
relying on natural light or providing a
15:01
means for natural light to go below
15:03
decks was an important thing. You're
15:04
going to see a few more of those deck
15:06
lights.
15:07
This is the break, that 10 m break that
15:09
I said there was between the two uh
15:12
sections of the wreck.
15:14
One of the fascinating things about the
15:16
Birdie Gallant and that it's design was
15:18
that most ships you have
15:21
from coming from the bow, you have the
15:23
bow, the bridge, the boilers, the
15:26
engine, and then the prop. The Birdie
15:29
Gall interestingly enough had the
15:31
engines out has two engines, but the
15:34
engines are in between some of the
15:36
boilers. So, it's a really unusual
15:38
design. So, probably just a bit further
15:41
forward of where we are now. That is
15:43
That is where the engines are. So,
15:44
pretty much, I guess, where the shot
15:46
line is.
15:47
Fascinating design. I have no idea why
15:50
it was designed in that way, but it is
15:52
one of the many things that makes the
15:54
Birdie Gall uh uh
15:56
interesting.
15:57
Another interesting bit about the Birdie
15:59
Gall is you have to understand what it
16:02
was designed to be. So, this was built
16:04
in 1897 in Danzig in Germany and was
16:09
originally called the Kaiser Friedrich.
16:12
So, named after the German king. And it
16:15
was supposed to be the German answer to
16:18
the Atlantic speed record.
16:20
The shipyard was contracted to build a
16:23
ship that would do 22 and 1/2 knots. So,
16:26
it would be able to get across the
16:27
Atlantic in 6 days and therefore get the
16:30
blue ribbons, the famous
16:33
not real trophy for the fastest crossing
16:35
of the of the Atlantic.
16:37
Now,
16:38
it never got past 20 knots. And And that
16:41
may be the I guess the requirement to
16:43
hit that speed may be why it was built
16:46
in the way it was built. I don't really
16:48
know.
16:50
Just going back to the dive here. This
16:52
here is just I'm just going underneath
16:55
the the bridge. Now, we're going to come
16:56
back to the bridge in a minute. Uh no,
16:59
in a few more minutes. We're going to go
17:00
to the bow first. And the bridge is
17:02
absolutely incredible and well worth uh
17:05
hanging on in there for. But before we
17:07
do that, we're going to see one of the
17:09
absolute standout features of the Birdie
17:12
Gall and something that that was I knew
17:15
was going to be a special moment. You
17:17
can see it there. George is
17:19
illuminating the bell on the forward
17:22
mast just above the crow's nest and this
17:25
is a really special moment for me. I've
17:28
seen
17:29
um four mast bells. I've never seen one
17:34
actually on the foremast above the
17:36
crow's nest exactly where it should be.
17:39
And as you can see that is a big big
17:42
bell as well. It it would be an
17:44
absolutely beautiful thing but
17:47
really nice to see it in position and in
17:49
situ even though at some point it's
17:51
going to fall off and end up on the
17:53
seabed.
17:54
For those who follow the story of
17:56
Britannic's bell, that's exactly what
17:59
would have happened to the bell that was
18:00
recovered
18:01
in 2025 by Richie Kohler and his team.
18:05
It was discovered in 2019 effectively on
18:08
the seabed below this position on the
18:10
Britannic. So,
18:12
kind of really nice to get that context
18:14
and really nice to get it before we go
18:16
to Britannic. So, one of the things I'm
18:18
hoping to do perhaps is is go on that
18:20
mast and be able to look down and see
18:23
where they where they found the bell.
18:25
On this one though as you can see there
18:26
I'm just looking in inside hoping that
18:28
the the clanger might be in there or
18:30
checking a clanger's in there.
18:32
Henry is just coming into shot there
18:34
taking a bit of video for me and you can
18:36
see further out there there is there is
18:39
Greg
18:40
all of us just admiring this really
18:42
special moment when we see
18:45
the ship's bell or one of the ship's
18:47
bells cuz there is another one to come.
18:50
Unfortunately, we can't hang around.
18:52
George is cracking the whip. We need to
18:54
see or try and see this entire as much
18:57
of this massive ship as we possibly can.
19:00
And I know that the best bit is coming
19:03
at the end which is that we're going to
19:04
go up on the bridge. I heard all about
19:06
the bridge. I've seen all the photos.
19:08
It's something that I am very much
19:10
looking forward to. First of all though,
19:12
we've got to get to the bow and as we
19:15
head forward we're going to see the one
19:18
of the guns. I promised you those
19:20
earlier on. There's There's George and
19:22
then just to my right here, that is one
19:24
of the 140 mm guns.
19:27
So, the Birgitte you have to understand
19:29
its role, which is that it was a
19:32
auxiliary cruiser. So, the French Navy
19:36
weren't using it as a liner, which is
19:39
what it was designed for. They stuck
19:41
these guns on it and we're using it as
19:43
effectively a small, though it wasn't
19:46
small,
19:47
it was a a warship.
19:51
Its main role was carrying troops, but
19:54
the fact is it had all these guns on it,
19:56
so it was a formidable opponent. Those
19:58
140 mm guns, 5 and 1/2 inch, that is
20:02
going to
20:04
outgun any submarine and quite a lot of
20:08
small warships as well. So, very, very
20:10
powerful
20:12
vessel and
20:14
other nations did exactly the same
20:16
thing. So, if you've seen some of my
20:18
other videos, the one where we dived the
20:20
Mamore for instance, HMS Mamore, much
20:24
smaller liner than this. It was It was
20:25
10,000 tons, although still pretty big.
20:29
Also had on board it It had exactly the
20:32
same thing, which is that it was
20:34
converted
20:36
and the Royal Navy stuck some serious
20:37
armaments on it.
20:40
As you can see from the dive, we are
20:42
carrying on heading forward. Henry's
20:44
overtaking me there. You can see very
20:46
distinctive with those two white
20:47
cylinders.
20:48
Also see the anchor capstans and the and
20:51
there's some anchor chain, I think, off
20:53
to the left-hand side. The other
20:55
interesting thing is you can see there's
20:56
a hole in the the deck here.
20:59
It allows you to look down and see see
21:01
the deck below. The other interesting
21:03
thing, and this is a really good
21:04
Britannic link, is if you have a look to
21:06
the right, you can see where the wooden
21:09
decking has rotted away and you can
21:11
imagine it must have been some sort of
21:13
hardwood, but it's left only the
21:15
caulking which was in between the the
21:18
bits of wood. Exactly the same thing has
21:21
happened on the Britannic and if you see
21:23
one of the videos I've done with Richie,
21:25
he talks about exactly that thing.
21:29
As we move forward, there's there's more
21:30
stuff. I'm just going past on the left
21:32
is the crane which would have been used
21:34
to lift the massive into position.
21:38
We're going to see one of the anchors in
21:39
a moment.
21:41
The other thing of note is what I'm
21:42
looking at here which is a small caliber
21:44
gun.
21:45
I've tried to find out what size it is
21:48
online but not had any joy. I think this
21:51
looking at the looking at the size of it
21:52
though, it's probably a 35 or 40 mil,
21:55
that kind of
21:56
size, probably
21:58
some sort of fast firing thing.
22:00
I don't know. If anybody out there knows
22:02
the answer, I'd love to know it.
22:04
You see George has has gone off the bow
22:06
there. He was very keen that we all did
22:09
this. He said that the view is
22:11
fantastic, so I'm heading out into the
22:13
blue and in a moment I'm going to turn
22:15
around and look back at the ship and
22:16
you're going to see the the bow which is
22:19
wonderfully sleek and once again brings
22:21
you back to that idea that the purpose
22:24
of this ship.
22:25
So it was never built to be an auxiliary
22:27
warship. It was built to get the blue
22:31
ribbon for Germany to do that fastest
22:33
transatlantic
22:35
crossing. Unfortunately,
22:38
that didn't happen. The company that
22:41
would had contracted for it, when they
22:43
realized it wasn't as fast as it was
22:45
supposed to be, they refused to take
22:46
delivery
22:48
and
22:49
there was a contract argument
22:51
that went back and forth. What happened
22:53
in the end was it ended up being
22:56
abandoned almost. It was just sat in a
22:59
dockyard. Nobody wanted it. It didn't go
23:01
anywhere, didn't get used for anything.
23:04
And and it sat there for quite a long
23:05
time until in 1912, the year that
23:09
Titanic sank, a French shipping company
23:12
bought the Kaiser Friedrich for 4
23:15
million francs, which was about 30% of
23:19
the actual value. So, they clearly felt
23:21
they were getting a good deal.
23:25
Obviously, they're not going to want a
23:26
ship called the Kaiser Friedrich. So,
23:28
they changed the name to the Burdigala,
23:31
which is the ancient Roman name for
23:33
Bordeaux. And then, in the next 3 years,
23:36
it ran all sorts of shipping routes in
23:39
the Mediterranean taking passengers
23:41
backwards and forwards.
23:43
But, in 1915, like all navies, the
23:47
French navy needed extra ships and they
23:50
requisitioned the Burdigala. They stuck
23:53
those guns on it, the 440 mm guns,
23:57
whatever the one is on the bow, and
24:00
turned this liner that was kind of
24:02
nobody really wanted into an auxiliary
24:05
warship. And they used it for carrying
24:07
troops around in the Mediterranean
24:09
including um from Toulon uh Toulon,
24:13
rather, to Thessaloniki.
24:17
The ship that couldn't do anything right
24:19
was now a weapons platform in the middle
24:22
of a world war. That's looking at that
24:24
gun again and you can see just the
24:26
right-hand side, that is the anchor
24:28
crane that I've mentioned about. You can
24:30
also see the massive chains that are
24:32
running along the the deck here. And
24:35
then, as we move
24:36
as we start heading back down the deck,
24:38
you can see the the anchor capstans
24:41
there again. So, for me,
24:44
I've dived loads of ships where you see
24:45
all of this sort of stuff. What is
24:47
really rare is to see them actually in
24:50
situ. That's really rare. I'm not even
24:53
sure that I've I've dived
24:55
a wreck this big, this intact, with
24:58
everything exactly where it should be.
25:01
So,
25:03
absolutely fascinating and
25:06
a brilliant brilliant thing for me to
25:08
do.
25:10
You can just see I'm just coming up onto
25:12
the second gun. This one is the one on
25:15
the port side, and as you can see,
25:17
rather than aiming forward, it's aimed
25:19
off to the side. You can see one of the
25:20
wheels there. I'm not sure whether
25:21
that's a traverse rear wheel or the
25:23
elevation. And then all the other stuff
25:26
is on there. I think the sights are
25:28
still on there. Absolutely incredible.
25:31
There's Henry. He's He's coming past.
25:34
Uh just seen George in front of us. You
25:36
know, once again,
25:37
he wants us to see everything, but at
25:39
the same time he's got that
25:40
responsibility of making sure that we
25:42
hit that 2-hour dive time, and therefore
25:45
he's keeping us moving forward. And the
25:47
reason he keeps us moving forward is
25:48
because there is so much to see on this
25:51
wreck. One dive nowhere near enough.
25:54
I really hope that we'll get the
25:55
opportunity to dive it again on this
25:57
trip. What you can see there is is
25:59
George has stuck his camera on a lamp,
26:02
paraffin lamp. Henry's coming in to get
26:04
some some video of it. Now, clearly,
26:07
that lamp
26:09
wasn't there when the ship sank, so
26:10
somebody's moved it and stuck it there.
26:13
And what you're going to see in a second
26:14
is that beneath it is the lamp locker,
26:17
and there is a whole load more lamps in
26:19
there. Once again, I've seen lamps on
26:22
ships. I've seen lamp lockers before.
26:26
Normally, they're crushed and broken and
26:28
things are spilling out or whatever. So,
26:30
absolutely incredible, as you can see he
26:32
here, to be able to look down on top of
26:34
it through the deck and see all those
26:37
um all those brass objects in there.
26:39
They They look absolutely wonderful.
26:42
Now, for me,
26:45
I know that
26:46
the Greeks have protected this wreck,
26:48
and they've made it absolutely
26:50
wonderful, and it is a beautiful thing.
26:52
It's fantastic to see these things in
26:54
here, but the the material these are
26:56
made out of is relatively thin.
27:00
They've been underwater 100 years, and
27:02
it will eventually
27:05
decay. It will corrode even even brass,
27:08
believe it or not. The the individual
27:10
elements corrode and and and everything.
27:12
So,
27:13
if it was me, I would be getting
27:15
somebody to lift some of those up, get
27:17
them onto the surface, stick them in a
27:19
museum where they can be preserved
27:22
forever. But But there you go.
27:24
Now, just to my left there, you've
27:25
probably seen that that looks like a
27:27
skylight,
27:28
and potentially that would have been
27:30
into, I guess, a dining area or
27:33
something like that.
27:34
But in front of me here is
27:36
uh the bridge, and you can see I'm
27:38
looking up there that the main bridge is
27:40
off to my left-hand side. This is the
27:43
one of the wings that would that would
27:45
come out from the bridge. And when they
27:46
were docking, I think they would send
27:48
people out onto the end of those wings
27:50
to kind of relay information about how
27:52
close the ship was and those kind of
27:53
things. Often they have telegraphs up on
27:55
there. Uh as you'll see, I do go I go
27:58
round it and then come up on top of it
27:59
and I have a look. There isn't a There
28:01
isn't a telegraph there. All the four
28:03
telegraphs
28:05
uh are in the bridge, and we're and
28:07
we're going to see those in a second.
28:10
But it is quite nice,
28:12
this kind of whole thing. Just to come
28:14
off the side of the wreck. So, to the
28:16
the main bit of the wreck is is beneath
28:18
me. There you can see Greg's in front of
28:19
me. You see there's some more uh davits
28:22
for for lifeboats, and you can imagine
28:24
when the ship was sinking that those
28:27
davits were in action. That's
28:30
one of the reasons why so few people
28:32
died when the Burdigala was sunk. In
28:34
fact, the records show there was only a
28:36
single casualty. He actually died of
28:40
burns, which is obviously very sad,
28:42
but I guess incredible that a ship of
28:44
this size
28:46
sank relatively quickly, had so few
28:49
casualties.
28:51
One of the many interesting things about
28:53
the Burdigala is that it was sunk by
28:56
a mine from the same submarine that sank
29:00
the Britannic. In fact, there's only 7
29:02
days difference between the sinkings.
29:05
The Burdigala was sunk first.
29:07
Unfortunately, I guess for the
29:09
Britannic, but fortunately for me, they
29:12
didn't realize that the Burdigala was
29:16
sunk by mine at the time. They thought
29:18
it had been torpedoed, and in fact, the
29:19
captain's report says that they fired
29:22
shots at what they thought was a
29:23
periscope. So, they didn't think it was
29:25
a mine. I guess if they'd have known it
29:27
was a mine, they would probably or
29:30
possibly have let Britannic know, and
29:32
Britannic might have taken a different
29:34
route, and therefore might not have hit
29:35
the minefield.
29:37
So, potentially, there was an
29:38
opportunity missed there.
29:40
Opportunity not to be missed out is what
29:42
we are currently doing, which is having
29:45
a look at the bridge.
29:47
You can see Greg in front of me there is
29:50
pretending to operate one of the four
29:53
telegraphs that we're going to see in a
29:54
minute. There you go. There's two
29:56
telegraphs in that picture. In fact,
29:58
there's There you go, all four of them
29:59
are there. I'm going to come back in and
30:01
have a look at them in a moment. But,
30:03
the other fascinating thing is is this
30:05
thing here, which is a rangefinder. And
30:08
the rangefinder is on top of
30:11
the part of the compass binnacle. So,
30:14
incredible to see those things in situ,
30:18
pretty much where they would have been.
30:19
Actually, I think there was another
30:21
level above the one where we are now,
30:23
and we're going to see in a bit the helm
30:25
that was up there. That rangefinder, I
30:27
think, would have been up there as well.
30:29
But, but here we've got those four
30:30
telegraphs, three in that picture, as
30:33
we're as we're looking at it, and the
30:35
fourth one, there you go, just the right
30:37
hand side. Incredible.
30:39
Imagine what that bridge would have
30:41
looked like
30:42
back in the day. It would have I think
30:44
all of those things would have been
30:46
glistening, would have been absolutely
30:48
incredible. Now, what you can see there
30:50
in the middle of the screen or the
30:51
bottom of the screen, that's one of the
30:53
helms.
30:54
And you can see it's attached by a long
30:56
pole to that thing there, which is in
30:57
the middle of the screen, which is the
30:59
telemotor helm to the hydraulic helm.
31:02
The The smaller helm would have been up
31:04
on top, above above this deck. That I
31:07
think is would have been wooden and has
31:08
all completely rotted away, which is why
31:10
this is all fallen out fallen down here,
31:12
the rangefinder.
31:14
That the top helm, potentially the the
31:16
binnacle would have been up there as
31:18
well. Although you'd imagine there would
31:19
also have been a binnacle on this level.
31:22
I'm coming back in here just to have a
31:23
look at these four telegraphs. There's a
31:25
whole load of other stuff around here as
31:27
well. There's things that look to me
31:29
like potentially um
31:32
bells, maybe they were telephones or
31:35
some sort of communication device. You
31:36
can see one just to the bottom left of
31:38
the telegraph just going out of shot.
31:40
I'm concentrating In fact, there it is.
31:42
You can see straight in front of me
31:43
there.
31:45
There's all sorts of things uh in and
31:48
around the bottom here that have
31:50
that have been covered up. I'm just
31:52
I'm kind of I'm pro- I'm a bit awestruck
31:55
at this moment to see all this stuff
31:57
like this. So so unusual. People tell me
32:00
you get this in Truk Lagoon. I've not
32:03
been to Truk. I don't believe that you
32:06
get
32:07
liners of this quality and this size in
32:10
Truk Lagoon there. You might get
32:12
merchant ships. Yeah, fine. Which will
32:15
will have some of this sort of stuff,
32:16
but not the quality and the quantity
32:19
that that we're currently looking at
32:21
here. So if somebody out there knows a
32:22
wreck
32:24
that is a liner wreck like the Birdie
32:26
Gallant that is in this good a
32:28
condition, I would I'd be really
32:30
fascinated to hear about it, but I I
32:32
think it's pretty unique.
32:34
Now, the thing that I'm doing there, you
32:35
can see George is just sat off the back.
32:38
I'm very keen to know where the the bell
32:40
is and the second bell is and as you can
32:43
see he's he's just pointing
32:45
it out to me there.
32:48
It's
32:49
not really where I was expecting it to
32:51
be. I would have expected the second
32:53
bell to be much closer to the the bridge
32:55
gear, so those telegraphs and stuff. So,
32:58
I'm not entirely sure why it's ended up
33:00
down here, but there's no doubt it is
33:02
the bell. This that's not in any
33:04
dispute. You can see it there balanced
33:05
precariously on the lip of
33:09
that bit of rusted plate. It potentially
33:12
it's being held on by
33:14
uh its hanger, but
33:17
I also suspect that at some point that
33:19
bell is going to fall into the bowels of
33:22
the ship through that big hole and will
33:23
end up several decks down, so
33:26
that will be a great loss when that
33:28
happens, but it's the reality. All these
33:30
ships, they're not static, they're not
33:32
museums, they are
33:35
things that are in going through the
33:37
gradual pro- process of decay and
33:40
ultimately they're all going to end up
33:42
flat on the seabed.
33:45
And that will be very sad for future
33:46
generations of divers. All they're going
33:48
to have be able to do is come and watch
33:50
videos from people like me.
33:52
The other thing I think I've spotted in
33:53
there is is that looks like a bath.
33:56
I don't know whether that was a bath for
33:59
the crew, a bath for the passengers, or
34:02
given its location in a proximity to the
34:04
bridge, perhaps that was the the
34:06
captain's bath. I don't know.
34:09
If somebody's got the plans or somebody
34:10
knows some more, then then please please
34:13
tell me. The other thing So, you can
34:15
proceed that orange fins, so Greg is
34:17
coming to have a look at the bell as
34:19
well.
34:20
You can see some more davits off to the
34:22
left-hand side there. You can also see
34:24
this area here is where one of the
34:26
funnels would be. Three funnels.
34:29
Quite an unusual layout, as I said,
34:31
because of the the fact that boilers
34:32
were aft of of the engine. So,
34:35
in between the the funnels I thought I'd
34:37
just gone past the funnel there, I
34:38
think, on the left-hand side. In between
34:40
the funnels,
34:41
just coming back up on the top of the
34:43
wreck for that last glimpse at this
34:45
bridge area.
34:46
I
34:47
I know that the dive is coming to an
34:49
end. I know that
34:51
we're running out of time, but I so want
34:53
to spend longer in this area. In fact, I
34:54
want to spend longer on the whole wreck.
34:56
It is It is so good, but I know that
34:59
George is cracking the whip. He's on
35:01
that 2-hour timeline, so
35:04
I can't. I know that we're going to have
35:06
to head back to the shot line, which is
35:08
off to our left-hand side. It's
35:12
not very far away. You're going to see
35:14
the strobes and stuff in a second, but
35:15
I'm just having a look around here. Just
35:17
getting that hopefully not final
35:19
glimpse, cuz I hope I'm going to come
35:20
back to this wreck, but but you never
35:22
know. Funnel fallen over off to my
35:24
right-hand side there.
35:26
And then uh you can see here heading
35:28
back. The other guys are already They're
35:30
already ahead of me. You start seeing
35:32
the strobes coming into view there.
35:34
And you can see a very reluctant me
35:37
heading to join them.
35:39
I can't begin to tell you how much I've
35:41
enjoyed this dive. It's one that I've
35:42
been looking forward to for years and
35:45
years. It absolutely deserves the
35:47
plaudits it gets.
35:49
What it doesn't get is enough plaudits
35:51
because this is a world world-class
35:55
dive. It is so good. I'll tell you what
35:58
you so good as well. You can see uh the
36:00
strobes there.
36:02
You ever want a
36:03
an indication of why strobes are good,
36:06
this this shows you there. You see mine
36:08
are the two at the bottom, my my kind of
36:09
classic double strobes, and then there's
36:11
few of the other guys. So,
36:13
I'm going to I'm going to take those
36:15
off, and then it's the beginning of the
36:18
ascent.
36:19
Which is is sad, but hey, that's that's
36:22
the way it is with this kind of diving.
36:24
You have to be disciplined. If you say
36:26
you're going to do something, you have
36:28
to stick to it, especially for people in
36:32
a team. That's not the easiest thing in
36:35
the world. As a as an individual, you
36:37
have to you have to be disciplined. You
36:40
have to do what the group has agreed.
36:42
And you've probably seen that at there's
36:44
a couple of occasions on this video
36:46
where I've kind of
36:47
I've kind of hung back and I guess if
36:50
I'm being a bit self-critical on myself,
36:52
I probably shouldn't have done that. I
36:54
should have probably made more of an
36:56
effort to stick a bit closer.
36:58
Greg's just removing his stray from the
37:01
shot line. It's not something he does
37:03
all the time. I think this is a bit of a
37:05
a jury-rigged thing.
37:06
So, he's finding it a little bit more
37:08
challenging. I think this might be the
37:09
first time he's done it for a for a long
37:11
time. George is going to come in and
37:13
help him there, but
37:14
while that's going on, I'm just looking
37:16
up the line there. You can see Henry and
37:18
that there, that's the the route to
37:20
home. Going to spend several hours
37:22
looking at that line. And this is it.
37:24
This is on a bit further on. There's his
37:26
on deco stops. Well, that's Henry's
37:28
video. He's
37:30
having a taking a bit of a video of
37:31
himself and you can see looks pretty
37:33
good in that GBM chest mount rebreather
37:36
with his with his twins on the back.
37:38
He's also got that lovely head-up
37:40
display, which is the
37:42
the new one by Halcyon. There you go,
37:45
just a bit of a photo bomb. I've just
37:47
appeared in the background to try and
37:50
make sure I get in there. You probably
37:52
see the bubbles there from one of the
37:53
support divers.
37:54
Over there, that's that's George looking
37:57
very cool.
37:58
There isn't much current. We're we're
38:00
very lucky. There's Henry looking down
38:03
at me. You can see I've got my dive
38:04
boat. And I I think I was taking photos
38:07
or watching some video or something like
38:10
that. But we were really lucky not to
38:12
get the current that sometimes plagues
38:14
this area.
38:15
There's Greg. He's obviously a bit
38:16
further ahead on on the deco stops than
38:19
the rest of us.
38:21
And uh, right, I think Oh, yeah, out in
38:24
the blue there, that's the support diver
38:26
with George, and this is the surface,
38:28
that's me, just arrived.
38:31
Obviously chuffed to anything.
38:34
Done the Burdigala, brilliant wreck, one
38:36
I've been looking forward to for so
38:38
long. And behind me there you can see
38:40
the chase boat, which is
38:41
uh, if a diver comes off the, uh,
38:43
trapeze or the system and
38:47
you know, get swept away by the current,
38:48
need someone to to pick them up.
38:52
You probably also see I'm just starting
38:53
to take off my, uh, scooter there, so
38:56
that'll be the first thing that gets out
38:57
of the water. But yeah, Burdigala,
39:00
absolutely stunning, world-class dive.
39:03
I'm so pleased to have done it. It's
39:06
It's something I enjoyed a lot. I'm
39:08
really hopeful that I'm going to get the
39:09
opportunity to dive it again. There's so
39:12
much more to see down there. It's, uh, I
39:14
mean, I could probably spend the entire
39:16
trip out here diving the Burdigala, to
39:18
be honest. But anyway, there we go. Next
39:21
one, fingers crossed, will be the
39:23
Britannic.
39:24
I hope you've enjoyed this video. As
39:26
always, please do all the usual sort of
39:28
stuff, like, um, leave us comments,
39:31
and
39:32
of course, tell other people about it.
39:34
But for now, I'm Don Robinson, deep
39:37
wreck diver. I'll look forward to seeing
39:38
you on the next one.

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