USCG Tampa FOUND: America's Deadliest Coast Guard Disaster

0:00
Tampa.
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130 men lost their lives when it was
0:05
torpedoed on the night of the 26th of
0:08
September, 1918.
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Not a single person on board survived,
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making it the greatest loss of life on
0:17
any US combat vessel during the First
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World War. But the US Coast Guard never
0:23
forgot. They've kept the name Tampa in
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continuous service ever since. Even
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today, there is a vessel that carries
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that name. But yet, for over 100 years,
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no one knew exactly where she lay.
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Out there, 50 mi off the Cornish coast,
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the seabed is a graveyard.
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The Celtic Sea is littered with wrecks.
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Finding a wreck isn't the problem.
0:51
There's loads of them. The real
0:53
challenge is getting to them and
0:56
identifying them.
0:58
They're deep, miles offshore, and almost
1:02
no skipper will take you that far.
1:05
Newquay is the only viable port, and
1:08
it's small and heavily tidal. In
1:11
reality, there's only one kind of boat
1:14
that allows you to dive this far out.
1:17
It's Atlantic Diver, operated by the
1:19
veteran skipper Chris Lowe,
1:22
who's been involved in almost every
1:24
major discovery off the North Cornish
1:27
coast for decades.
1:29
Even when Chris does take you out there,
1:32
then identifying, finding the right
1:35
wreck is something else entirely.
1:39
There's loads of wrecks, but very few
1:41
have names.
1:43
So, for 3 years, we searched. Long,
1:46
expensive days offshore.
1:49
Dives into cold, dark water at nearly
1:53
100 m.
1:55
The margin for error at that depth and
1:57
that far offshore is razor thin.
2:00
We found stories.
2:02
We put names back onto wrecks.
2:06
On others, we came up empty.
2:09
But somewhere in the wreck-strewn seabed
2:12
was Tampa. And now we found her.
2:16
After a 3-year search, the Gasperados
2:19
dive team is proud to announce the
2:22
discovery of the wreck of the US Coast
2:25
Guard Tampa. It's lying in 95 m of
2:29
water, 50 mi off Newquay, England.
2:33
It's a site untouched for over a
2:36
century.
2:37
But finally, we know where it is and the
2:40
full story can be told.
2:43
Today
2:45
Hey, we're hoping today fingers crossed.
2:49
We've been out here a lot. One of these
2:51
days we're going to find it.
2:53
I don't think I exude very much
2:55
confidence in that clip. And I'll be
2:57
absolutely honest with you, at this
2:59
point on this dive, I wasn't confident
3:02
that we were going to find the Tampa.
3:04
The previous day to this, we'd dived
3:06
another target that I thought was a much
3:08
more likely
3:10
to be the Tampa based on the evidence
3:12
that we had, based on the research. So,
3:15
we we went out essentially to dive this
3:17
one because it was the last one within
3:20
the foreseeable area that could possibly
3:22
be the Tampa. But in my mind, this was
3:25
more of a a box-ticking exercise than
3:28
anything else. So, and I guess if you
3:32
were making a film about this, that
3:35
would be you can imagine how this would
3:37
be
3:38
set up as the kind of the all hope was
3:42
gone. We tried everything. It was just
3:45
We'll just go and do it just for the
3:46
hell of it. And actually, obviously, it
3:48
turned out to be exactly the right thing
3:50
to do. Turned out to be a tamper. Now,
3:53
because of that, there was a couple of
3:55
things that I'd not done that I really
3:58
really regret. The most important one
3:59
you're going to see in a minute is my
4:02
GoPro on the front of my scooter doesn't
4:05
work. Absolutely shocking and
4:07
unbelievable that we had nearly 4-hour
4:11
transit out and I hadn't bothered to
4:12
check it on the way out. I I still can't
4:15
believe how stupid I was because the day
4:17
before I'd done it and I normally do it
4:19
religiously. I think it was just in my
4:22
mind that this was going to be a nothing
4:24
dive. There was no point doing it, no
4:26
point getting the the GoPro sorted. So,
4:29
or no point checking it. So, so I didn't
4:31
and you'll see in a minute when I try
4:32
and turn it on. Here we go. You see it's
4:34
not going to work and
4:36
yeah. Anyway, so all the way through the
4:39
dive,
4:40
as soon as we started seeing interesting
4:42
things, I was I was kicking myself. But,
4:45
hey, that's the way it goes. Anybody's
4:47
watched any of my other videos will have
4:48
seen loads of similar things with video
4:52
cameras not working, video lights not
4:54
working, etc. etc. The good news is that
4:57
I do have some footage. So, what you're
4:59
seeing here is the parallel lens, which
5:02
is on the side of my helmet.
5:04
And that's what you're capturing. The
5:06
other The other bit of good news that
5:07
you can probably see here is the two
5:09
ropes are really close together. The one
5:12
that nearest me is the shot line. The
5:14
other one is the lazy shot and they're
5:16
both really close together, which means
5:19
that it is bang on slack. Just checked
5:21
above me there. That's Jacob, who was my
5:24
buddy for today. And during this, I'm
5:26
going to cut in a bit of his video. So,
5:28
you'll probably see every now and again
5:30
we lose the inspiration handset, which
5:33
is on the left-hand side, and we just
5:34
get a sum of Jacob's video.
5:38
I'm scootering down as I tend to do. I
5:41
guess one of the things worth mentioning
5:43
is when you dive with Chris, he puts the
5:46
lazy shot in with the main shot line.
5:48
It's just the way he likes to do it.
5:51
It's uh it's a slightly different
5:52
procedure to some of my other videos.
5:55
To all intents and purposes, doesn't
5:56
really make a difference. Uh when you
5:58
come back up, the lazy shot system is
6:00
still there.
6:01
You're going to We're going to release
6:02
it as we always do, and we're going to
6:04
drift off in the current.
6:06
The other thing you're going to see me
6:07
doing on my on the way down is uh
6:09
putting my
6:11
uh dive vote on. You can see I'm just
6:13
getting it with my left hand there. And
6:15
that is duplicating A, it's being a tag.
6:18
B, it's providing me with something to
6:20
do on decompression.
6:22
And if you've never seen me do this, I
6:24
love watching videos on decompression.
6:26
And within that bag is a dive vote
6:28
housing with a old phone in there, and
6:32
I'm going to watch uh something on the
6:34
deco. Makes a whole thing fly by. It's
6:37
just a super super way of of doing decom
6:40
decompression.
6:41
And works really well for me.
6:45
The other thing I'd like to do, I'd just
6:46
like to uh say a big thank you to two
6:49
people who support my diving. The first
6:52
is O'Three, whose suit I'm using. I'm a
6:55
massive fan of those. I dive mainly in
6:57
the RI 2100. And the other people I'd
7:00
like to thank are Kent Tooling, who are
7:03
another fantastic company. They provide
7:06
me with my uh reels. Kent Tooling reels
7:09
legendary in the UK for their
7:12
robustness, their ease of use with cold
7:13
hands. So, big chuck out to Kent Tooling
7:17
and O'Three.
7:19
What you can also see at this point in
7:20
time is I've just gone past the lazy
7:22
shot. So, I've I've left my dive vote on
7:24
it with my tag on it. I'm now heading
7:26
down to the seabed. You can see I've
7:28
turned on my video lights. The other
7:29
thing you might have seen is I
7:31
transferred the strobes from the front
7:33
of my scooter onto there's a little clip
7:36
on my
7:37
um wrist on where my handset is for my
7:40
inspiration rebreather.
7:42
And I've been trying different uh
7:44
different ways of of carrying those, and
7:46
this worked really well to on this dive.
7:48
So, it's probably something I'm going to
7:50
do more often. Now, a little bit about
7:53
Coast Guards.
7:55
In the UK,
7:56
Coast Guard is a entirely civilian
7:59
organization that mainly manages rescue,
8:03
which is, I think, why a lot of British
8:05
people find it really odd that there is
8:08
an armed
8:09
Coast Guard vessel called the US Coast
8:11
Guard Tampa at the bottom of the seabed
8:14
in between England and Ireland. And the
8:17
reason is that the Coast Guard in
8:18
America is a very different organization
8:22
to to the UK one.
8:24
Over there, it's kind of a combination
8:25
of It's got a bit of navy, it's got a
8:28
bit of police, and it's got a bit of
8:31
that kind of rescue thing. So, it does a
8:33
whole load of of different activities.
8:37
Tampa was sunk in 1918. Prior to that,
8:41
it actually been owned by the US. It was
8:45
a US revenue cutter. So, I think it was
8:47
about stopping smuggling and those kind
8:50
of things.
8:51
So, the US Coast Guard was formed in
8:53
1915, and it merged a couple of
8:55
different organizations, one of which
8:57
was that revenue service, and the other,
8:59
I think, was to do with with rescues.
9:02
And so, they created this kind of hybrid
9:04
organization. And now, the US Coast
9:07
Guard is part of the US military in the
9:10
same way that their army is, their navy
9:12
is, their air force is. And in America,
9:15
the Marines are a separate organization,
9:17
as well. So, very, very different to the
9:20
UK. Now, the good news is, as you can
9:23
see, I've arrived at the wreck.
9:26
The other thing you might do is, if you
9:28
have a look at my handset in the bottom
9:29
left-hand side, you can see that I've
9:31
got a real oxygen spike. It's up around
9:35
1.6 there. And at this moment in time, I
9:38
was actually getting a uh the alarms
9:40
That's That's what you get when they the
9:43
PO2 exceeds that amount.
9:46
I guess I could have done a dil flush to
9:48
flush it down and bring it back down,
9:49
but actually, I'm just going to rely on
9:51
breathing it breathing it back down.
9:54
Not least because I'm now on the wreck,
9:55
and the very first thing I've seen in
9:57
front of me there is a water tube
10:00
boiler. This is great because we know
10:03
that Tampa had water tube boilers. So So
10:06
right from the off, there's a really
10:08
good piece of evidence there.
10:11
The next thing I find is another
10:13
cracking thing as well. Hopefully, what
10:15
you can see in front of me there, that
10:17
is a brass fire extinguisher. Really
10:21
rare and unusual to see on wrecks. I
10:23
can't really think of when I've I've
10:26
seen another one on a wreck. I've seen
10:27
them that have been recovered. I've seen
10:29
photos of them and those kind of things,
10:30
but anyway, to get one on a wreck,
10:32
that's brilliant. So So already, this
10:35
dive is is turning out to be really
10:37
interesting.
10:38
And the next thing that I'm going to
10:39
see, you can probably just see it in the
10:41
top left. Well, there's a There's a
10:42
porthole there. There's a brass box.
10:44
There's a couple of black brass boxes,
10:46
in fact. And there, in front of me,
10:48
boom, is the ship's helm.
10:51
Absolutely amazing. I mean, it's it's
10:53
massive. It's a really big one. There
10:56
would have been a wheel on that, so you
10:57
can see the spokes in it coming out of
10:59
there would have been a wooden wheel.
11:00
That's been eaten away in the 100 years
11:02
it's been underwater. But the ship's
11:04
helm is is down there. So that is
11:07
absolutely incredible. The other thing
11:09
that you can see here, just at the
11:11
bottom of that picture, is there's
11:13
another pedestal. So under there would
11:15
probably it maybe a binnacle, possibly a
11:18
telegraph, maybe even a searchlight
11:21
because Tampa did have searchlights
11:23
mounted on it. Difficult to say cuz
11:26
I mean, as you can see, this wreck is
11:29
a complete mess.
11:31
Now, as I go around the wreck, I start
11:34
to realize, I think, that what has
11:36
happened is the bow has impacted the
11:39
seabed and crushed everything. That in
11:41
front of us that we've just gone past
11:42
there, I'm going to come back to it, but
11:44
I think it's a the gun upside down
11:47
buried under a load of stuff. There's
11:49
also, um, I think two capstans,
11:53
that we're going to see in a second as
11:54
well.
11:55
But, before I see I look at the
11:56
capstans, or before I do anything else,
11:58
you've probably seen there's another
11:59
brass disc down there and underneath
12:02
them is two, um, lights,
12:05
powerful lights. I'm going to come back
12:07
to those later on as well. So,
12:09
I mean, I've only been at the bottom,
12:11
um, for a couple of minutes. And on
12:13
there, in fact, is the anchor. I know
12:16
that Tampa has got anchors like that on.
12:18
So, already, within a very short period
12:21
of time, I've seen
12:24
an array of things that is really
12:26
unusual to see on on wrecks. Things like
12:29
bridge gear and lamps and fire
12:32
extinguishers are super desirable. So,
12:34
the fact that they're on this wreck
12:36
guarantees that this wreck has has never
12:38
been dived before. I mean, the other
12:40
thing that guarantees it's never been
12:42
dived before is the fact that it is 50
12:44
mi offshore. And the only way you're
12:47
going to get there is out of Newquay.
12:48
The only person who's going to take you
12:50
there is Chris Lowe, as I said in the
12:51
intro. And Chris has never been here
12:54
before. So,
12:56
we know it's undived. Everything
12:58
Everything says it's undived. You've
12:59
probably also seen that there's loads of
13:01
portholes and stuff around here as well.
13:05
I'm just in my element at the moment.
13:08
It's It's incredible how much stuff that
13:11
there is.
13:13
We We knew that Tampa had a lot of
13:15
portholes.
13:16
Um, we knew it it was armed. So,
13:20
what we're also doing is looking for
13:23
ammunition. And there should be a
13:25
forward gun. I've been a bit surprised
13:27
at not to see one at the moment.
13:31
Um but I think it's because of how much
13:34
of a mess the front of the wreck is. The
13:37
thing that I talked about as being the
13:38
gun later on earlier on is
13:41
I spotted later on but but in front of
13:43
me um you can probably just see there's
13:45
some small caliber ammunition boxes of
13:47
four of it under that piece of plate.
13:49
I'm just going to have a look at it in
13:50
the top there. So there we go. We think
13:53
Tampa had two uh to types of weaponry on
13:56
it. We think it had a 4-in gun and then
13:59
a 76-mm
14:01
gun which is which is slightly smaller.
14:03
Those shells I suspect are round about
14:06
that sort of caliber.
14:09
So what you can see here is is I'm
14:10
coming back to the bridge area. Although
14:13
it is all a mess and for me it's
14:15
compressed.
14:16
I think it's as I've already said I
14:18
think the bow hit the seabed and then
14:20
just kind of pushed everything together
14:21
which is why you know there's just a big
14:24
mass of stuff.
14:26
Um what you can see there is this this
14:28
I've just there's two portholes, one on
14:30
the left, one on the right. And then I
14:32
come up here and I see another thing
14:34
that is super unusual to see on a wreck.
14:37
In front of me there is a telegraph and
14:40
then just behind it is a porthole and
14:42
underneath the porthole is something
14:44
that I'm going to see in a minute is the
14:47
the ship's binnacle. You can see that
14:49
the bowl at the top there and in that
14:51
would have would have sat the compass.
14:52
It's possible that the compass is either
14:55
under that bit of plate to the left.
14:57
There's something that looked a bit like
14:59
bit like a ring.
15:01
You can probably see that I'm not
15:02
concentrating on any of these incredible
15:05
artifacts. And the reason is because
15:07
what I'm looking at looking for is the
15:09
major prize which is which is the bell.
15:12
It should be on the foremast.
15:14
Um
15:16
I haven't seen it yet. I haven't
15:17
actually seen the mess the mast. That's
15:19
that that fire extinguisher. So I know
15:21
I'm I'm kind of heading back towards the
15:23
boilers. This is on the port side. At
15:26
the moment, I'm looking to to the stern.
15:29
And at this moment in time, I'm I'm kind
15:30
of trying to make a decision about what
15:32
do I do on my dive? Do I go to the stern
15:35
area, or do I stay in the bow and carry
15:38
on looking for the for the bell? Wow,
15:41
you know,
15:42
I think anybody who's watched any of my
15:43
other videos will know that I'm going to
15:46
spend that time looking for for the bell
15:49
because
15:50
obviously it's super iconic.
15:52
There may be the opportunity to see
15:54
something on it. In fact, there we go,
15:55
back at what I think is the gun. You can
15:58
just see the barrel sticking out there.
16:00
At this moment in time, you can see I've
16:02
stopped. It's not because I think it's a
16:04
gun, it's because I'm I'm messing around
16:06
with my torch. But under that big pile
16:07
of stuff, just kind of in the middle
16:10
left of the screen, that's where I think
16:12
the main bit of the gun is. I think it's
16:14
kind of slightly upside down with the
16:15
platform obscuring most of it.
16:18
But obviously, there is also, as you can
16:20
see, a a ton of net down here. And
16:23
there's also, my gut feeling is is that,
16:26
as I've said a few times now, is is that
16:28
everything is compressed here. So, so I
16:30
haven't been There's one of the capstans
16:32
you can probably see.
16:34
Tampa had two.
16:36
Um
16:37
There's also some mooring bollards there
16:39
under the net. So, almost immediately,
16:41
I've gone back to I've gone back to the
16:43
bow. And the That's where those lights I
16:46
had previously I just had my torch on.
16:48
So, it for me, it's just Everything is
16:51
just more compressed than it would have
16:53
been um otherwise. Now, Tampa is a small
16:55
ship, but I still think it's all
16:57
compressed. I think it's it's pushed
16:59
together, and that has um created this
17:03
situation where where we've we've we've
17:05
just got this big big mass of stuff. But
17:08
uh who knows? It would be lovely to have
17:11
a side scan. You can probably see
17:12
another bit of a capstan there. That
17:14
kind of wheel would have been below the
17:15
deck. That would have been how it's
17:17
turned. so that that the capstan would
17:18
have been down on the bottom left of
17:20
where I was looking.
17:21
Once again, you can see I I'm not
17:23
looking I'm not hanging around. I'm
17:25
looking for that mast. I'm I'm looking
17:28
for the bell.
17:30
We're We're 95 m down here.
17:33
It's
17:35
time on this wreck is is going to be
17:37
really limited. We also have a
17:39
self-imposed limit. I mentioned in at
17:41
the start that Newquay is really tidal.
17:45
In fact, there's there's there's the
17:46
capstans there.
17:47
Newquay is really tidal. So, we we have
17:50
a In order to get back, we're diving
17:52
this late actually in the afternoon. In
17:54
order to get back
17:56
and to get out the water, in fact, I
17:58
think that's just the main mast I've
18:00
just gone past there. Don't know why I
18:02
didn't spot it, but but the the bell
18:04
should you know should have been
18:05
somewhere under there.
18:06
We're going to go back and dive it, and
18:08
I'm going to spend a lot more time look
18:09
at looking for the bell there. Anyway,
18:12
so yeah, we have to get back to Newquay
18:15
in time to get the boat in. If we don't
18:17
do that, we've got to wait for the tide
18:21
to to come in, and that and we won't be
18:24
able to unload our kit. We're already
18:25
forecasting a kind of half nine in the
18:28
evening getting back, so it's going to
18:30
be dark, and then we will everybody
18:33
needs to travel. I need to get to my
18:34
house, which is about an hour and a half
18:36
away. Few other people are traveling a a
18:39
lot further than that. So,
18:41
it's one of those things that should
18:42
Porthole there in case you missed it.
18:44
It's one of those things that that
18:45
shouldn't matter,
18:48
but actually is a real world life
18:50
consideration when you're doing this
18:51
kind of diving, when you're diving
18:54
somewhere like Newquay, which is
18:56
incredibly tidal. This area can have a
18:59
tidal range of up to six or seven
19:01
meters, so between high and low water.
19:03
So, incredible incredible um difference,
19:06
and Newquay harbor itself almost
19:09
completely dries out at low water. So, a
19:12
boat like Atlantic Diver, there's a
19:14
period either time when it can either
19:16
side of a low water when it can get in
19:18
and out.
19:19
Just come back to the um the telegraph
19:21
and the binnacle there with that with
19:23
that porthole on it. So, this is kind of
19:25
pretty much on on the port side. You can
19:28
see I'm I'm pretty much back in that
19:30
kind of uh boiler area.
19:32
I'm still having a look around to see
19:34
what else there is. You can probably see
19:35
there's bits of crockery. That looks
19:36
like a bowl there.
19:38
And
19:39
that sort of thing, something like a
19:41
bowl, instantly for me anyway, connects
19:44
me with the people on the ship.
19:47
Those 130 people who died, all those US
19:50
Coast Guardsmen and the attached uh US
19:53
Navy, Royal Navy, the civilians,
19:57
they would have eaten out of those
19:58
bowls. And therefore, to me, that's
20:02
I find those connections really
20:04
interesting.
20:05
All these people would have had parents,
20:07
would have had
20:08
uh nearest and dearest, and none of them
20:11
knew where they are.
20:12
Hopefully, you know, someone out there,
20:14
there'll be some relatives, and we can
20:16
give them closure. We can tell them
20:18
where the Tamper is.
20:20
You can see here that I'm uh I'm heading
20:23
towards the stern. There's two other
20:25
divers coming the other way.
20:27
It's a small small wreck. I'm actually
20:29
surprised I haven't seen anybody else uh
20:31
on the dive before now, but but there
20:33
you go. You can also see that TTS is is
20:35
rocking up. I've got 73 minutes there.
20:37
And
20:39
you know, go back to I think we need to
20:40
get out. Now, this is really
20:41
interesting. You probably see what I've
20:42
got my torch on there. That is, I
20:45
believe, a 4-in gun mount. So, the
20:48
actual gun is somewhere underneath that
20:50
pile of stuff. Some of the other guys
20:53
said they saw a barrel.
20:55
I don't know whether it was that barrel
20:57
they saw or maybe the one at the front
20:59
that I've mentioned. The other thing
21:01
that you can see here is on the seabed
21:03
there, there is a massive massive pile
21:06
of ammunition.
21:07
Those to me look roughly 4-in shells.
21:11
There's a huge number of them. I'm
21:13
reckoning those are for the gun that we
21:15
just seen here. Go even more of them.
21:17
Massive amount of shell cases. And
21:20
obviously, this vessel was a fighting
21:22
vessel. This wasn't out here to rescue
21:24
people. This was part of the US Coast
21:27
Guard's contribution to the
21:29
anti-submarine operations that were
21:31
running at the time. So, when it was
21:33
sunk, Tampa was actually escorting a
21:35
convoy up the up the uh
21:39
uh Bristol Channel effectively. Um and I
21:41
think they were heading further north
21:42
after that. But they were running low on
21:45
fuel. So, Tampa headed off to to go and
21:48
get some uh fuel. And then 4 hours
21:51
later, the rest of the convoy heard this
21:53
loud explosion, which was the moment, we
21:56
believe, that it was sunk by UB-91.
22:00
And one of the uh the problems with
22:02
finding the Tampa is that it was really
22:05
misty on that day. So, the convoy didn't
22:08
really know where it was. Obviously,
22:09
there was nothing on Tampa. Nobody
22:11
survived. So, so we could have no
22:12
information from then.
22:14
But and the submarine that sunk it, the
22:17
although we have their reports and we
22:19
have their logs,
22:21
it doesn't, because of the mist and the
22:23
fact it's so far offshore, there wasn't
22:24
really any landmarks. So, they didn't
22:27
really know where they were, either.
22:29
Put together, all of these things make
22:31
uh made uh finding Tampa really
22:34
difficult. Which is why we just went and
22:36
dived mark after mark after mark trying
22:40
to trying to find this. And over 3
22:42
years, we think this is the the 10th
22:46
actual Tampa mark that we dived. We
22:49
dived a load of other stuff. Sometimes
22:51
just as a break, just to to to do
22:53
something a bit different. But but 10
22:56
10 specific wrecks that we thought were
22:58
Tampa.
22:59
And clearly, we we we got there in the
23:01
end. So, it's a this is a brilliant
23:03
feeling. I can't begin to tell you what
23:05
this is like.
23:07
Um don't know what I'm looking at there.
23:08
Some sort of machinery, maybe a
23:10
generator, perhaps. Just to the left of
23:13
me is the engine. You may have seen that
23:16
earlier on. It's a three-cylinder
23:17
engine. The big cylinder, the one that
23:20
points towards the stern, has has been
23:22
broken open. You may also have seen that
23:24
I didn't go to the stern, and that's
23:26
because, as far as I could tell, the
23:28
stern wasn't there.
23:30
I I suspect it was That's where it was
23:33
torpedoed. It was blown off. There's
23:35
another suggestion, which is that Tampa
23:37
was carrying depth charges. So, maybe
23:39
they exploded when it was hit, and and
23:42
therefore there isn't actually anything
23:43
left of the stern. It's just It's just
23:45
blown to pieces.
23:47
The torpedo that was used was designed
23:49
for sinking much bigger ships than
23:52
Tampa, so had a lot of explosives in it.
23:55
So, once again, that may be why there is
23:57
so little left of the stern of Tampa.
24:02
Now, you can probably see that I'm I'm
24:03
back uh very close to the shot line. You
24:05
can see my strobes flashing away.
24:08
I'm actually really don't want to leave
24:10
the wreck at this point in time.
24:12
It's You can see my uh TTS is 90
24:15
minutes.
24:16
We we had this agreement before we went
24:18
in that we we weren't going to do more
24:20
than
24:21
um
24:22
really 2 hours run time. And I know I'm
24:26
going to get a bit back when I uh when I
24:27
push my PO2 up on the stops.
24:30
But even so, I I know I'm really pushing
24:32
it. So, I am being good.
24:35
I am being uh diligent, and there you
24:37
can see I'm I'm taking my strobes off.
24:38
I'm going to hook them up, and then I'm
24:40
going to head up to the surface, and uh
24:43
start my my 90-odd minutes
24:46
uh of deco.
24:49
Now, was I certain that we'd found the
24:51
Tampa at this particular moment in time?
24:55
No, I wasn't. I'll be absolutely honest
24:57
with you. I I thought it was really
24:59
likely because there was so much down
25:01
there.
25:03
I,
25:04
you know, we had the portholes, we had
25:06
obviously the ammunition, we had those
25:08
beautiful fixtures and fittings which
25:10
are kind of the sort of thing that that
25:13
the governments buy when they are when
25:15
they're fitting out vessels that they
25:16
think might might be around for a long
25:18
time and and Tampa was built before the
25:20
First World War. It wasn't It wasn't a
25:22
war build. So,
25:23
there's loads of things down there that
25:25
point to it being um being the Tampa.
25:29
I wasn't convinced though. There was no
25:31
actual, you know, bang on definite clue.
25:34
Now, the good news is is when we got to
25:36
the surface, one of the guys said he saw
25:40
a plate. I didn't spot them when I was
25:41
down there and on the back of the plate,
25:43
he could read uh Trenton, New Jersey.
25:47
And therefore for me, that link that
25:49
places gives the ship an American
25:51
connection, that is it. That's that's
25:53
what makes it Tampa. When we
25:55
subsequently looked at other things and
25:57
we looked at the layout, we looked at
25:58
those two capstans, we looked at the um
26:02
the the water tube boilers, all that
26:05
kind of stuff, that that means it has to
26:08
be really Tampa. And there you go, you
26:10
can see me. I'm just giving my buddy, or
26:11
not my buddy, the diver I've met on the
26:14
on the thing there,
26:15
um the indication that I that I'm not
26:17
sure.
26:18
Uh he the other diver is saying he saw a
26:20
gun.
26:21
W- w- I'm saying perhaps he saw two
26:23
guns. So, um
26:25
I know There you go. He's decided he's
26:27
only he's only seen one gun. So, there
26:29
you go. We're having a bit of a chat on
26:30
the way up. Obviously, we are all really
26:34
excited. We know whatever we found is
26:36
significant.
26:37
And that's a really good place to be
26:39
when you've been kissing a lot of frogs
26:42
to and we've we've done some wrecks that
26:44
are
26:45
really really low quality
26:48
um where there's there's nothing really
26:49
down there. They're colliers or
26:52
upside down steam ships, or all those
26:54
kind of things. So, to to get one like
26:57
this with so many interesting things
27:00
Um and and the other thing I should
27:01
mention is this was going to be our last
27:02
Tampa dive. After this, we had people
27:05
who would operate who would offered us
27:07
AUVs, so automated underwater vehicles
27:11
that they were going to use to do the
27:12
diving and get the imagery. So,
27:15
it was somebody else was going to find
27:16
it using something else, but we didn't
27:19
we cracked it, and that is uh a
27:22
fantastic feeling. Fast forward a few
27:24
minutes, and it's time to raise the set
27:27
point on my inspiration. You can just
27:29
see it going up there, 1.5. That's going
27:32
to accelerate my decompression and get
27:35
me out of the water
27:37
uh more quickly.
27:38
What I don't do or what I forget to do
27:41
for a while is to change the set point
27:43
on my Shearwater, the computer that you
27:46
can see on my right arm there.
27:49
Now, I actually use my Shearwater to
27:51
control my decompression. So, by not
27:53
doing that,
27:55
what I'm doing Well, two things. The
27:57
first thing is I'm going to spend longer
27:58
underwater. The second thing is I'm
28:00
actually going to build in a bit of a
28:02
safety factor. Neither of these things
28:04
are deliberate, by the way. I've just
28:06
simply forgotten to do it uh cuz I would
28:08
normally change them both at the same
28:10
time.
28:11
Not sure why. It It's probably because
28:13
this other diver is coming up, and uh
28:15
I'm trying to have a bit of a chat.
28:18
A bit later on, uh you can see the lazy
28:21
shot has been released, and one of the
28:22
ways that we do things a bit differently
28:26
uh with Chris is once the lazy shot has
28:28
been released, he wants us all to put up
28:31
a delayed SMB,
28:33
and then he can count the number of
28:34
delayed SMBs. He knows he's got all his
28:37
divers.
28:38
Each diver ascends under their own
28:40
delayed SMB, making sure that they
28:43
retain contact with the the shot, which
28:45
you can see in front of me there.
28:48
It's pretty dark at this point, and you
28:49
can see seeing the things like the lazy
28:51
shot is quite challenging. Uh you can
28:54
also see I'm just changing my Shearwater
28:57
1.5 bar there, which is
29:00
better late than never, I guess.
29:02
Then, as I get shallower, you can see
29:04
here we've got quite a bit of ambient
29:06
light. So, this is kind of 10 m up from
29:08
where I was earlier on.
29:10
The good news is the sea is really,
29:12
really calm. You can see my delayed SMB
29:15
not going up and down very much there.
29:19
The other diver, relatively easy to see
29:21
them.
29:23
The bad news is it's going to get a lot
29:25
worse as we get shallower.
29:27
You can see here this is about 9 m,
29:30
where you would expect the viz to be
29:32
really good, or certainly better. In
29:34
fact, it's so bad that one of the divers
29:36
has stuck a strobe onto the lazy shot
29:39
just to help us all figure out where it
29:41
is.
29:42
You can see I'm having a look around
29:43
here to try and
29:45
just show how bad it is. There's another
29:47
diver out in the gloom.
29:49
This is This is thoroughly miserable and
29:52
not helpful for sticking together. In
29:54
fact, one of the things actually happens
29:56
is
29:57
myself and one of the other divers end
29:59
up getting separated. It's my own fault.
30:01
I was watching a film on the on the dive
30:03
boat, and we end up losing the lazy shot
30:06
and coming up away from it. But, we
30:08
stuck together. The boat was close by.
30:10
We were in fact still relatively close
30:12
to the lazy shot, but clearly that's
30:15
That That's not particularly good
30:16
drills, although it does sometimes
30:17
happen.
30:19
And this is what that looks like on the
30:20
surface. You can see there six SMBs. The
30:24
crew sit there watching it. There's also
30:25
a seal in the background, which is what
30:27
they're they're focused on there. But,
30:30
the surface crew sits there watching
30:31
SMBs until this happens. As divers
30:34
clear, and you see this is me. One by
30:37
one, they they come up to the surface.
30:40
And you can see here this is me getting
30:42
out on the boat with all my gear. I've
30:44
got two Ali 80s, I've got my scooter.
30:48
And that moment the gravity returns is
30:50
never particularly pleasant. Really
30:53
pleased there were a lot of people
30:54
around to to give me a hand.
30:56
Uh although I don't know why I chimed
30:58
off Steve there, which is
31:01
kind of me, but anyway, there you go. As
31:03
you can see, now it's time for them
31:05
they'll want to know what I saw down
31:06
there. Well done, you've just come back
31:08
up from 95 m in this 2 and 1/2 hours.
31:11
What did you see?
31:14
What did I see? Yeah. That is a very
31:16
good question.
31:18
I saw the most immaculate set of bridge
31:21
gear out there.
31:22
A chuffing massive helm.
31:25
Uh
31:26
telegraph
31:27
binnacle.
31:29
I saw
31:30
a lot of ammunition.
31:33
I saw some deck lights.
31:36
I saw an anchor that was
31:39
uh I think similar to the ones that I've
31:41
seen on pictures of the Tampa. Cool. Um
31:44
Portholes? L- Loads and loads of
31:46
portholes.
31:48
Anything around the helm at all that
31:50
like a
31:51
No, nothing. I I spent quite a lot of
31:54
time looking for the bell.
31:55
I didn't find anything.
31:57
Uh
31:59
What else?
32:01
Definitely World War I era, I would say.
32:04
Um I mean, I've been thinking about it
32:05
all the way back up. I have to say on
32:08
the balance of probability uh I think
32:11
that is probably the Tampa. Lovely. So
32:14
Well done. Yeah, well. Fantastic.
32:16
>> Yeah, I mean, what I think we should do
32:18
is go back and dive it again. Yeah.
32:25
And of course, after this, you need the
32:27
obligatory photo and a bit of
32:29
celebrating.
32:38
Only four years in the making or
32:39
whatever it is.
32:41
And then, the long, long journey back.
32:45
But hey, it's been worth it. How many
32:48
chances do you get to dive and find a
32:52
wreck of the significance of the US
32:55
Coast Guard Tampa? It's It's an
32:57
incredible experience. None of us will
32:58
ever forget it.
33:00
I'm Don Robinson, deep wreck diver.
33:03
Thank you for being with me on this
33:04
video,
33:05
and I look forward to seeing you on the
33:07
next one.

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