Up next in 10
During World War One, over 12,000 ships from all nations were sunk around the British Isles. World War Two added thousands more. But large numbers of these wrecks have never been properly identified.
Today we're diving an unidentified World War One era collier lying in 98 meters of water, 40 miles offshore. Perfect conditions, clear water, plenty of bottom time - and we're on a mission to recover an artifact that might finally solve the mystery.
A ship's bell with an engraved name. Crockery with a company marking. A builder's plate from the engine room. These small objects are often the only way to identify a wreck when official records are incomplete or contradictory.
We find the bell. But does it have a name?
Not all underwater mysteries get solved.
🔍 DIVE DETAILS:
• Depth: 98 meters
• Location: 40 miles offshore, southern British coast
• Wreck Type: WWI era collier
• Conditions: Wonderful!
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TIMESTAMPS:
00:00 - Introduction
00:54 - How many wrecks!
03:17 - Getting in
Show More Show Less View Video Transcript
0:00
During the First World War, over 12,000
0:03
ships from all nations were sunk around
0:05
the British Isles. That's more than 200
0:08
every single month. Although British
0:11
vessels made up most of those losses,
0:14
German, French, American, Norwegian,
0:17
Dutch, ships from dozens of countries
0:19
were sunk in these waters.
0:22
World War II added thousands more.
0:25
British Allied Axis. Over 5,000 extra
0:29
vessels went to the seabed around our
0:31
coast.
0:33
But here's what most people don't
0:35
realize.
0:36
Large numbers of these wrecks have never
0:38
been properly identified. Why? Well,
0:42
incomplete wartime records, civilian
0:45
vessels that went down without
0:47
witnesses, collers, and merchant ships
0:50
that simply vanished. They're all down
0:52
there waiting to be discovered. Off the
0:56
south coast of the UK alone, there's
0:58
over,00
1:00
documented World War I wrecks and many
1:02
of those carry no name.
1:05
Today we're diving one of them, a
1:08
Collia, almost certainly World War I
1:11
era, lying in 95 m of water. Conditions
1:15
are perfect with stunning underwater
1:18
visibility. But will we solve the
1:21
mystery?
1:23
What we're hoping to do is to recover an
1:25
artifact that might finally give this
1:27
wreck its name. A ship's bell with an
1:30
engraved name, crockery with a company
1:33
marking, or a builder's plate from the
1:36
engine room. Something that can connect
1:38
this rusting, broken hull to a specific
1:42
vessel lost over a century ago.
1:45
Let's find out if we do it.
1:48
Here we are, July 2025.
1:51
40 miles out to sea on board diver
1:55
support vessel Seeker operated by
1:58
Indeep. I do a load of stuff with them.
2:01
As you can see the uh two divers about
2:04
to get in the water there. They've got
2:06
the lazy shot. You can see Liz just to
2:08
the right hand side there. She's kind of
2:10
feeding the rope out.
2:12
What this means is that two divers have
2:14
already gone down and are on the wreck.
2:17
they've sent up the pill or the pellet
2:19
to say that the shot line is is on the
2:21
wreck. Once we get that, the next pair
2:23
of divers go in with the lazy shot and
2:27
make sure that's all set up for the
2:28
decompression. And then once once
2:30
they're in and that's looking good, the
2:32
remaining divers on the boat get to go
2:34
in. Clearly, today I'm part of the
2:37
remaining divers. Now, for a variety of
2:39
reasons, there was only six divers on
2:42
this uh on this trip. So, myself and my
2:45
buddy wear divers five and six. You can
2:48
see there Liz, she's uh she's getting
2:51
everything ready. She's going to help me
2:52
get my uh get my scooter on. There's a
2:55
couple of good reasons to have a
2:57
scooter. There's the obvious one, which
2:58
is when you're on a wreck, it's quite
3:00
nice. It reduces the effort. You can
3:02
kind of motor around. Also, it's got my
3:04
GoPro on. It's got a pair of video
3:06
lights on. That's all handy. But one of
3:08
the main reasons I like it is because it
3:10
allows me to get down really quickly.
3:12
There's two reasons why that's a good
3:14
thing. The first is that you're not
3:16
incurring decompression when you're just
3:18
traveling down the line. The second
3:21
thing is that it allows you to get onto
3:22
the wreck quickly. Now, there's a
3:25
certain element of competition in this
3:27
kind of diving. Everybody wants to find
3:29
the thing that's going to help us to
3:31
identify the wreck. And clearly, the
3:33
people who arrive on the wreck first,
3:36
they get an advantage because they're
3:38
going to be there before anyone else.
3:39
and if there's anything really obvious,
3:41
they will find it. So that's why what we
3:44
do is we rotate who gets to go in first.
3:47
I'd been in first on on another dive,
3:49
but on this one, it was my turn to be in
3:51
last. That doesn't stop me though from
3:53
trying to get down as quickly as
3:55
possible. And hopefully that will
3:57
minimize the time that people who were
3:59
already down there will have had to find
4:02
uh exciting underwater artifacts that
4:04
allow it to be identified and increase
4:07
the chance that I get there and I get
4:09
them. And as the more astute of you have
4:11
already seen at the beginning of this
4:13
video, I show you me finding the bell on
4:16
this dive. So, uh you've got that all to
4:19
look forward to. You've just seen me
4:21
sorting out my scooter, getting my GoPro
4:23
turned on, and this is me. I've probably
4:26
dropped about another 20 m. A little bit
4:28
of a time hop there. And you can see
4:30
there just coming up onto the lazy shot,
4:32
which was put in by the two divers that
4:34
we saw exiting the boat. So, the next
4:37
thing I'm going to be doing is sticking
4:38
my tag on the lazy shot there along with
4:41
all the others. And then when I come up,
4:43
obviously, I'll be releasing it. And the
4:45
last pair up, which is probably going to
4:47
be me and my buddy, we will release the
4:49
lazy shot and we'll float in the current
4:52
pretty much uh standard procedure. And
4:54
anybody who's watched any of my other
4:55
videos will have seen this happen any
4:57
number of times. Now, I know people
5:00
always like to know where I am, where
5:02
this dive is taking place. So, here's a
5:05
bit of a Google Earth shot. The boat has
5:08
been moved from Plymouth to New is the
5:11
most westerly fishing port on the south
5:14
coast of England. And from there we've
5:17
traveled 40 miles out to sea into an
5:20
area where there are just loads and
5:23
loads of undived wrecks. Question you
5:26
might ask is how do we know they're
5:28
undived? And the reason is because we've
5:31
got quite a good corporate memory in our
5:33
team and we know the other teams that
5:36
either might have dived out of here or
5:37
the boats that have operated out of
5:39
here. And what we know about them means
5:42
that we know nobody else has been onto
5:44
this wreck. It's just too far out and
5:46
too deep for anybody else to have done.
5:49
So, that's always a lovely feeling when
5:51
you're going down. And as you can see
5:53
here, I'm just starting to see the
5:54
strobes, which means I'm getting close
5:56
to the bottom. And I know it's a uh an
6:00
undived wreck. Well, apart from the four
6:01
people in front of me. And as you can
6:04
see there, I've got my strobes ready in
6:06
my left hand. So, clearly time is of the
6:09
essence. I'm going to get them onto the
6:10
shot line as quickly as I can. You can
6:12
also see that I've managed to catch up
6:14
the two divers who put the lazy shot on.
6:17
One of them's just to the left by the
6:19
strobes and the other one is on the
6:21
bottom there. So, I'm particularly
6:22
pleased about that. It means that only
6:24
the first two divers on the wreck have
6:27
been there in front of me. And
6:29
effectively, it's now uh I'm competing
6:32
on even terms with divers number three
6:34
and four. I'm particularly swift with
6:37
getting my strobes on today.
6:39
particularly smooth. So, that's good.
6:42
What I've also realized is that the bow
6:45
is where that diver is heading in front
6:47
of me on the left hand side. I've got
6:49
the scooter, so I'm going to beat him
6:51
there. And as you can see, conditions
6:53
down here are absolutely wonderful. It's
6:57
always difficult to put a number on a uh
7:00
on visibility, but this had to be at
7:02
least 20 m. And it's one of the great
7:05
things about diving in the middle of the
7:06
English Channel is is that what that's
7:08
what you get. Well, that's what you get
7:10
sometimes. It's certainly what we've got
7:12
today, which is brilliant. And as you
7:15
can see here, I'm actually having a look
7:17
off the side of the wreck. I know any
7:19
number of people who found bells off off
7:22
the side. I'm basically at the bow now.
7:25
We knew before we went down that this
7:26
wreck was about 100 m long. That was the
7:29
information on the UK hydrographic
7:31
survey. As soon as I've got down, I've
7:34
seen that it's full of coal. So, that's
7:36
kind of managed my expectations for this
7:38
dive. I know that other people will have
7:41
been to the bow. Uh the first two pair
7:43
of divers or the first pair of divers
7:45
rather will have been to the bow. So,
7:47
therefore, I'm kind of if it was lying
7:50
right in the middle of the bow, I'm
7:51
pretty certain they would have found it.
7:53
That's why I'm going straight to have a
7:54
look over the edge. The thing with a
7:57
with a dive of this depth obviously is
7:58
that your time is really limited. You
8:01
can see I've only just got to the
8:03
bottom. I'm already up to 26 minutes
8:05
time to surface. So that's the TTS
8:07
number down in the bottom right of my
8:09
computer that you can see the overlay on
8:11
the left hand side. Thanks Eric for
8:13
doing that. What else can we see on this
8:16
wreck? Well, the looks as though there
8:17
might have been an anchor off to the
8:19
left hand side, but I'm ignoring that.
8:21
Not really interested in anchors. What
8:22
I'm hoping is that I'll be able to find
8:24
something that will crack the identity.
8:27
As you can see there, what I found is a
8:29
bit of broken plate. Now, I don't know
8:31
why I I I don't bring that up. I should
8:34
do it. Should. It's one of the lessons I
8:36
think I thought I'd learn ever since
8:37
they identified the nons, but clearly I
8:40
uh I didn't learn it. There might have
8:42
been something on that. I actually find
8:44
some plates later on and I look at all
8:46
of them and there's nothing on them. So,
8:48
Crocker is not going to help us identify
8:50
this wreck. You can see that other diver
8:52
who I got down with. He's in the bow as
8:54
well in front of us there. That looks
8:56
like a winch, the thing that's covered
8:57
in nets. So, that would have no doubt
8:59
been for lifting up the anchor.
9:03
So, having a good look around here. I
9:05
haven't seen anything off the side on
9:07
the seabed. So, I'm just having a look
9:09
in the middle. You know, perhaps the
9:11
divers in front of me missed something.
9:14
Um,
9:15
as you're going to see, they didn't miss
9:17
anything here. What they missed was
9:18
later on, and you're going to have to
9:20
hang on in there for for that moment to
9:23
happen. But first of all, as you can
9:26
see, we're looking through the wreck.
9:27
Now, one of the things about collers is
9:30
they tend to stay quite intact. There's
9:34
some bad things about collers, which is
9:35
the fact that they're normally really
9:37
cheap, cheaply built ships. Nobody's
9:40
spending any money on on a Collier. Oh,
9:42
there you go. There you can see the big
9:43
old anchor there just lying in the
9:45
middle of the of the ship. So, it can't
9:47
have been hanging off the side of it.
9:49
Perhaps that was a spare one.
9:51
So, collers. really cheaply built ships.
9:54
But the good thing about them is that
9:56
they stay intact. So the holes are full
9:59
of coal and that protects the shape of
10:02
the wreck. Now this is interesting. You
10:04
could probably just see on the left hand
10:05
side there. I spotted something. And I'm
10:09
scratching it with my uh with my torch
10:11
there to see what it's made out of. And
10:14
that kind of looked a bit bell-shaped to
10:17
me. Um I don't think it is the bell. I
10:19
asked other people about it when we got
10:21
up and everybody agreed that that they
10:24
didn't think it was the bell either.
10:26
Sometimes bells were made of iron on
10:28
really cheap ships. Everyone thinks
10:30
bells are made of brass. They've got
10:32
their name on. That's not always the
10:34
case. Uh the Germans in particular often
10:37
had lots of iron bells. So I'm
10:39
scratching this one and it's clearly
10:41
made of iron. So there's no point
10:43
bringing it up because this is obviously
10:45
an old ship and will have been down for
10:47
a long period of time and therefore
10:50
anything iron like that the the sea
10:52
water will have got in and corroded it
10:53
and if you were to bring it up it would
10:55
have just uh fallen to bits. So that's
10:59
not anything particularly interesting.
11:01
And I guess if there was anything really
11:03
obvious and really interesting, the
11:04
first pair of divers who've been down on
11:07
this wreck for a good, I don't know,
11:09
seven minutes or so before me, if it was
11:12
really obvious, they would probably have
11:14
found it. So, you know what I'm doing
11:17
here is I'm just having a good look
11:19
underneath play, underneath things,
11:21
hoping that somewhere down here there is
11:23
something a little less obvious that
11:25
they've missed that I'm going to find. I
11:27
mean, there's that bell again. You know,
11:28
I'm just having a quick look at it. You
11:30
can see I'm calling it a bell. Not sure
11:32
it is a bell. Just seen the anchor again
11:35
there. So you can see right still up the
11:37
bow. But I think I've decided that I've
11:39
had enough of looking around the bow and
11:40
therefore I'm going to move off. You can
11:42
see there off to my right hand side.
11:44
That is actually the port side of the
11:46
wreck. And as I mentioned, it's standing
11:48
up pretty well. It's and that's because
11:52
the whole wreck is is has been you know
11:54
as I've mentioned already been supported
11:56
by all this coal which just keeps
11:59
collars intact for far longer than
12:01
pretty much all other wrecks. It does
12:03
mean the downside is that you get really
12:05
excited before you go down because you
12:07
see them on the um you see them on the
12:10
sander they look really good and you get
12:11
down there and it's like oh yes collia
12:12
full of full of coal. You probably just
12:15
seen there's a diver just gone past me
12:16
on the left. There's a kind of some sort
12:18
of deck winch off to my right hand side.
12:21
Once again, having a a good look around
12:23
in here. And interesting enough, the
12:26
bell when I find it is just to the right
12:28
of where I am now. You can see there
12:30
that there's a load of divers in and
12:32
around this area. Remember that yellow
12:34
rope? You can just see it off to my
12:35
right hand side. Probably some sort of
12:37
discarded fishing gear or whatever, but
12:40
that's that's where the bell is. So,
12:41
there's a whole load of divers have been
12:44
down here. It's really close to the
12:45
shop. There's a load. This is the bridge
12:46
area where you'd expect to find the the
12:48
bridge bell. You can see there there's a
12:50
load of port holes. There's various
12:52
other bits and pieces. Um there's a kind
12:54
of iron helm. There's an iron binnacle.
12:57
You know, that's what the other divers
12:58
are currently having a look at. But, you
13:02
know, so there's, you know, this is
13:03
where the majority of divers spend the
13:05
majority of the time and none of them
13:08
find the belt. And I have to say when
13:09
stuff like that happens, it makes you
13:11
feel really good. Makes me feel really
13:12
good. Anyway, just off to my left hand
13:14
side there, that big thing that was
13:15
standing up tall was a donkey boiler.
13:17
The the main boiler was off to the left
13:20
hand side as well. So there's there's
13:22
all that rope. You can see divers all
13:24
over the place. And just as we're
13:26
looking at it now, the the bell is just
13:28
to the left hand side. I'm having a
13:30
quick look off to uh off to the right
13:32
onto the seabed. Um, and I'll come back
13:34
and look there later on because there
13:36
actually various bits of crockery and
13:38
stuff off there. But now you see I'm I'm
13:40
still heading on the port side heading
13:42
towards the stern. You can see it's
13:44
collapsed quite a lot here. And and
13:46
that's I would say probably because
13:48
there isn't the this is the middle of
13:50
the ship. This is where the engine is.
13:51
This is where the boiler is. What that
13:53
means is it doesn't have the protection
13:55
that the coal gives it. Now there's the
13:57
engine up in front of me. It's a an old
13:59
two-cylinder
14:01
compound engine. And that's another good
14:03
indication that this ship is quite old,
14:05
World War I era, possibly before, but I
14:07
mean, chances are this was something
14:09
sunk during uh the First World War. But,
14:12
you know, we don't know for that for
14:13
certain until we actually manage to
14:15
identify it. You can see here, this is
14:17
the start of the prop shaft. There it
14:20
is. You can see it's actually quite a
14:21
thin prop shaft in that prop tunnel. So,
14:25
once again, that shows that it's a an
14:28
old ship because the prop shaft isn't
14:30
big and thick. The reason it's not big
14:31
and thick is cuz it's fairly low power.
14:33
Oh, there's a spare prop there. You can
14:36
see that's uh that's clearly iron. You
14:39
see it's all fuzzy and furry around the
14:40
edges. So, you know, instantly you can
14:43
tell that's iron and therefore of no
14:46
value. It would have been corroded away.
14:47
And here we are. We're at the at the
14:49
stern. You can see there's some bolards
14:51
that have collapsed down there. The
14:53
stern stands, you know, reasonably
14:55
upright. It's still intact. It hasn't
14:58
quite collapsed yet. Once again, a few
15:00
more bolards down to the side there. And
15:03
this is the port side. I'm just going to
15:04
go off the back. I'm going to have a
15:06
look at the prop. I don't know why I'm
15:07
always I always like having a good look
15:09
at a prop, but you can see there there's
15:11
loads of stuff hanging off this wreck.
15:13
Loads of rope, loads of nets.
15:14
Interesting enough, I'm the only diver
15:16
who comes to the prop. You can see
15:18
there's the rudder uh off to the port
15:20
side there. I'm going to go around the
15:22
other side and have a look at the the
15:23
prop in a minute, but you know,
15:25
potentially that would give some sort of
15:26
clue to the sinking. Um although the the
15:29
prop could have just you know collapsed
15:31
and ended up in that when it hit the
15:33
seabed. There's a prop old fourbladed uh
15:37
prop. We've we've already seen the spare
15:38
one. Um and there you can see the stern
15:41
still standing up right there. So this
15:43
actually wreck is is you know pretty
15:45
intact by the standards of of something
15:47
that's been underwater for 100 odd years
15:50
and probably suffered quite a traumatic
15:52
event during the sinking. So you would
15:54
imagine it was either torpedoed or uh
15:57
shelled by gunfire or the other thing
15:59
the Germans did if it was if it was a
16:01
World War I casualty is they came aboard
16:03
and put charges in the in the bottom of
16:05
the ship once they they allowed all the
16:07
crew to get off. So whatever it was, you
16:10
know, pretty traumatic. Anyway, this is
16:11
me going up. You see there's another
16:12
port hole under there. So
16:15
if you want a port hole, these aren't
16:17
particularly great ones are all iron
16:18
backed. So the front of it would be
16:20
brass. The back of it would be iron,
16:22
which means they're not particularly
16:24
lovely if you were to bring them up.
16:25
There's the steering quadrant.
16:28
So that's obviously, you know, you can
16:30
see that's collapsed and that may
16:31
explain why the rudders the angle that
16:33
it is. So you can see I've come up here.
16:35
I'm I'm on the uh on the top of the
16:38
stern having a good look around. I'm I'm
16:41
not really sure why. I mean, most people
16:42
don't bother going to the stern unless,
16:44
you know, the the rest of the wreck's
16:46
not very interesting. Um, I always quite
16:48
like to do it because I like to get the
16:50
whole wreck in. I like to make sure that
16:51
I've seen everything. You know, I will
16:53
never go back to this wreck again. Um,
16:56
but at least I can say that I've seen it
16:58
all. There's there's the prop shaft.
17:00
Starboard side of the wreck is off to my
17:01
right hand side. You can see there's no
17:04
coal really in this part of the wreck.
17:06
Or if there has, it's uh it's spilled
17:07
out onto the seat belted off to the
17:09
side, you know, where it's collapsed.
17:11
Perhaps this explains how it was sunk.
17:12
Maybe it hit the torpedo hit in the in
17:15
the back of the wreck and and the coal
17:17
or the cargo or whatever fell out on the
17:19
way down. Maybe it wasn't carrying coal
17:21
in the stern. You know, who knows?
17:24
What I'm doing now, though, is, you
17:25
know, I I went to the stern down the
17:27
port side. I'm coming back to the uh to
17:30
the engine area up on the uh starboard
17:32
side. And you can see there's the engine
17:34
just coming up in front of me there. As
17:36
I say, two-cylinder engine, older older
17:39
style of engine. And you can see I'm
17:40
doing a bit of videoing it there with
17:41
the GoPro. Meanwhile, I'm uh you know,
17:44
having a look, you know, perhaps perhaps
17:46
there's a maker's plate in here.
17:48
Obviously, other divers have been here.
17:50
You can probably see in front of me
17:51
there is a uh the engine telegraph,
17:55
which has been which is another steel
17:58
item. So, once again, good indication
18:00
that this was really cheaply made. So,
18:02
some one of the other divers has found
18:04
the the telegraph has pulled it out.
18:05
It's it's fallen apart and they've
18:08
they've left it there. So once again,
18:10
that's not going to provide any clues.
18:12
There we go. There's the the donkey
18:14
boiler, the vertical one. And to the
18:16
left of it is the is a standard kind of
18:18
scotch boiler round. So this ship had a
18:22
single smallalish boiler really and a
18:25
that steam engine that that we've
18:27
already seen, the two-cylinder one. So
18:29
those are really along with the the
18:32
dimensions the only clue and the fact
18:34
that it's carrying coal and the fact
18:36
that it's quite old. Those are the only
18:37
clues that we've got. Unfortunately,
18:39
they're not the kind of clues that are
18:40
going to allow you to identify it
18:42
because there are, you know, hundreds,
18:45
possibly thousands of wrecks of, you
18:47
know, matching this kind of description
18:48
that was sunk in this kind of era. So,
18:52
what we need is something more solid
18:54
than that. And that's, you know, where
18:55
you come into the major ticket items.
18:58
You want a bell with the name. You want
19:00
a maker's plate. You want something like
19:02
crockery, which can also be really
19:04
helpful. Anything like that would be
19:06
good.
19:06
But as you can see here, I've just come
19:09
back onto the uh the wreck again. This
19:11
is the bridge area again. You can see uh
19:13
all those port holes, all those other
19:16
bits and pieces around here. So, this is
19:19
the area that everybody has been
19:20
scouring. Everyone is looking for the
19:22
clue. There's the vertical donkey
19:24
boiler. There's somebody else. There's a
19:26
yellow rope. We're going to see more of
19:27
that in a moment, but most of the other
19:31
divers by this point have uh left the
19:33
wreck or certainly are about to leave
19:35
the wreck. And the reason is, you can
19:37
probably see from my dive computer
19:39
there, I've been down 16 minutes. My TTS
19:43
there is up to 100 minutes. So, it's
19:45
going to be two hours very, very
19:46
shortly. So, my time on the wreck is
19:50
ebbing fast. And that's the reality of
19:52
these kind of things. When you're diving
19:54
at this depth, you just have to try and
19:56
maximize your time as much as you can.
19:59
Try and achieve whatever you can. And
20:00
that's what I've done. You see, I've
20:02
been all over the wreck. I've been to
20:03
the bow. I've been to the stern. Uh,
20:06
somebody has found something there. I
20:07
think possibly a plate or a bit of uh,
20:11
in fact, I think it's a window. It's a
20:12
port hole window. So, you know, this
20:16
area here, this is where almost
20:18
certainly the the clue is going to be.
20:20
You in and around the bridge area.
20:21
There's got to be something. And what
20:23
you can see off the side there is I have
20:25
spotted that there's some crockery. You
20:26
can see there's bits of broken plate
20:29
there. There's uh, also loads of coal as
20:32
well. So, I guess what I'm hoping is
20:34
that I'm going to be able to get down
20:36
here and find find a plate. Find a plate
20:39
with something on.
20:41
And uh there we go. That that does look
20:43
as though it might be one until I pull
20:44
it out and I realize actually it's just
20:46
a fragment. Not only that, it's a
20:48
fragment without anything on. So, not
20:50
only was a ship cheaply made, but they
20:52
didn't invest very much in a crockery
20:54
either. So, if only I could go back in
20:57
time to to the people who own this ship
20:58
and said, "Come on guys, do us a favor.
21:00
you know, give us something give us
21:02
something to work with there. I'm sure
21:04
they would say, you know, sort of off
21:06
Frankly, your concerns are no concern of
21:08
ours. Clearly, the reason the ship was
21:11
was built the way it was because it was
21:13
about saving money and, you know, like
21:16
everyone else, I got to deal with the
21:17
economic situation. But there you go.
21:19
So, I'm I'm off the uh port side here.
21:22
I'm having a look around, you know,
21:23
hoping that there might be another
21:24
plate, another bit of crockery. Looks as
21:26
though I found something here. I'm going
21:28
to pull it out and have a quick look at
21:29
it. Once again, it's another fragment of
21:32
plate. Another fragment of plate without
21:34
anything on it. I'm surprised I didn't
21:37
bring these up, but I think it's
21:39
probably difficult to see on this video
21:41
that the but it must have been possible
21:43
to see underwater that there was nothing
21:45
on it. The plates look quite clean. They
21:46
aren't heavily encrusted or anything
21:48
like that. So, here's this yellow rope.
21:50
You can see I'm just coming back up onto
21:52
the wreck now. I've got two hours of
21:54
deco and I'm just thinking right my dive
21:56
is is pretty much done here. And that is
21:59
when I suddenly spot something. And you
22:02
can see there there's a port hole
22:04
underneath that bit of yellow rope and
22:06
I've just seen a a glint of brass there.
22:09
And there you go. That is the moment I
22:12
pull out the bell. And frankly, that is
22:16
that is a brilliant feeling. I'm 98 m
22:19
down. Uh, I was a last diver down and I
22:23
am the person who's found the bell,
22:24
which is just absolutely unbelievable.
22:28
So, the only thing that remains to be
22:29
done is to get it in a bag cuz that's
22:32
going to be coming up with me. And I'm
22:34
pretty convinced at this point. I mean,
22:36
I'm absolutely buzzing. I'm convinced
22:39
that I've solved the mystery. I I
22:41
believe that when I get to the surface,
22:43
we're going to have a look at what's
22:44
written on the bell and then all of a
22:46
sudden we will know the name of this
22:47
ship and it will no longer be a mystery.
22:50
And that that feeling of solving
22:52
something like that, I mean, it's an
22:54
incredible incredible moment. And the
22:56
fact that I believe that I've done it
22:57
underwater and it's not going to take
22:59
any additional research or anything like
23:01
that, you know, I'm just super super
23:03
pleased about that. First things first,
23:06
there's a small matter of getting back
23:08
up to the surface. I'm obviously nearly
23:10
100 m down. I've been down here quite a
23:12
long time. The good news is I'm really
23:15
close to the shot line. And there it is.
23:18
You can see actually mine are the only
23:20
strobes left on it. So, uh, the diver
23:22
who came in with me has already gone.
23:25
So, I don't want to be messing around. I
23:27
am here alone on a wreck by myself. And
23:30
I guess that's because I was just
23:32
heading back to the shop when I found
23:34
the bell. So, but hey, you know what?
23:37
I'm That's a kind of exchange. I'm very
23:39
pleased with additional deco for finding
23:41
a belt. Yeah, absolute winner. And you
23:43
can see here I'm uh I'm motoring up
23:46
really really going for using the
23:47
scooter to kind of get up as shallow as
23:50
I can as quickly as I can. I'm willing
23:52
to accept that my computer is going to
23:54
give me some ascent rate indicators or
23:56
ascent rate alarms. You can see there
23:58
it's uh it's burning red. You can see
24:00
fast ascent just popped up on my sheer
24:01
water. And those who've seen my videos
24:03
will know this is something I often do,
24:06
which is I get up as quickly as I can,
24:08
normally to about half the distance from
24:10
the bottom to my first decompression
24:12
stop. The relative pressure change is
24:14
not as significant there as it is uh and
24:17
shallower. So therefore, my view is that
24:20
it's not as risky. But that's my
24:22
decision. You need to make your own. You
24:25
can see I've skipped forward. I'm a lot
24:27
shallower now. And the reason is that
24:29
we're just coming up to the lazy shot.
24:31
And there it is. You can see a single
24:33
solitary tag left on it. That's mine.
24:35
You can also see it's quite tight as
24:38
well. So, it's probably a sign that the
24:40
current is picking up. Now, you can see
24:42
here that I am trying to pull it and
24:45
it's not working. Not only is it not
24:47
working, um I've kind of bit concerned
24:49
I'm going to puncture my dry glove there
24:51
on that that fairly rubbish clip. So, as
24:54
you can see, it's not in very well. You
24:56
see, it's really tor. I need to try and,
24:58
you know, maybe loosen it so I can I can
25:00
pull it and get it off. And it's just,
25:03
frankly, it's not having it. There you
25:04
go. I'm going to try and use the uh the
25:06
string to avoid me getting punctured.
25:09
And once again, it's still it's still
25:11
not having any of it. So, that calls for
25:13
plan B. And plan B is to cut the not
25:16
plan B, plan B is to cut the prok. Now,
25:20
my one of my other videos, one of the
25:21
ones I posted on Facebook and Instagram,
25:23
got a lot of grief over the quality of
25:25
my knife. So, uh, what I'm going to do
25:27
is use my backup cutting mechanism
25:30
there, which is that trill bite. I keep
25:32
that on the, uh, the waistband of my
25:34
rebreather. And you can see there,
25:36
that's sorted it. Cut the proic. You can
25:38
see the lazy shot has been released and
25:40
is heading away at a rate of knots. So,
25:42
it probably indicates there's a
25:43
reasonable amount of current. Skip
25:46
forward another small bit. And the next
25:48
item on the agenda is to accelerate my
25:50
decompression. You can see there I'm
25:52
changing the high set point to 1.5 on my
25:55
purdix. I've already done the same thing
25:58
on my uh rebreather. So on the
26:01
inspiration which is on my left arm
26:03
there and I'm just confirming they're
26:05
both the same. And you'll have seen
26:06
there that's h that's chopped a healthy
26:08
amount of decompression off which is
26:11
clearly welcome. Just looking up there
26:13
you can see all the other divers above
26:15
me giving them a nice friendly wave.
26:17
also shows how great the visibility is.
26:20
And that's one of the kind of takeaways
26:23
I had from this dive, not only finding
26:25
the bell, but but how stunning the
26:27
visibility was. Skip forward again. You
26:30
can see here that I've reached the
26:32
decompression station, 6 m. There's a
26:34
couple of divers on it. You can see
26:36
there I've got my dive voke in my left
26:38
hand there. And I'm using it to get a
26:40
few photos just because the conditions
26:44
were so so good. And for those of you
26:46
who've not used a dive voke, I love
26:48
these things not only for what I'm doing
26:50
there, which is to take photos, but also
26:53
because I use them to watch films on
26:55
deco stops and it just makes it speed by
26:57
which is just as well because as you can
27:00
see from my deco profile here, I've got
27:02
nearly 3 hours uh to do. You can see I
27:06
left the bottom there with about 150 odd
27:08
minutes time to surface get up. that
27:10
chops down to about just under 130 when
27:14
I do my P2 change up to 1.5 and then
27:17
it's just a case of doing the time doing
27:19
the stops and then right at the end as I
27:22
often do I stay in the water a bit
27:24
longer just to uh as you know it's a bit
27:27
of a extra margin of safety uh for my
27:29
wife and my kids on a dive of this depth
27:33
and duration you're always going to get
27:35
this happen which is you're going to
27:37
exceed your CNS limits it's Just one of
27:40
those things we all accept it and I
27:43
think the kind of science is gradually
27:45
coming round to the view that this
27:47
method of measuring the risk of oxygen
27:49
toxicity is fundamentally flawed. But
27:53
enough of that. Obviously getting to the
27:56
surface was a great moment. Although of
27:58
course the skipper also had to be paid
28:01
his due. I know of course you want to
28:04
know what the solution to the mystery
28:05
is. What did the bell have on it? What
28:09
was the name of the ship? And that is
28:12
the really sad bit of the story because
28:15
the bell had no name. The ship was so
28:17
cheaply made, they didn't even bother to
28:20
put anything on there. So,
28:22
unfortunately, the mystery still
28:24
remains. So, didn't solve this wreck on
28:28
this day, but there's a whole load on my
28:30
channel where I have identified wrecks,
28:33
many that have been missing for hundreds
28:35
of years. Maybe you'll enjoy watching
28:38
those. Or how about some of the other
28:40
videos where I found incredible
28:42
artifacts sitting at the bottom of the
28:44
ocean. What I would say is if there's
28:47
any wreck detectives out there and
28:49
you've seen something we've missed,
28:50
something that might help identify this
28:52
collier, then stick it in the comments.
28:55
Otherwise, I'm Dom Robinson, Deep Wreck
28:58
Diver. I hope you've enjoyed this video
29:00
and I'll look forward to seeing you on
29:02
the next one.