Up next in 10
120 metres deep shipwreck dive- finding HMS Marmora
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Apr 22, 2025
There is one less deep shipwreck mystery left! Team #Darkstar have dived and identified the wreck of HMS Marmora that lies in 120 metres of water 75 miles to the SW of Ireland HMS Marmora was a massive ocean liner that was requisitioned by the Royal Navy in 1914 and converted to an armed merchant cruiser. Shea was torpedoed and sunk by the German submarine UB-64 in 1918 with the loss of 11 lives. The wreck now lies 75 miles to the South West of Ireland in 120 metres of water *Highlights* 00:00 Introduction 00:38 Getting in 01:38 Securing the lazy shot 04:15 Arriving at the wreck 08:00 Scooter stuck in net 08:50 Stern - doh! 10:45 Ammunition on the seabed 12:25 Finding the bridge 13:55 4.7 inch gun 15:45 Last torch fails 17:25 Ascent *Kit I Use*
View Video Transcript
0:00
[Music]
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it might not look like it but this is 75
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mil off the coast of Ireland and you're
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aboard the famous diver support vessel
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Darkstar the reason we're here is
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because 120 M below us there's a massive
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wreck showing on the seabed survey it's
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so far offshore and so deep that it'll
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never have been dived before we're all
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hoping that it's going to be the missing
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liner hus mamora requisitioned by the
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roal Navy and then sunk in 1918 by
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u64 I'm lucky enough to be one of the
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first divers in although we're given the
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job of making sure that the lazy shot
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goes in for the
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[Music]
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others once in the
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water conditions look great
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[Music]
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even though I've got my scooter it's
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still going to take me a long time to
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get down to 120 M as we go deeper the
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water starts to change color you can see
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it getting darker in the video but the
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line's still there to guide us to the
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[Music]
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bottom the colors changed again the must
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been a layer of sediment up shallower
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we're now about 40 maybe 50 m and the
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first job we've got to do is to secure
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the lazy shot
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[Music]
2:14
I'm putting the pric on the Main
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shotline and the other diver is going to
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take off the lazy shot and attach it to
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the PRC so when we come up it'll be easy
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to release
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[Music]
2:45
[Music]
2:47
we've still got a long way to go this
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bit of the dive seems to take ages
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[Music]
3:34
getting close to the Bottom now next
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task is to take my strobes off and
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attach them to the
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shotline these are absolutely essential
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as without them getting back to the
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shotline will be really difficult
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[Music]
4:24
great
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[Music]
4:53
that bit of admin over the Rex starts to
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come into view in all its Glory
5:00
I'm Keen to get more light it's
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absolutely pitch black down here
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unfortunately my main torch in my left
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hand doesn't work it's a real pain which
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means that I'm left with only one video
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light for
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illumination I do have a spare in my
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pocket but I make the decision that I've
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got enough light from the video light
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and I'm really Keen to go and try and
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find the bridge so I head off
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[Music]
5:48
there's loads to see down here look at
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those windows just are going over the
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top of them here but I'm not hanging
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around I'm on a mission I definitely
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want to get to that bridge
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[Music]
6:21
[Music]
6:38
I've dived loads of really big wrecks
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and one of the problems can often be
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it's difficult to make sense of them you
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need to find something that identifies a
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specific feature and once you've got
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that the rest of the wreck will fall
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into position at this moment on the dive
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I haven't found anything so I'm
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desperately looking for something that
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will make sense
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[Music]
7:30
[Music]
7:33
these Mooring ballards what could be a
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mast maybe this is the bow that's what
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I'm thinking so I decided to go and try
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and follow it see if I can find anything
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if it's the forward Mast might even have
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the Bell on it fingers crossed
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[Music]
8:00
and then the scooter suddenly
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stops a load of net has got jammed into
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it you see it's there it's wrapped
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around the prop luckily there's not very
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much so I pull it off and I'm away again
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[Music]
8:33
at this point I should have realized
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where I was that's clearly a prop shaft
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with a coupling on it but I was probably
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still had a bit of adrenaline after the
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uh the net a few moments before anyway
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follow this
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along and that's I'm going to eventually
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realize I'm actually at the stern of the
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wreck which is exactly where I don't
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want to be
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[Music]
9:15
no idea why I'm persevering on here it's
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clearly Hull outside of the wreck then I
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see the prop and a big mountain of
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Steel clearly this is a
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Stern I'm really really unhappy with
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myself so turning around I gun the
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scooter and I'm heading back completely
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opposite direction hoping to get to the
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bridge and maybe the
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[Music]
9:49
bow a bit further along I meet the other
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diver he's clearly made the same mistake
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as me
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[Music]
10:06
small bit of underwater comes later I've
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let him know and I'm on my way again
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[Music]
10:30
the good news is I now know where I
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am this is the starboard side which is
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resting on the seabed and I'm traveling
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along the side of the wreck keeping my
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eye out for anything that may have
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fallen off that may give us a clue as to
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uh to allow us to identify it then I see
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these at first I think there might be a
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sting whistle but then I realize that
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these are
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shells finding shells is great news we
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know the memorial was armed
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and if the shells almost certainly
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there's going to be some guns somewhere
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so this could be the first clue in
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identifying the wreck
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[Music]
11:29
[Music]
12:10
as I'm going along here you can see the
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uh hardwood decking off to my left hand
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side don't know what those things are
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give them a quick glance move on there's
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various other bits of non ferah stuff
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around here I suspect I'm getting close
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to where the bridge must be and then
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and then I spot
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this those are two pedestals there's
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other bits and pieces around there that
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one's clearly a Helm this has got to be
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the
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bridge as I look around there's all
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sorts of other interesting bits and
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pieces but not really very much time to
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take them in and then I spot this that's
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incredible completely intact engine
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order Telegraph it's got the
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pedestal got both
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handles been on the seabed for over a
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100 years it's absolutely amazing you
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just don't get to see
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[Music]
13:13
that moving away from it there's other
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things as
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well
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including another Telegraph head once
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again there's loads of other non-ferrous
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bits and pieces around it's absolutely
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incredible I can't tell you how rare it
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is to see this sort of stuff on a
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shipwreck and it's all there it's clear
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this wreck has never been
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dived I'm also looking for other things
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I'm still progressing towards the bow
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looking perhaps you know maybe you can
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find the
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Bell that would be the icing on the cake
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but I'm also aware that I'm running out
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of
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time every minute I'm down here URS a
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huge decompression penalty so I feel
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Under Pressure to make the most of the
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time I've got that's that's why when I
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see this gun in front of me I barely
14:01
give it a second glance a Pity cuz this
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is really the confirmation that this is
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the mamora guns and ammo that's it for
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certain
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[Music]
14:43
[Music]
14:51
[Music]
15:07
[Music]
15:24
[Music]
15:41
I'm back at the other Telegraph when all
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of a sudden my video light goes out and
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I'm in the dark my torches haven't
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performed well on this dive I'm pretty
15:52
much at the end of my bottom time anyway
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so it's time to head back to the uh
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shotline fortunately my stroke are there
16:00
marking the
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way you can hear me gunning the scooter
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it's great to know where that shot line
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is cuz that's the route to home and
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safety as I get closer I realize my
16:12
strobes which were pretty much first on
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have dropped down the line so rather
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than meeting the line 10 or 15 m above
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the bottom I've got to dip back down
16:22
again to try and get them out of where
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they've become entangled in the
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wreck I'm cursing myself
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this is an extra minute or two it's
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probably going to result in another 10
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or 15 minutes of
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Deco but frankly I don't want to leave
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these strobes down there it's too much
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risk when the shot line comes up that
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we'll get entangled and therefore I
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won't see them again so I do the
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strobes and head for my first
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decompression stop as quickly as I can
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[Music]
17:28
I like to get off the bottom as quickly
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as I can my computer often objects to
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this which is why you can see it telling
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me to slow down but I reckon the depth
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change down there isn't that
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great and I want to get up to that Deco
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stop as quickly as possible
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[Applause]
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[Music]
17:52
[Applause]
17:56
[Music]
18:07
[Music]
18:16
I'm at first Deco stop so I'm going to
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accelerate My Deco going to push the set
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point up to
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1.5 I do that both on my unit and also
18:26
the offboard computer that I've got on
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my right hand w
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[Music]
18:47
[Music]
19:05
well that's it that was pretty much done
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just a small matter of 3 or so hours of
19:15
decompression I hope you've enjoyed this
19:17
video and found it interesting if you
19:20
have why not check out some of my other
19:22
ones it'd also be appreciated if you can
19:25
like it and subscribe to my channel
19:27
thank you
#Diving & Underwater Activities