The SS Express Mystery | Finally Identified on the Seabed

0:00
13 men died when this ship was smashed
0:03
in the dark. And for over a hundred
0:06
years, nobody has had any idea where it
0:10
was.
0:12
This is the SS Express, a small steam
0:15
ship lost off the Orcnes in 1918 that
0:19
has been missing ever since.
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Our target for the dive is a wreck lying
0:26
in 85 m. It's about the right size and
0:30
is split into two. So, it looks really
0:33
promising. We're hoping to get the
0:36
evidence that will allow us to prove
0:37
beyond reasonable doubt that we have
0:40
found the SS Express.
0:42
To do that, we need to find three
0:45
critical clues. The first is a
0:48
distinctive two-cylinder compound
0:50
engine. We're also after hard evidence
0:54
of her cargo and the catastrophic break
0:57
where the hole was quite literally
1:00
chopped in two. If we find them, we can
1:04
say that we've solved a shipwreck
1:06
mystery that's been around for over a
1:08
hundred years. But more importantly, we
1:12
also provide closure to the local
1:14
community because these weren't just
1:17
anonymous sailors. These were members of
1:20
that community. They were brothers and
1:23
fathers and sons who over the passage of
1:26
time have not been forgotten. Their
1:29
grandfathers, greatgrandfathers,
1:32
great uncles. And today, if we identify
1:35
the express, we have the opportunity to
1:39
give those families the knowledge of
1:42
where those people are.
1:44
So why was it so hard to find? In order
1:48
to understand that, we have to go back
1:50
to 1918.
1:53
This was wartime, the first world war.
1:56
The North Sea and the area around the
1:58
Orcne was a front line. There was
2:02
convoys and supply ships and naval
2:05
vessels and submarines.
2:07
There was no navigation lights. All
2:10
there were were blacked out ships and a
2:13
whole lot of metal moving through the
2:15
same narrow dangerous water.
2:20
The SS Express was a slow cargo steamer.
2:24
The ship that hit it, HMS Grenville, was
2:27
an Mclass destroyer, fast, narrow, built
2:32
to cut through water at high speed.
2:35
The Express was on its regular cargo
2:38
route from Leath near Edinburgh in
2:40
Scotland to Kirkwall when just 12 miles
2:44
short of her destination she encountered
2:46
the Grenville. Now in peace time these
2:50
ships would never have been this close.
2:52
But in war they had to occupy that same
2:55
amount of blacked out sea. And the
2:59
physics mean if a,000 ton destroyer hits
3:03
a 350 ton small steam ship, that isn't
3:07
just another bump. It's a knife edge
3:11
acting like an axe cutting straight
3:14
through the seam steam ship. And that's
3:16
exactly what happened when the Grenville
3:18
hit the express. It didn't just damage
3:22
her, it chopped her in two. On board
3:26
were 13 men. mostly from Orcnes
3:29
supplemented by two Royal Navy gunners
3:32
and they went down with her. In 1918,
3:36
there was no GPS. There was no modern
3:39
sonar and no time really to figure out
3:42
exactly where they were. The war moved
3:45
on and the wreck of the SS Express
3:48
simply vanished into the North Sea. Now,
3:52
anyone who's watched any of my videos
3:54
will know that I love a good wreck dive,
3:56
but more importantly, I love the
3:59
opportunity to solve mysteries. And
4:01
that's exactly what this video and this
4:03
dive is all about. This is MV Casino,
4:08
which is a really well-known dive boat
4:10
in uh Scapplow, the Orcnes, but also
4:14
operates off the west coast of Scotland.
4:16
This is the 2023
4:18
Lost in Waters Deep Gasperados
4:21
expedition. So, a chap called Kevin
4:23
Heath is giving us information on dive
4:26
sites. The Gasperados dive team is run
4:30
by really by the Mortimers. So, Steve,
4:32
Barbara, Mortimer. They put together a
4:34
team which I was very grateful to be
4:36
included in that. and we headed up to
4:39
Scotland and we then went and spent a
4:43
week diving uh pretty much almost all of
4:46
them unknown wrecks. So this was the
4:49
first dive that we did. It was the first
4:51
wreck we identified, but we then did
4:54
dived on other wrecks. We found HMS
4:58
Host, HMS Negro, and then another wreck.
5:01
Unfortunately, we we not 100% we managed
5:04
to identify that one, but four days in a
5:07
row, Rick and myself descended onto Rex
5:09
that had never been dived before, which
5:11
was an incredible privilege. And I'll
5:14
put a link to those videos,
5:16
uh, if you want to go and watch some of
5:18
the other ones. Now, the thing that
5:20
you're probably observing is the dive
5:22
deck on Cina, which is absolutely
5:25
massive. This is a liverboard dive boat
5:26
as well, so so we actually spent the
5:29
whole time living on here. The cabins
5:31
are just in front of where that uh that
5:33
lady is. You can see there she's um with
5:36
with the camera. That is the emergency
5:38
access to the cabins which are there
5:39
under the deck. We had all the kit on
5:41
board the boat that we needed. So
5:43
there's a filling station down at the
5:45
right hand end which does not only uh
5:48
air and nitrox but also oxygen and try
5:52
mix as well. So it's an incredibly well
5:55
fitted out boat for this kind of
5:57
expedition diving. The other thing that
5:59
you can probably see is that we had a
6:01
great surface team as well. So the two
6:03
chaps on the right hand side um in the
6:05
daylow vests, they were our crew for the
6:08
week. Um so they basically managed the
6:11
deck, managed the filling, operated the
6:14
boat. What we also had is the lady with
6:16
the camera. Uh she was uh there to
6:19
document what was going on, but we also
6:21
had uh several members of the team. So
6:24
unfortunately Fran had been bent the day
6:27
before. So, her diving was uh was was
6:30
finished. You can see there she's just
6:32
helping me getting ready with my
6:34
scooter. Uh the crew were getting Rick
6:36
sorted, who's to my right, with with his
6:38
scooter. And we also had uh Will, who
6:42
unfortunately had been bent a month or
6:44
two before, so he was acting as kind of
6:46
like a support diver. But here we go.
6:48
This is the moment of truth. You see
6:50
there, we've had the had the message. We
6:53
are in the water. You can see just to
6:55
the side there. What a massive vessel
6:57
Cina is. It's it's a brilliant diving
7:00
platform. You can also see conditions
7:02
are looking pretty good as well. So,
7:04
there's not too much of a swell when you
7:06
consider that we're kind of uh you 15 18
7:09
mi offshore. That's absolutely lovely.
7:11
The the boat have already got the shot
7:13
in. And uh so therefore, Rick and me, we
7:16
are we're getting ourselves there. And
7:18
this is where the scooters really help.
7:20
You can see there I'm just turning on
7:21
the GoPro on the top of the scooter. I'm
7:24
probably going to unfold the arms. There
7:25
we I'm going to unfold the arms in a
7:27
second as well to get the video lights
7:28
going. And uh for anybody or for people
7:32
who've never done this before, this is a
7:35
really really exciting moment of the
7:38
dive. So you've spent all this time
7:41
getting to the dive site. You know, not
7:44
just driving out in the boat, but also,
7:46
you know, for me, I've come from
7:47
Plymouth, so I've driven the length of,
7:49
in fact, most of us have. I've driven
7:51
the length of the United Kingdom to get
7:53
up to Scotland. Uh then there's all the
7:55
planning, all the talking about the
7:57
dive. And so when you actually get in
8:00
the water and you start going down the
8:02
shot line, it's an absolutely uh
8:05
incrediblely
8:07
exciting uh interesting moment of the
8:10
dive. So um you know, you kind of you've
8:12
got no idea what you're going to get at
8:14
the bottom. We think we know obviously
8:16
we've talked about it. We know it's not
8:18
a particularly big wreck. We know it's
8:20
probably got the the stern chopped off
8:23
and we know that it's got that engine,
8:25
the boiler and and you know, we're kind
8:28
of hoping there might be some cargo down
8:29
there as well. So, really exciting. Now,
8:32
you can see we haven't messed around. Uh
8:34
got the scooter is on the go and you
8:37
know, accelerating down to to the
8:39
bottom. For those of you who haven't
8:41
seen any of my other videos, this is a
8:43
really common thing that that Rick and
8:45
me got into the habit of doing. The
8:47
other thing you might have noticed is
8:49
the watercolor changing. So it started
8:52
off with um quite, you know, gloopy
8:55
green, but as we get below that layer,
8:58
you can start to see now it's becoming
9:00
really blue, and that's a good sign cuz
9:03
it means the visibility is likely to be
9:05
quite good at the bottom. Of course, it
9:08
will be dark. And the what I'm doing now
9:11
is I'm actually stopping to put my video
9:13
lights on. So, you know, it makes sense
9:16
to do them before you need them. Also
9:19
makes sense to do it when you're
9:20
relatively shallow so you're not
9:21
incurring a decompression penalty for
9:24
turning on your video lights. And you
9:26
can see there they are. They're they're
9:27
all sorted, although maybe not quite
9:29
positioned as I would like them. Up
9:31
ahead of me, you can see Rick. Uh you
9:33
probably see that his strobe is
9:35
flashing. Now, I I I think what it was,
9:38
there was something with his strobe, so
9:40
he couldn't turn it on once he got below
9:41
a certain depth. So he also got into the
9:44
habit of turning it on on the way down
9:47
so that by the time he got to his depth
9:48
it was all sorted. He could put it on
9:50
the shot line and you know everything
9:52
would be absolutely fine.
9:55
Hopefully you can see what I've talked
9:56
about now which is that the uh the the
9:59
viz is quite good. Um you can see Rick's
10:01
there ahead of me. It wasn't quite as
10:03
good as we had on some of the other
10:05
dives but you know this is still very
10:07
respectable.
10:09
The other thing I guess to mention is
10:11
you can probably see I've got the sheer
10:13
water overlay on this video. On the left
10:16
hand side there you can see uh the
10:18
depth. You can see the time. You can see
10:20
the set point. So the partial pressure
10:22
of oxygen I'm breathing. You can also
10:25
see that I'm using 1265 as my dilluent.
10:29
Now that works well uh for dilluent
10:32
flushes. It works well for narcotic
10:34
depth. It's you'd probably like a bit
10:36
more helium just to bring the the gas
10:39
density down. But as you can see, we're
10:40
using scooters, so there's other kind of
10:42
risk uh mitigating factors there. So
10:46
1265, you know, it's kind of my go-to
10:49
debt gas for this kind of depth. Now,
10:51
we're getting close to the bottom. As
10:52
you can see here, I've caught up with
10:55
Rick and then uh you can probably just
10:57
see the wreck is starting to kind of
11:00
come into view, which is a fantastic
11:02
moment on any dive. The worst thing you
11:04
want to do is get to the bottom and find
11:06
there is no wreck there. And that
11:09
happened on one of the other dives on
11:10
this trip. And you can uh I'll stick a
11:13
link to it. So if you want to go and see
11:15
what happens when you get to 90 m and
11:17
there's nothing there, uh that's that's
11:19
where it is. But of course, the first
11:21
thing to do at the bottom of any dive is
11:24
the the bottom of dive admin. So you
11:27
need to um
11:29
put your strobe on the shot line. You
11:32
need to check that the the cells are
11:35
reading slightly above the set point so
11:37
that you know that they are not current
11:40
limited. The other thing you need to do
11:43
is tie in the shot to the wreck. And
11:45
that's what Rick is doing in front of
11:47
me. So, he's got a thin piece of string.
11:49
He's tying it in. And that will just
11:51
make sure the shot doesn't get dragged
11:52
off. There's no current on this dive.
11:54
You can you can see that. So, it's
11:56
really unlikely to happen, but it's just
11:58
one of those things we do on every dive.
12:00
While he's doing that, you can see I've
12:02
just attached my strobes.
12:04
And I'm just going to go over and just
12:06
make sure that Rick is okay. Doesn't
12:08
need a hand. Um, of course, really
12:11
unlikely that he that he would, but you
12:13
know, just uh we we work together. We
12:15
stick together. In terms of where the
12:17
shot is, you can see it's off the side
12:20
of the wreck, so it's actually on the
12:21
seabed. There's a bit of wreckage down
12:23
there on the floor. There's also the
12:25
world supply of little fish as well,
12:27
which I guess is is kind of nice.
12:30
Having said that, Rick doesn't need a
12:32
hand, you can see that the waster is
12:34
still in his hand. So, it's clear that
12:36
he hasn't been able to do it. Almost
12:38
certainly, it's because he hasn't found
12:40
anything down there to tie it into. So,
12:42
you can see what we're doing now is we
12:44
are just moving the shot so that it is
12:46
closer to the wreck. And you can see
12:48
there there's plenty of bits of wreckage
12:50
that he can tie it on once we get to the
12:52
wreck. So, I guess it's a good job that
12:54
I did go over and check that he was okay
12:56
and that he didn't need a hand because,
12:59
you know, in this particular case, he
13:01
did. And almost every job underwater is
13:04
easier if uh divers work together. So,
13:08
there I am. You can see uh we we've gone
13:10
over to the wreck and Rick is going to
13:12
uh Rick is going to tie it in with that
13:14
thin piece of string.
13:16
Now, sometimes people go, "Isn't it
13:19
awful that you're leaving all that
13:20
plastic down there with that bit of
13:22
plastic rope?" And you know what?
13:24
[laughter]
13:25
Um, I kind of I guess I might understand
13:28
why that's the case, apart from the sea
13:30
is absolutely full of plastic. All of
13:33
these wrecks are covered in bits of
13:35
rubbish, bits of nets, all sorts of
13:38
things. So, frankly, I don't believe
13:40
that one little piece of string is going
13:43
to uh make any difference whatsoever,
13:45
but it's also an important part of our
13:49
um it's part of our system. It's part of
13:51
our safety system. We need it to make
13:53
sure the other divers can get onto the
13:54
wreck. Okay. You can also see there's a
13:57
massive piece of troll net there hanging
13:59
off the side of the wreck. And one of
14:00
the things with this wreck, like pretty
14:02
much all wrecks, is that it is covered
14:04
in all sorts of, you know, lost fishing
14:06
gear and all that kind of stuff. if you
14:08
just learn to live with it and avoid it.
14:11
Now, the other thing uh for any of you
14:14
who've watched my video about
14:16
identifying shipwrecks and what you do,
14:18
then the very first thing you want to do
14:20
on a shipwreck is understand the
14:22
orientation. So, which way is the bow?
14:24
Which way is the stern? And that allows
14:27
you pretty much always to to get your
14:29
head around the wreck. Now, I haven't
14:33
quite done it at this moment in the
14:34
video, but to save you all uh a bit of
14:38
uh stress, what I've done is I've
14:40
actually come up through the brake at
14:42
the rear of the wreck. So, what I've got
14:43
my torch on at at the moment, that is
14:46
the starboard side of the wreck. And
14:49
what I'm going to do is I'm going to
14:51
start moving forward along the starboard
14:54
side. So that orientates you to the left
14:57
is the kind of main bit of the wreck.
14:58
Although I'm kind of just turned around
15:00
a bit to look at it there. And we're
15:02
going to see the engine in a little bit.
15:04
And then later on in the video when I
15:06
come back here, you're going to see the
15:07
brake really clearly and you're going to
15:09
see the prop shaft. So it's actually a
15:13
really good bit of evidence that
15:15
supports the story that this is the
15:18
express cuz we're going to see where
15:19
it's chopped. You probably just see down
15:21
to the left hand side there, that's a
15:23
kind of a hatch. So that would have been
15:25
into the rear cargo hold. Off to my left
15:28
hand side here, that is the engine.
15:33
And you probably just heard me saying
15:35
two cylinders there. So you once again,
15:38
another great piece of evidence and
15:41
something that we've established really
15:43
early on in the in the dive.
15:46
Most compound engines have the low
15:49
pressure cylinder, the big one towards
15:51
the stern, and the high pressure
15:52
cylinder towards the bow, which is
15:54
exactly the layout we've got here. In
15:56
front of that is the boiler. That circle
15:59
down there, that is the base of the
16:01
funnel. So, this is a really small ship.
16:04
All these things are really close
16:05
together. You can also probably see
16:07
there's a load of port holes down on the
16:09
right hand side because of course
16:11
although we can see the engine and we
16:12
can see the boiler now they would have
16:15
been all covered over by the super
16:17
structure. So this area here is is in
16:20
the middle of the ship. This is where a
16:22
lot of the crew quarters would have
16:25
been. This area that I'm at now this is
16:27
where the the bridge area would be. It
16:30
would have been, you know, above the
16:32
boiler forward of the funnel because
16:34
obviously you didn't want the smoke
16:35
blowing into the bridge. This was coal
16:38
powered. It was coal powered steam ship.
16:41
So, of course, it would have, you know,
16:42
been quite dirty, produced a lot of
16:44
smoke. In front of me there, you can see
16:46
another uh hatch. So, that would have
16:49
been the opening into the forward hold.
16:51
Once again, you can see there's port
16:53
holes and stuff down here. So, this is
16:56
where all the superructure has collapsed
16:58
down. As we're going to see later on,
17:00
some of it's collapsed outwards as well.
17:10
>> You probably heard me talking there. I
17:12
said that's a lamp. So, that is, you
17:14
know, some sort of um paraffin lamp. So,
17:17
it would have been used. That one's
17:19
looks as though it was on the starboard
17:20
side. So it might have been a starboard
17:22
marker because it was wartime that
17:25
wouldn't have been lit in front of me
17:27
there. That is uh the winch. So that
17:29
would have been the cargo winch used for
17:31
lifting stuff in and out of that forward
17:33
cargo hold because of course these days
17:36
all that stuff is um on the shore. Ships
17:40
don't by and large have winches for
17:43
getting stuff in and out of cargo holds.
17:45
Back in this day though they they had to
17:47
do it all themselves. up there just to
17:49
the left hand side where I've just
17:51
shining my torch. That's the capston. So
17:54
that would have been used for lifting uh
17:57
the anchor up and down. You can see
17:59
there's some mooring bolards up here. So
18:01
this is the the bow of the of the SS
18:04
Express. And I think we can call it the
18:06
SS Express. Now we have seen uh we've
18:10
seen the the cut at the back, although
18:12
later on we're going to see it really
18:14
closely. We've also seen that uh
18:17
compound engine. We know that the wreck
18:20
is in the right place cuz this is where
18:22
we're diving. We know it's got the
18:25
single boiler. So, it's and we know the
18:28
right length of course as well. So, um
18:30
and and also we know that it's in two
18:32
bits as well. So, this is all really
18:35
really strong corroborating evidence
18:37
that this is the Express. And now that
18:39
we're diving on it as well, we can see
18:41
it's the right era. it's a steam ship,
18:44
all those kind of things. So, if you
18:46
have enough corroborating evidence, you
18:49
can eventually say with a really high
18:52
degree of probability that we are on the
18:55
on the wreck that we think it is. So,
18:57
this is this is the bow area. Again, you
19:00
can see that what I'm doing is looking
19:01
onto the seabed. And the reason is
19:03
because I know any number of people who
19:05
found bells just off the side of Rex.
19:08
So, I always like to have a uh a good
19:11
look and just to kind of make sure. You
19:13
can see the bow is uh slightly over to
19:15
the starboard side, slightly resting on
19:18
the right on its right side. You can see
19:20
there there's a load uh there's a load
19:22
of hull and as I go down it, I'm going
19:24
to be going back towards the engine
19:26
area, back towards a bridge. I'm going
19:28
to be having a a good peer through and
19:31
to see what see what I can see. Um,
19:35
slight spoiler. We don't find any really
19:37
good uh brass stuff on this. So, there's
19:39
no uh bridge gear or or none that we
19:42
found.
19:44
There could be loads of reasons for
19:45
that. One is it might have been iron.
19:48
So, it might have been cheap and
19:50
therefore just rotted away. Um, it could
19:52
have been trolled. So the bridges on
19:55
these things were relatively flimsy,
19:57
often wooden, and therefore, you know,
20:00
if a net snagged it, it could easily be
20:03
pulled off. So it could be somewhere off
20:05
to the the side of the wreck. So a
20:07
couple of different things could have
20:09
happened to it. But the number of
20:11
divers, the size of this wreck, if there
20:14
was a major thing like a telegraph or a
20:16
helm or a compass bowl, then I'm pretty
20:20
confident that we would have we would
20:22
have found it. and and there was nothing
20:24
like that seen on the wreck. I didn't
20:25
see it. Nobody else saw it. So, I think
20:28
we can say with a pretty high degree of
20:31
certainty that the bridge gear isn't on
20:33
here.
20:35
We also loads of people had a good look
20:37
around in in the engine area as well and
20:39
there was no sign of a builder's plate
20:41
or a maker's plate either. So, um you
20:44
know, who knows where that is possibly
20:46
buried. Now, to give you an indication
20:48
of how small this wreck is, I'm already
20:51
back at the stern, and I'm coming back
20:54
in to through the brake. And in a
20:57
moment, what we're going to see is the
21:00
uh the hatch for the rear cargo hold.
21:03
You'll see the kind of combing and stuff
21:05
around it. What we can also see, I think
21:08
there on on the uh inside is quite a bit
21:11
of coal. So, this would have probably
21:14
been the the coal bunker has kind of
21:16
spilled out a bit towards the stern.
21:18
There you go. There's the the hatch
21:20
cover that I I talked to you about.
21:23
And if you remember um quite at the
21:27
beginning of the dive, I found a bottle
21:28
and I put the bottle on the side. That
21:30
that bottle is off to to kind of the
21:32
right of where I am now. But there's
21:35
also a few other bits and pieces in
21:36
here. You can probably see my hand going
21:38
out and I think I'm going to get another
21:40
bottle from in there.
21:42
I'm going to I don't bring it into the
21:44
camera, so you're not going to see it. I
21:47
don't know why that is. Maybe I couldn't
21:48
actually get it. Maybe I I got
21:50
distracted by something else. It's
21:52
something sometimes a bit difficult when
21:54
you're uh when you're going back over
21:56
these videos. This was quite a while ago
21:58
now. I've done a lot of diving since
22:00
then, and you can't always remember the
22:02
particular details of what's happening
22:04
on a dive. So, this in front of me there
22:07
is the engine. But what I've seen down
22:09
here, you can see beneath that net is a
22:12
port hole. It's one of those things when
22:14
I first started doing this kind of
22:16
diving. I would see a port hole and I'd
22:18
get super super excited because they're
22:21
kind of one of those, I think, iconic
22:24
things. All divers, you know, like port
22:26
holes. You know, that they use as um you
22:29
see them in pubs and you divers like to
22:32
have them in their houses and all that
22:34
kind of stuff. So even though I've seen
22:37
I don't know hundreds thousands of port
22:39
holes now I guess on Rex there's there's
22:41
still always something about them that
22:43
makes me that attracts me to them. So
22:46
you can see that one there I I tried to
22:48
pull out and when we come back around in
22:49
a minute you'll see that I did get it
22:50
out a bit more and so you'll see a bit
22:52
of a bit of a look at it. Now at the
22:55
time I had no idea what this is. I've
22:58
gone back and I've looked at my video
22:59
footage again and I still really have no
23:02
idea what it is. So, if anybody out
23:04
there knows [laughter] what that is, I'd
23:07
uh I'd be interested to kind of get your
23:09
thoughts. I guess can't see it
23:11
particularly well. It doesn't come out.
23:13
And part of the problem with the way
23:15
that I record dives is because I'm
23:18
trying to do a whole load of stuff at
23:20
once. It often means I don't get the
23:22
best quality video footage. So, you can
23:24
see that my main torch in my left hand
23:27
is is just super bright. So, whenever I
23:29
look at something and I put it on it, it
23:31
kind of burns it out, which is is one of
23:34
those things that I'm I'm kind of I'm
23:37
aware of and I know it's something I
23:38
need to do better. Now, there you go.
23:41
There's a there's a big old lobster. Um,
23:43
probably bit surprised to see its home
23:46
being invaded by these strange beasts.
23:48
But anyway, it's uh it's still down
23:50
there. It presumably is enjoying the
23:52
rest of its life. You saw that port hole
23:54
a moment ago, the one that I was trying
23:56
to pull out earlier. And I'm now back on
23:58
really the the starboard side of the
24:00
ship. I'm just kind of taking my time
24:03
having a good look around in this area
24:06
just to I guess the right hand side of
24:08
the engine. You can see the the hull on
24:11
the right hand side. Now one of the
24:12
interesting things we'll see in a bit is
24:14
the superructure from this part has abs
24:16
has actually collapsed outwards. So when
24:18
I go on the seabed off this uh side in a
24:22
bit, you'll see uh you'll see that
24:23
superructure there. It's got some more
24:25
port holes in it and everything. There's
24:27
So, but we're still uh to the rear of
24:29
the the engine. So, that's the uh the
24:32
hatch that goes into the rear cargo
24:34
hold. And you can see I'm just having a
24:36
a good look around here in the in the
24:38
cargo hold to see what I can find. And
24:42
bingo. You can see I've just spotted
24:43
something there. It's a uh a bottle. In
24:46
fact, quite probably difficult to see,
24:49
but there's a few bottles. There's at
24:50
least two there in the torch beam. So,
24:53
I'm going to go down and have a pick
24:54
them up. Some people get really excited
24:56
by bottles. Absolutely love them. I'm
24:59
told if you know what you're looking at,
25:01
you can tell when they're made and all
25:02
those kind of things. The thing that I
25:04
can tell about this one is that it's
25:06
actually got a cork in it. And the cork
25:09
still seems to be still seems to be
25:11
okay. So, um, you know, that's
25:13
interesting potentially. Therefore,
25:15
whatever is inside there is still uh
25:18
drinkable. You can see I'm just having a
25:20
fiddle around with the cork. [laughter]
25:22
See what it's like. That's uh that's
25:24
quite exciting because you know what
25:25
would you be carrying uh on a ship going
25:28
from uh Edinburgh to to Ornne. Uh who
25:32
knows you know potentially that could be
25:34
beer I guess looking at the bottle you
25:36
know maybe maybe wine. I I don't know
25:39
what else you would carry in a bottle.
25:41
I've kind of chucked it down and then I
25:42
think I'm having a bit of regret. I'm
25:44
going to get it back. And the reason is
25:46
because I can feel on it that there are
25:49
raised bits. So, there is something on
25:51
that bottle in terms of a um some
25:54
letters or something. And I'm going to
25:57
be a bit of a uh a bit naughty here.
26:01
Well, kind of naughty, maybe not
26:02
naughty. The uh the policy on this whole
26:05
trip was no take. So, we we weren't
26:08
going to bring anything up. Not that it
26:10
would have been illegal to do so, but
26:12
because that is the skipper's policy on
26:14
the boat. He doesn't want artifacts
26:16
coming up, which is absolutely fine. So,
26:19
uh you will see later on this video I do
26:21
put some bottles in a bag and I do um I
26:26
do start to bring them up. Um they don't
26:29
they don't stay on the surface. They
26:32
actually end up back on a wreck. So, but
26:34
what it does do is give me the
26:36
opportunity to have a look at them and I
26:38
can So, that's the reason I know that
26:40
this bottle has got muans written on it.
26:42
Unfortunately, I don't have any imagery
26:45
or video of that, so you're going to
26:46
have to take my word for it.
26:48
Mccuran's is still a beer that is uh
26:51
drunk in the 21st century, but at this
26:54
particular period of time in 1918, it
26:57
was brewed in Edinburgh, which is very
27:00
close to close to Leath where this uh
27:02
vessel departed from. So once again,
27:05
that's not a complete smoking gun, but
27:07
it's a really good, I think, indication
27:10
or it's a good connection, another
27:12
connection, another piece of evidence
27:14
that suggests this wreck is the SS
27:17
Express. I'll be honest, I don't think
27:20
we need it. We got plenty of other
27:21
pieces, but it is, you know, it's
27:24
another thing. Helps build up the
27:25
picture. Now, there's something going on
27:28
here. I'm not entirely sure what it is,
27:30
but in a moment you're going to see my
27:32
string bag on the floor on the right
27:34
hand side. So, I suspect what I'm trying
27:36
to do is get it out of my pocket and
27:39
then I drop it. My uh string There it
27:41
is. You can see it falling down to the
27:43
bottom there. My string bag has got a a
27:45
a clip on it, a brass clip on it that
27:48
makes it negatively buoyant. So, I think
27:51
yeah, as I say, I think I tried to get
27:52
it out of my pocket for whatever reason.
27:54
I let go of it and it's dropped down to
27:56
the seabed here. This is off the uh side
27:59
of the wreck, the starboard side. So,
28:01
you can see I've got those two bottles
28:03
in my hand. Going to get my string bag
28:05
and I'm going to put them in there. And
28:07
then later on, I'm going to find another
28:09
couple of bottles as well. As I say, I
28:12
they, you know, I bring them up to far
28:14
enough so I can have a look at them and
28:16
then I drop them back on the wreck. So,
28:18
if anybody wants um these bottles,
28:21
that's that's where they are. If I'm
28:23
brutally honest, I'm a bit gutted about
28:24
that because I would have liked to have
28:27
kept them. Obviously, I'd have declared
28:28
them and all those kind of things, but
28:30
but hey, that's uh the skipper that's
28:33
the skipper's policy.
28:35
You know, it's not one I agree with, but
28:37
it is his policy. And I think
28:40
uh as courtesy, as
28:44
um you know, it's the right thing to do.
28:47
we we'd had this discussion before we
28:49
did any of these dives and he said
28:51
that's a policy and we're all like yeah
28:53
fine okay we're all we're all going to
28:55
stick with that. So it is it is what it
28:58
is. [laughter]
28:59
Frankly on this trip this isn't by far
29:02
this isn't the worst thing that I'm uh I
29:04
was disappointed to leave down there. If
29:06
you've not seen my video about diving
29:08
the HMS Negro, we found the bell on the
29:11
HMS Negro and it's it's a beautiful
29:14
size. It would have been trivially easy
29:16
to bring it up to the surface.
29:17
Personally, I would have liked to have
29:19
seen it in a museum or whatever, but
29:21
hey, it's still down there. Now, what
29:24
has happened here is you can see that
29:26
I've managed to get that bit of um the
29:28
the sort of draw cord for my bag with
29:31
that brass clip that I mentioned on
29:33
earlier on somehow wrapped in my
29:35
scooter. And this shows, I think, one of
29:38
the challenges when you're trying to do
29:39
lots of things at once. So, if you think
29:41
about what I'm doing on this dive, I am
29:44
trying to take videos. I am trying to
29:46
operate a scooter. I am trying to put
29:48
things in a bag and and also I'm trying
29:51
to you know remember the dive and have a
29:53
good dive and you know keep an eye on my
29:55
buddy and all those kind of things and
29:58
and you know those things are not always
30:01
mutually compatible which is how come
30:04
you know stuff happens like like has
30:05
happened there. Where I am now is you
30:08
can just see the boiler is off to my
30:10
right hand side. This the um I'm on the
30:13
starboard hole. So the seabed is off to
30:16
my left hand side. I'm going back
30:18
towards the stern. Now you can see
30:19
there's a couple of port holes there. Um
30:21
we've seen those earlier on in the video
30:23
when I when I moved forward. What I'm
30:25
going to do now is is just drop onto the
30:27
seabed. And I think when I went to pick
30:29
up that bag, I I spotted some other
30:31
bottles down there. Now somebody's
30:33
flashing wildly over there. I don't know
30:36
why
30:38
they've obviously spotted something. Um,
30:40
I've been there already, so I'm going to
30:42
leave them to it. We've got all the
30:44
other divers on the wreck. Now, it is a
30:46
small wreck and therefore, you know,
30:48
there's not much room. You can see I've
30:50
got uh some tor in my torch beam there.
30:52
You can see there's some more bottles.
30:54
So, for me, you know, we're starting to
30:56
see evidence of the cargo. So, if I
30:58
talked about if we, you know, we look
31:00
back to the three things we said we
31:02
wanted to see on the dive. Oh, the other
31:03
thing I've just seen, if you probably
31:05
saw, there was an open port hole there.
31:07
And if you think about port holes open
31:10
into ships, this is on the outside of a
31:12
ship. So, this is the bit that I off to
31:14
my right is the bit that I mentioned
31:15
earlier. A bit of the super structure
31:17
that's fallen outwards. You can also see
31:20
with it various bottles and um other
31:23
bits and pieces. That one there, I
31:25
think, is uh was made of clay. There was
31:28
a few of the glass ones around on the
31:29
seabed. There's uh there you go. there.
31:31
In fact, there's a there's a lovely one
31:33
that had um Schweps written on it. Also
31:36
had some form of logo. Um I've tried to
31:40
find out whether there was a Schweps
31:42
bottling plant in Edinburgh or something
31:44
like that, but I've I haven't had any
31:46
any joy. So, that doesn't provide any
31:50
great connection. What it was though was
31:51
[laughter] a really lovely bottle. And
31:53
even though I'm not especially keen on
31:55
them, uh it would have been nice. But
31:57
anyway, there we go. And and this I
31:59
think shows really well that that bit
32:00
off to the left that I was just looking
32:02
at there. That shows how that bit of the
32:04
ship has folded outwards. For anyone
32:07
who's keeping an eye on my uh dive
32:09
computer, you could see you can see that
32:11
my run time is about 24 minutes and my
32:15
uh TTS is up about 92. TTS for those who
32:18
don't know, time to surface. That means
32:21
I've got uh 92 minutes of uh well
32:24
effectively decompression, although it
32:25
does also include the the time to to go
32:28
up. Our run times on this uh expedition
32:31
were about 2 and 1/2 to 3 hours. So I do
32:34
have longer if I want to. You can see
32:38
once again really clearly that bit of
32:39
the wreck that's folded out. There's
32:41
another port hole just in the right of
32:43
the screen now. And there's the other
32:45
one that is on the left. So I think
32:46
those and those ribs that you can see
32:48
there, those are on the inside of the
32:50
wreck. So shows really clearly how that
32:52
bit has has broken outwards and then
32:54
fallen over the side. Now I think that
32:57
makes me suspect that maybe the bridge
33:00
might be out here. So what I'm doing is
33:02
I'm just having a look around and see if
33:04
there's anything that that looks like it
33:06
might be the bridge. I think the bridge
33:07
would have sat on top of that or maybe
33:09
slightly forward of it. So, you know, it
33:11
is potentially here. You know, there's a
33:13
telegraph or or something like that.
33:15
But, as you can see, nothing nothing is
33:18
showing, which is uh a bit
33:20
disappointing. But hey, you know, that's
33:22
that's the way it goes. Sometimes you
33:24
get really good results. Other times
33:26
there's just a whole load of seabed,
33:29
which is which is what we've uh we've
33:32
got here. So, you can see I'm heading
33:35
generally towards the stern of the
33:37
vessel. So, the hull is off to my right
33:39
hand side. This is the starboard side as
33:41
I think I mentioned. Oh, there a few
33:42
more bottles and stuff there. So, um,
33:45
you know, there's a ton of a ton of
33:47
stuff down here. You can see there's
33:48
there's loads and loads of of stuff
33:50
there. So, whether they were cargo or,
33:52
you know, potentially, I guess they
33:54
might have been, you know, part of the
33:55
galley or something. There's cat shark
33:57
down there on the left hand side. And
34:00
yeah, so this is going towards a stern.
34:02
And and one of the things I'm going to
34:03
do is make a really uh interesting
34:06
discovery. So, the first thing is
34:07
there's a there's a really clear break.
34:09
And you can see it there just at the
34:11
sort of top of the screen. Not
34:13
particularly well, but there's a really
34:16
clean brake on this wreck. And the other
34:18
thing is what I've just shining my torch
34:20
on there. That is the prop shaft. So,
34:24
that is obviously the bit that connects
34:26
the engine to the screw. And the fact
34:28
that it is lying there completely
34:30
exposed on the seabed with no sign of
34:33
any of the stern. [snorts] and and when
34:36
I turn around, you'll see that there's a
34:38
really clean break. I think this once
34:39
again really supports this theory that
34:42
this is the express and that it was cut
34:45
in two by the by the Grenville. It's
34:48
it's really obvious. It's you just don't
34:51
get wrecks like this unless there's been
34:55
some catastrophic uh event.
34:58
You can imagine the the Grenville going
35:00
through the uh the hull of the express,
35:03
severing almost all of it, apart from
35:06
perhaps some of the bit that was under
35:07
the water. The the drive shaft is
35:10
obviously a really um solid part of the
35:14
uh of the ship.
35:17
That bit maybe survived and then, you
35:19
know, broke away during the sinking.
35:22
And that's why we can see what we've got
35:24
here, which is the drive shaft on the
35:26
seabed. the really clear brake. No sign
35:28
of the screw, no sign of the stern.
35:31
So once again, this is more evidence,
35:35
more corroborating evidence with the
35:38
fact that this wreck is what we think it
35:40
is. So I'm now heading back up onto the
35:42
main bit of wreckage. You see there's
35:44
another diver with me there. I'm not
35:46
100% certain who it is, but this is this
35:49
is now coming on. And you can see the
35:51
kind of the tears I think in the in the
35:54
in the wreck there. And once again, this
35:56
shows how narrow the wreck is as well.
35:59
So, you know, that's the full width
36:01
basically in front of me there. You can
36:03
see uh the left and and the right of it.
36:05
So, you know, it is it is a small wreck.
36:08
And then as I come up, there's a another
36:10
sign of kind of humanity there. So, on
36:13
the left hand side there, that is a
36:14
toilet. You can also see there's
36:16
something there that I've just got my
36:17
torch on, which looks like a a plate of
36:21
some sort. It looks like a that looks
36:23
non-ferris. I I don't know why I don't
36:26
take that out, but but I don't. I think
36:29
maybe it's because I'm I'm quite close
36:31
to the end of my dive. Maybe it's
36:33
because I've got that bag full of stuff
36:35
and I don't want to get it snagged on
36:37
anything. Who knows? But I'm I'm coming
36:39
up onto the wreck. There's another diver
36:41
there. I think that's Steve. Um uh
36:44
obviously leader of the gasperados whose
36:47
whose project this is.
36:49
He's obviously found something down in
36:51
there. That's that hatch combing that
36:53
we've seen a few times or that hatch
36:55
that we've seen a few times before. The
36:58
engine is, as I'm looking at it now,
37:00
slightly to my left. The beer bottles
37:02
came from, I guess, just behind me. It's
37:05
a really tiny wreck. There's another
37:07
diver there that I think is is Paul. Um,
37:11
I don't know what he's having a look at
37:12
down there, but clearly, you know,
37:14
there's something something [laughter]
37:16
of interest.
37:18
Can't be that interesting because he's
37:19
he's left it alone. So this is
37:23
also towards the end of my dive. You can
37:25
see there my TTS is up getting close to
37:27
two arrow arrows. There's a nice little
37:30
edible crab there. The shot line is just
37:32
over the other side of the wreck. So
37:33
this is, you know, really close to where
37:36
I I started the dive, which is exactly
37:38
where you want to be at the end of the
37:40
dive. I think I'm going to go over there
37:42
and just have a quick look and see if
37:43
Paul did spot anything particularly
37:46
good. There isn't anything there, so
37:49
that's going to be left alone. I'm
37:52
really starting to think now that I need
37:54
to be uh getting up. But it's always
37:56
difficult this stage of a dive because,
38:00
you know, you've it's been a great dive.
38:02
It's been absolutely fascinating. I've
38:04
seen all those different things. You
38:06
always want to stay down a little bit
38:08
longer. Uh what I do have on my computer
38:11
that you can't see here is um a a delta
38:14
5, which is uh how much more uh decco
38:19
you're going to need to do if you stay
38:21
down here for another 5 minutes. And you
38:24
look at that and it starts to show some
38:26
scarily big numbers at this point. So
38:29
you it's there's always that thing in
38:31
the back of your mind which is the
38:33
longer I'm down here, the more I'm going
38:35
to pay, the more deco I'm I'm going to
38:37
have to do. You probably saw the at the
38:39
base of the funnel which is off to my
38:42
right hand side. You might say, "Well,
38:43
where's the funnel then?" Well, funnels
38:46
are, you know, a they're made of really
38:47
thin metal. They don't need to carry any
38:49
weight. So, they often uh either rot
38:53
away or get pulled away cuz they stand
38:55
well above the wreck as well. So, if the
38:56
bridge is gone, chances are the funnel
38:58
will have gone with it as well, either
39:00
by
39:01
um that process of being pulled off or,
39:04
you know, they just corrode away. This
39:05
thing's been down there for 100 years.
39:07
All that salt water is never going to be
39:09
good. This is the port side of the
39:11
wreck. Another, you know, port hole
39:13
there. Various other bits and pieces,
39:15
you know, all sorts of all sorts of
39:17
things. And there you can see I think
39:20
that is that is Rick. And that's me
39:22
saying, "Right, you know, I've got 127
39:24
minutes of TTS. Even when I accelerate
39:26
it with my uh by changing the P2 to 1.5,
39:31
that's still going to, you know, be
39:33
quite a lot of deco. So, it's time for
39:36
us to go up. And you can see my strobes
39:39
just off to the left hand side there.
39:41
Just having one quick look, I think, on
39:44
the seabed. Although, you know, I have
39:46
been past this spot. So, if there was
39:48
anything there, you would imagine that
39:49
I'd have seen it. Rick, I'm not 100%
39:51
certain why is going to the bottom of
39:54
the uh going to the bottom of the shot.
39:57
Maybe he he left something down there. I
39:59
don't know. You can see how crowded this
40:02
wreck is. Now, there's a couple of other
40:03
divers there. You can see a few more
40:06
strobes. There's my double strobe. You
40:08
can always tell mine. I put the the
40:10
green tape on them. There you go.
40:11
There's Rick. He's he's at the bottom
40:13
there. I don't know. I should probably
40:15
find out what he was doing down there.
40:17
But I said, "Let's go." And he headed
40:19
down to the bottom of the bottom of the
40:21
the seabed. So, what I'm doing now is
40:24
I'm taking my strobes off, but I'm also
40:26
just waiting for him as well, just to
40:28
make sure that he's okay. And as you're
40:31
going to see in a minute, he does. There
40:33
you go. He's coming back up again. So,
40:35
whatever he was doing, all is well. I'm
40:38
struggling a bit to get my strobes off.
40:40
But once again, that's kind of probably
40:43
because I've got that bag in my left
40:45
hand and the torch in my left hand. They
40:48
do kind of take up a bit of finger
40:50
capacity.
40:52
But there you go. Strobed it off. And
40:54
what I always do is I've got a clip on
40:56
my shoulder that those get clipped onto
40:58
along with my tag when I when I get
41:00
there when I get to the lazy.
41:02
So there you go. I've got the bag and
41:05
what I'm going to do now is what I
41:07
normally do, which is uh I scooter
41:09
scooter upwards. Just waiting for Rick
41:11
to get his uh his strobe off.
41:15
You probably seen had a had a quick look
41:17
down on the wreck. You can see there's
41:18
some other divers there. That diver on
41:20
the right hand side is probably close to
41:22
the bow.
41:26
There's another diver just above me. I
41:28
think that's Steve getting his uh shot
41:30
line off or getting his strobe off
41:32
rather.
41:33
So, this is kind of the end of the dive.
41:36
If you watch my other videos, you'll
41:37
have seen sort of similar things to this
41:39
happen a lot of times. As I'm coming up
41:42
now, I'm turning stuff off. You can see
41:44
I'm turning off the video lights. I'm
41:46
just keeping an eye on Rick, who's who's
41:47
down below me. There's Steve, who I
41:50
mentioned earlier. And I think one of
41:51
the nice things is now that I've got
41:53
[clears throat] my video lights off, it
41:54
gives you an idea. There's actually
41:56
quite a lot of ambient light down here.
41:59
And also the visibility is pretty good.
42:01
So those are all uh those are all really
42:04
nice things. Now, when you're diving at
42:06
this depth, once you're done, you don't
42:09
want to be hanging around at the depth.
42:10
So you can see there Rick, he's uh
42:12
scootering up towards his first deco
42:14
stop. And I'm going to do exactly the
42:16
same thing as well, which is we're
42:18
getting getting up as quick as we can.
42:21
Not quite as quick as we can. We're
42:22
getting up quickly while still um you
42:25
know relatively safe safely. So the we
42:28
will get ascent alarms on this, but it's
42:31
it's kind of our policy is to is to you
42:34
get off the bottom kind of half the
42:36
distance to your first deco stop and
42:38
then bring everything back under under
42:40
control. So So that's what we've done.
42:42
You can see me about 50 m there. First
42:44
deco stop is is 39 and we're kind of
42:48
making some nice steady progress up
42:50
towards it. Still got the bottles. I'm
42:52
gonna have a look at them. Um you know
42:54
when I actually get a reasonable amount
42:55
of deco although unfortunately I don't
42:58
have that on video. You can see as we
43:00
ascend there Rick is uh all the gas is
43:02
being vented from his loop. For those
43:05
who don't dive rebreathers
43:08
you on the way down you have to put gas
43:10
in the loop to keep the volume so that
43:11
you've got enough to breathe in. But
43:13
then when you come up, that gas expands
43:15
and you've got to vent it. It those that
43:17
should be the only time that gas comes
43:19
in and out of a rebreather loop, apart
43:21
from the small amount of oxygen that you
43:24
consume in order to stay alive. And I
43:27
think what this is one of the nice
43:28
things there, you can see me uh looking
43:30
down. Just having a quick look at my
43:31
bottles, but if you can see me looking
43:32
down there, you can see Steve well below
43:35
us there. And I think that shows, you
43:37
know, for me anyway, how quickly we've
43:39
got up to our uh, you know, to to to
43:42
nearly our first deco stops. And, as I
43:45
say, that is going to um help reduce uh,
43:48
decco.
43:50
The other thing that helps reduce deco,
43:52
as many people will have seen me done do
43:54
many times, is that uh, I put my P2 put
43:59
my set point up to 1.5. And you've just
44:02
seen me do that on my uh rebreather
44:04
handset on the left hand side. And I'm
44:06
going to do it on my sheer water shear
44:09
water now. And when I do that, you'll
44:10
see it happen on the the overlay. And
44:14
once again, you can watch the you can
44:16
literally watch the TTS drop now. So
44:18
here we go. There we go. This is me
44:19
starting to um to change it. I'm going
44:22
through the menu into the dive setup
44:24
menu. And once there you go. You can see
44:26
I can edit the high set point and change
44:29
the set point to 1.5, which now reflects
44:32
what I've got set on the handset of my
44:34
rebreather. And when I do that, you're
44:36
going to see the TTS drops. It's already
44:37
gone from 128 to 121, and it's just
44:40
dropped down to 113 there. So, that's
44:43
saved me about 15 minutes of deco. Not a
44:46
vast amount, but it is quite nice to
44:49
have it. The other thing that's
44:51
happening is I've got to the lazy shot.
44:53
I'm not the last diver up. You can see
44:55
there's quite a few tags on the uh on
44:58
the shot on the the lazy shot there. So,
45:00
I'm going to come in and I'm going to
45:02
take mine off. The last diver when they
45:05
remove their tag will release the lazy
45:07
shot and we will all then drift in the
45:10
current together so that the uh we're
45:13
not hanging on and also the boat knows
45:15
where we are. It's a process that works
45:17
very well. If you've not seen my video
45:19
on it, I I do have a separate video and
45:21
I'll put a link in into that and you're
45:22
welcome to well, if you want to know
45:24
more about the Lazy Shot and why it's
45:26
such a good system, works so well for
45:28
us, you can you can see it on that
45:29
video. You can also see there I finally
45:32
got around to turning off my strobes.
45:35
And from now on in it's just going to be
45:37
a case of doing the deco, doing that 112
45:40
minutes of deco. Further up, I have got
45:44
my Kindle, which I'm going to uh to read
45:47
on this dive. And I can't remember what
45:49
book I was, but it certainly helps pass
45:51
the time. So, I've jumped forward again.
45:54
You can see now I'm up at about 27 uh
45:57
meters. And the reason I'm showing this
45:59
bit of video is because I quite like
46:01
this phase of the dive. So, what's
46:04
happened, you can see uh there's Rick in
46:06
front of me. And you probably also saw
46:09
just a moment ago below me there are a
46:11
load of other divers. I really like this
46:13
phase of the dive when you can see the
46:15
whole team is is kind of slowly coming
46:17
back up again. You can see everybody's
46:19
there doing the deco. The the lazy shot
46:21
is vertical. So, one of those divers has
46:23
released it. We're now in the current.
46:25
I'm not on the lazy, you know, I'm not
46:27
holding on to it. I'm just kind of
46:29
neutally buoyant off to the side,
46:30
chilling out, watching the um watching
46:34
the other divers. And you can see there
46:36
they're all venting their loops as they
46:38
come up. And I talked about that earlier
46:39
on. The other thing you might see on my
46:42
wrist there, which is probably worth
46:43
mentioning, you see I've got my
46:44
computer, but then below it, I've got
46:46
that little uh that black thing, and
46:49
that was the controller for my heating
46:52
system. At this point in time, I was
46:54
using something called a thermal vest.
46:56
The thermal sat underneath my dry suit
47:01
and the batteries were were were
47:02
underneath my dry suit. The batteries
47:04
were integral to uh were underneath.
47:07
Now, some people get really some people
47:09
don't like that. They say it's a bad
47:11
idea. You should have the batteries
47:13
outside your dry suit because, you know,
47:15
batteries can um you know, go on fire.
47:19
Sometimes they don't behave very well if
47:21
they get wet. Um the thermolution system
47:23
didn't didn't do that. Um and I think
47:27
the reason it didn't do that is these
47:29
systems were designed for use by um
47:32
surfers and people who got wet all the
47:35
time. So, you know, they were actually
47:37
designed for that purpose.
47:40
What they were also was a really good
47:41
heating system. I I actually really
47:43
liked it. Unfortunately, the batteries
47:45
had a weakness, which was the cable
47:48
going into the top of them. Um became
47:50
disconnected from the batteries. So,
47:52
unfortunately
47:54
went bust.
47:56
So, um what happened to that system is
47:59
eventually the battery, one of the
48:00
batteries died. You couldn't get a
48:03
replacement. So, my thermal has gone um
48:06
and is no longer is no longer, you know,
48:08
it's not something I use. I've replaced
48:10
it with a a similar system by a company
48:12
called Heat Venture. Um I don't know if
48:15
there related to thermal at all, but
48:17
they make um a similar sort of system.
48:19
So, the batteries uh are designed for
48:21
use by snorkel by yeah, snorkelers and
48:25
surfers and people who actually spend
48:27
time in the water. So, I've never heard
48:30
of anybody having an issue. I like it a
48:32
lot. And if you you know if you're
48:35
diving, you can see here the water's 12
48:37
degrees C. I've I've been in the water
48:40
for nearly an hour. I've got just under
48:43
2 hours to do and I'm a big wuss. So, I
48:47
do like my heating systems and at some
48:50
point very soon I'm probably going to
48:51
turn it on and that will be really nice.
48:55
So, for those of you who like a bit of a
48:57
closer look at my deco profile, here's
49:00
the download from uh sheer water. You
49:03
can see there fairly steady descent onto
49:06
the seabed there. I mean, you can see
49:08
all the stuff that you've seen so far.
49:10
You can see there we go, you know,
49:12
starting to leave the bottom coming up
49:14
and then somewhere up, you know, quite a
49:16
decent ascent rate. Somewhere up here
49:19
you're going to see uh you've probably
49:20
just seen in fact the switch from 1.3 to
49:23
1.5 P2 and the benefit that gives you
49:26
there. That's about there. Not sure
49:28
what's going on with my buoyancy
49:29
somewhere in the middle there, but it's
49:31
uh it's not so great. And then
49:32
eventually I get up onto the trapeze and
49:34
stuff. Do all my deco at pretty much at
49:37
6 m. I think I was reading a book at
49:40
that point. And then the last little bit
49:41
come up and all good. But no couple of
49:45
minutes extra for the wife and kids this
49:46
time. Not entirely sure why that might
49:48
be, but anyway, it's what happened. And
49:52
you can see now just getting to the end
49:54
of the dive. Loads of other divers on
49:56
the shot line, come up to the surface.
49:59
And one of the lovely things about the
50:01
lazy shot system. And you know, diving
50:03
with a boat like Cina is when you look
50:05
around, there you go. You can see it
50:07
there on the surface waiting for you.
50:10
And you know there's going to be all
50:12
sorts of good things on board in terms
50:13
of uh people to help you, people to help
50:16
you get kitted and then of course you
50:18
know all the other facilities like lunch
50:20
and you know dinner whatever time it is
50:22
and then you know your nice bed at the
50:24
end of the day after you reviewed all
50:26
the excitement. And one of the great
50:28
things about this dive is there was
50:29
plenty of excitement as well. It made
50:32
quite a big impact locally. You know as
50:35
I said at the beginning these were not
50:37
just uh anonymous sailors. These were
50:40
people with real connections to the
50:43
local area and those people, you know,
50:45
their relatives. They were really
50:48
pleased to know that they uh the ship
50:50
had been found and that, you know, the
50:53
mystery had been solved. So, being
50:55
involved in that was just absolutely
50:57
awesome. It was a fantastic result and
51:00
the beginning of several days of
51:03
absolutely epic diving and a trip that I
51:07
will never forget. I was so pleased to
51:09
be involved with it. If you'd like to
51:11
see some of the other dives that took
51:12
place on that trip, they're in the
51:14
middle of the screen now. There's an
51:16
entire playlist of them. Uh I hope
51:18
you'll enjoy watching some of those as
51:20
well. And I hope you've enjoyed watching
51:22
this one. I hope you've enjoyed seeing
51:24
the process in action. But for now, if
51:28
you'd like to drop us a comment, leave
51:29
us a like, obviously subscribe if you
51:32
haven't done so. I'm Dom Robinson, deep
51:35
wreck diver, and I very much hope to see
51:38
you on the next one of my videos.

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