The discovery of USS Jacob Jones (DD-61) - full dive footage

0:00
finding This ship's Bell in 115 MERS of
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water was a culmination of years of
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effort as soon as we saw the name Jacob
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on it we knew that we'd found the United
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States ship Jacob Jones Lost since
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December
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1917 torpedoed by the famous German
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NewBo Skipper Hans Rose it was the first
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ever American Destroyer to be sunk by
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enemy action 64 men lost their lives in
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the freezing Waters and are now
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commemorated at the Brookwood American
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Memorial the wreck is located 40 Mi
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Southwest of the Isles of silly making
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it extremely difficult to get to
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operating from the famous diver support
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vessel Darkstar we were based in the
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corish port of Newland giving us a 120 m
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round trip to reach the dive site
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we had six Targets in that area and only
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two days to dive them so it was always
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going to be a bit hit and miss the first
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day was definitely miss in 110 M we
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dived a small colier it was nice enough
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quite pretty but it wasn't the Jacob
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Jones following a lot of soul searching
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and scrutinizing of historical sinking
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records and UK hydrographic
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information another dive site was chosen
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and boy did that Prov to be a good
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decision another good decision was that
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I was diving with Rick eron if you've
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seen my other videos you'll know that
1:45
he's a wonderful underwater photographer
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and he captured some absolutely stunning
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ones on this dive the photo of the Bell
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that you've already seen at the
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beginning of this video was one of his
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but he also got a load more
2:00
and I've put them together towards the
2:02
end of this
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video If you fast forward to the 13
2:07
minutes and 30 seconds Point you'll see
2:10
them it's also notable that Rick is the
2:13
person who found the bell and he found
2:15
it super quickly I was still faffing
2:18
around sorting out my strobes in the
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other bottom of dive admin that we tend
2:22
to do when I heard a load of shouting
2:25
and it was Rick he must have found the
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Bell pretty much the instant he hit the
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seabed but he was calling and obviously
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I went over to see what it was and uh
2:35
and there was the Bell it was just an
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incredible moment and so quickly
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unfortunately I haven't got that moment
2:41
captured on video and the reason is
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before this dive I was experiencing
2:46
problems with my power lens it was
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mounted on my uh on my mask but it was
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really uh unreliable it would sometimes
2:54
turn on sometimes turn off so to try and
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resolve it and also to get a bit better
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quity quality video I uh I moved it and
3:02
mounted it on my scooter unfortunately
3:04
the scooter Mount wasn't great and the
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uh the video lights that that I put on
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there one of them uh one of them failed
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and so you'll see during the uh uh
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during the the video that there was only
3:16
only one working uh the other thing is I
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didn't realize that the power lens
3:21
wasn't on until I actually uh started uh
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looking at the Bell so there's a big
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chunk missing at the bottom of the dive
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which is really sad and in fact this bit
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of video that you're watching at the
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moment is from uh the dive I did day
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before on the colier so you may feel
3:37
that's a bit of a swiz sorry about that
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but the good news is uh it's about to
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cut very very shortly and we're going to
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go on and we're going to start the dive
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with the appearance of the bell and
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there it is we're now looking at the
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bell of the Jacob Jones in5 M really
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close to the
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shotline we've turned it over so when we
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found it it was on its side but we put
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it up like that so that we could see uh
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the writing on it and we could see the
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name Jacob Jones that you've already
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seen at the beginning what's happening
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now is I've realized there's some other
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divers around and I'm trying to indicate
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to them that they should come over and
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look at the Bell uh Unfortunately they
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don't and so only Rick and myself
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actually saw the bell of the Jacob Jones
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on this dive even though there were
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another another three people down
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there nobody else had ever dived this
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wreck and I doubt very much whether
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anyone has dived it since what has
4:36
happened though is that the Royal Navy
4:39
on behalf of the US Navy have recovered
4:43
the bell and it's on its way to a museum
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in America which is absolutely brilliant
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and the right place it should be what it
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does mean though is that only two people
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will ever have seen that Bell underwater
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uh Rick who found it uh and myself who
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was fortunate enough to be diving with
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Rick so that he uh he called me over so
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I could have a look at it
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now what's going on here is you can see
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only one of my video lights is working
5:12
which is the one on the right hand side
5:13
explains why the video quality is so
5:15
poor and it's it's one of the really
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frustrating things about this dive is
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that if I'd have dived with a setup now
5:22
I'd have some absolutely stunning video
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footage but because this setup was kind
5:27
of experimental or certainly a prototype
5:31
it just isn't that great it it really
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frustrates me and you can see I'm
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mocking around with bits and pieces on
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the scooter when of course what I would
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really love to be doing is is getting
5:41
around the wreck and having a look at
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different bits and
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pieces um the good news is I'm about to
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sort it out pretty shortly and then
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we'll uh we'll we'll crack
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on so you can just see Rick coming in uh
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on the right hand side there he's got
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his skills Stills camera mounted on top
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of his his piranha scooter and we're
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going to we're going to head off around
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the wreck together the Jacob Jones was a
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destroyer which at that time broadly
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meant a really quick vessel armed with
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smallish guns and lots of torpedoes that
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was mainly used for scouting and
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reconnaissance but during the first
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world war they did a lot of Convoy
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Escorts as well and the uh the OTS
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really really feared them so no doubt
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that Hans Rose was very pleased when he
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uh when he sank it unlike cargo ships
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military vessels are just full of stuff
6:36
loads of boilers
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engines various other bits and pieces
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and that Mak some really interesting
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wrecks to dive there's always loads to
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see they're not not like cargo ships
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where there's just big amounts of space
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or if you're lucky large quantities of
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cargo such as the coal that we'd seen on
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the uh on the on the day
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before having been at the bridge area
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where we found the Bell we're now moving
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towards a Stern so this is the kind of
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main Machinery spaces of the of the
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vessel we thought that the Jacob Jones
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was on its uh starboard side so the main
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bulk of the the ship is actually off to
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the right hand side all the engine
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spaces boilers and all that kind of
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stuff unfortunately that's also where my
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video light is so it's not the quality
7:24
is not as good as I I would like it to
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be but hopefully you can still see
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there's pipes and machine Ary and valves
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and all sorts of stuff all over the
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place I guess the other thing to mention
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is that in my left hand I've got my main
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torch uh which is run on a uh from
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canister in the on my rebreather now
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that doesn't make for great video and as
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you can see I'm uh I'm sort of waving it
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around and focusing on whatever I'm I'm
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interested in and that just you know
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once again reduces the quality of the
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video but underwater I'm I'm not really
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thinking that much about the video I'm
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more interested in uh in trying to find
8:02
stuff now what's really interesting is
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I'm about to find something and if you
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can have a look to the right hand side
8:09
you can see it this is a torpedo tube in
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the middle you can see the the mounting
8:15
the circular mounting which was used to
8:17
kind of aim it and then there that's
8:19
looking at one end of the torpedo tube I
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think this was a actually a pair of
8:23
torpedo tube so the other one would be
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underneath it probably under the sand
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the Jacob Jones had had four pairs of uh
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torpedo tubes so that's uh that's one of
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them there you know these would have
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been made of bronze and you know
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absolutely incredible things um as you
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can see though I'm not I'm not hanging
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around it's 115 M really limited dive
8:47
time there was actually a load of
8:48
current on this uh on this site as well
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you can probably see it's uh it's coming
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towards me at the moment I'm actually
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really lucky I've got the scooter which
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which reduces a lot of the the work down
8:58
there
9:00
only Rick and myself had scooters the
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other the other guys were Finning and
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they all came up and uh reported how
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difficult it was so very few of them
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managed to see as much of the wreck as
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we did now the next interesting thing is
9:13
is just coming up in front of me here
9:15
you can see this big I guess tube or
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pipe that's got a 90° Bend in it and if
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you have a look at the end of that 90°
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Bend is actually a prop so this is one
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of the uh the propellers from the Jacob
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Jones and you think what needs to happen
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to a vessel for a a prop shaft to have a
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90° Bend in it absolutely incredible
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um the the Jacob Jones was torpedoed in
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the stern so the my view uh and the view
9:44
of Rick is is that that was probably
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something that happened during the
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initial
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explosion um but I think it just shows
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the scale of of Destruction that was
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wrought on a you know relatively small
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ship the top Torpedoes at the time were
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designed for sinking much much bigger
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cargo ships so it would have had a lot
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of explosives in it and uh and that
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massive amount of explosives hitting a
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small vessel like the Jacob Jones blew
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the blew the back to
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smithin and uh you know cause that 90°
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Bend this is us moving back towards the
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uh the front of the ship as a do so
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going over the top of something that
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that may well be a steam turbine
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underneath me there um difficult to say
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for certain but it had that kind of that
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look now heading back over this is the
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port side of the ship or or what's left
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of it so I'm a bit higher up than I was
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earlier on where I was on the
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seabed uh once again I'm looking down
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into into the Machinery spaces you can
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see you know things that could be
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engines there's a load of pipes there um
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there's going to be some boilers at some
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point you'll see the the kind of the
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boiler tubes
11:02
but there's the strobes and that's my
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way
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home at the end of a dive like this it's
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always a good feeling to get back to
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them and know that you're all sorted for
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your
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Ascent one of the photos I showed at the
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beginning of the uh of the slideshow was
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actually a photograph of the Jacob Jones
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sinking taken by uh one of the guys who
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was on on a life raft it didn't sink
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instantly so that so they did have
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enough time to get off but I think a
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load of the life rafts were actually
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destroyed in the initial explosion so
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there wasn't enough time for or wasn't
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enough space rather for everyone to get
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on board them uh very famously one of
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the uh the junior officers on the Jacob
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Jones was in the water and spent his
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time swimming from uh one life raft to
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another um speaking to the guys who were
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hanging on the side of it you know
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encouraging them to uh to hang on and to
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endure and uh to wait for help very very
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sadly uh he died we should definitely
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take a moment though to remember the
12:06
heroics of leftenant Junior grade
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Stanton Frederick
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culk he was 23 years old when he died
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and the US Navy awarded him the
12:17
distinguished service medal for his
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self-sacrifice someone else who comes
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out of this really well is actually Hans
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Rose the German skipper Not only was his
12:30
sinking of the Jacob Jones an incredible
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feat of seamanship the torpedo was
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launched at about the maximum range in
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some pretty tricky conditions but also
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having sunk the Jacob Jones he then
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surfaced his submarine took two very
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seriously wounded people on board and
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perhaps incredibly then radioed back to
12:52
the American base in Queenstown now Cove
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in southern Ireland to tell them that
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there was a large number of sailors in
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the water and that they they should send
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help
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immediately by doing so he placed his
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own submarine at risk and I think it's a
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mark of Hans Rose's Humanity that he
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still felt that calling for help was the
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right thing to do approximately half the
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crew of the Jacob Jones survived though
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I think it's doubtful that very many
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would have done so but for H Rose's
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actions to make up for the poor quality
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of my video Rick has very kindly allowed
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me to use some of his photos now this
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one is obviously of the Bell but what I
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didn't notice at the time is that right
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next to it was one of the telegraphs
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from the
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bridge obviously it's covered in net and
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rope and buried in sand but what's
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interesting is that it isn't a coffee
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grinder Telegraph like the ones used by
13:54
the Royal
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Navy Rick has changed position he's now
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pretty much next to where the telegraph
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is and so he's got the Bell from a
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different angle this is before we moved
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it so this is exactly as it was when we
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got down there we've now stood it up and
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obviously the purpose of doing this is
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so that we could read the name also
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allows you to see the Bell hanger on the
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left hand side and you can see where it
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was attached to the ship this is it from
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another angle and this is the one that
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I've shown you already where the Jacob
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is really clearly
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visible Rick did didn't just take photos
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of the Bell though this is me with my
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scooter set up with only one video light
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working this is another one of me you
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can see all the boilers off to my right
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hand side another couple of
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photos just showing the amount of
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Machinery there was in those kind of
14:48
engine spaces this is a good example I
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think it's uh it's probably a condenser
14:54
but I'm not 100%
14:56
certain something else looks as though
14:58
it would have been important and useful
15:00
no idea what it is that's clearly a
15:03
wheel I love this photo which is of the
15:07
the prop shaft showing once again how
15:09
much it's been deformed no doubt through
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the violence of the sinking I thought
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I'd save the best to last though and
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Rick also saw two of the four 4in guns
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on board the Jacob Jones they're both
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inverted and buried in the seabed but
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it's absolutely clear that's what they
15:28
are I'm kicking myself cuz I didn't see
15:31
either of them still that's the way it
15:33
goes and good skills for to Rick for
15:36
recording them back to the dive though
15:40
we've had the fun it's now time for the
15:42
pain and that pain is two and a half
15:45
hours of
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decompression but all the time we know
15:50
it's job done mission accomplished it's
15:53
beyond question that the wreck is a
15:55
Jacob
15:56
Jones we've seen the Bell with the first
15:59
to dive it no one ever else will ever be
16:02
able to do that that's just an
16:05
incredible feeling and the sort of thing
16:07
that sustains you through long periods
16:09
of
16:09
Deco here I am just towards the end it's
16:13
not actually the Jacob Jones it's the
16:15
colia dive on the day before but you get
16:18
the
16:19
idea I'm ascending up to the
16:22
surface we've been drifting for hours
16:26
and as always there's kind of there's
16:28
just just the hope that the boat's there
16:31
now I know it's there cuz I've heard it
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so uh so that's not a concern but here I
16:37
am looking around we're just Miles and
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Miles offshore and there it is brilliant
16:43
Dark Star here to come and pick me up
16:46
get me out of the water I'm really Keen
16:48
to do that we're so lucky in uh Mark
16:52
Dixon the skipper of Dark Star he's uh
16:56
he's he's done you know the most
16:57
incredible Dives himself you know he's a
16:59
proper Pioneer doesn't do it uh really
17:02
these days but he's all about the uh the
17:06
Expeditions it's all about the uh the
17:08
finding new stuff and the fact that he's
17:10
willing to take us out and do this kind
17:12
of thing we're just we're just so
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fortunate uh as a diver he knows he
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knows exactly what divers want he knows
17:21
how to look after them and he's he's a
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great Skipper so here I am just at the
17:26
back of the boat just waiting for the
17:28
call come around get on the lift uh and
17:32
then they'll get me out of water and uh
17:35
some of the other guys have already got
17:36
out already will'll be there to kind of
17:38
give us a hand get my gear off get me
17:41
sat down because this moment when all of
17:43
a sudden the lift comes up all that
17:45
weight comes back on you all the gear
17:48
that you're carrying gravity suddenly
17:50
returns with a Vengeance it's uh it's
17:54
always an interesting moment but having
17:56
people uh willing to kind of help you
17:58
out to get the gear off you um that's uh
18:02
it's just
18:03
fantastic well that's another one of my
18:06
diving videos coming to a close I very
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much hope you've enjoyed it uh I hope if
18:11
you have you'll uh you put a comment
18:14
you'll uh you'll like it you'll uh
18:17
you'll share it with your mates and of
18:19
course if you haven't already done so uh
18:21
please subscribe that would be brilliant
18:24
okay well thank you and uh hope you
18:26
enjoy my next video
18:29
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The discovery of USS Jacob Jones (DD-61) - full dive footage

Deep Wreck Diver