Up next in 10
The wreck of USCG Tampa has finally been found.
Lost on 26 September 1918 after being torpedoed by the German U boat UB-91, USCGC Tampa went down in just minutes with the loss of all 131 people on board. It remains the deadliest disaster in the history of the United States Coast Guard and the greatest loss of life on any U.S. combat vessel during the First World War.
For over a century, her final resting place remained unknown.
After three years of searching, the Gasperados Dive Team has located the wreck in 95 metres of water, 50 miles off the Cornish coast in the Celtic Sea. In one of the most challenging wreck hunting environments in the world, surrounded by countless unidentified wrecks, this discovery finally confirms the fate and location of Tampa.
This video tells the story of her loss, the search, and the moment the wreck was found.
We've dived lots of other wrecks whilst looking for the Tampa - here are a selection!
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLSks_DrnduzXAacKcgzXSY-TmFQwlNik-
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*THANKS*
A huge thanks to
- Steve and Barbara Mortimer for their dedication to finding the Tampa and allowing me to be part of the team
- Chris Lowe, our skipper!
- Paul Downs and Jacob Mackenzie for use of some of their footage
- The rest of the Gasperados dive team
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Show More Show Less View Video Transcript
0:00
Tampa.
0:01
130 men lost their lives when it was
0:05
torpedoed on the night of the 26th of
0:08
September, 1918.
0:11
Not a single person on board survived,
0:14
making it the greatest loss of life on
0:17
any US combat vessel during the First
0:20
World War. But the US Coast Guard never
0:23
forgot. They've kept the name Tampa in
0:25
continuous service ever since. Even
0:29
today, there is a vessel that carries
0:31
that name. But yet, for over 100 years,
0:35
no one knew exactly where she lay.
0:38
Out there, 50 mi off the Cornish coast,
0:41
the seabed is a graveyard.
0:44
The Celtic Sea is littered with wrecks.
0:48
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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