Near-Fatal Shipwreck Scuba Diving Accident Caught on Video

Freaky.

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Here's the story in the diver's own words...

“I am happy to share my experience in case it can knock some sense into someone like me that knows better but ignores the warning signs.

Here is a video captured from my mask camera that shows the worst of my incident in which I got lost in the shipwreck. The video stops when I hit my head on the roof of the room I was trapped in before I found my way out. It took me a while to watch the whole thing because in two places you can hear me scream in my regulator.

At first I was embarrassed to talk about it. I knew better, I knew my limits, I ignored it all against my better judgment. Now I feel comfortable sharing what happened in case it might stop someone from having the same near death experience.

Whenever I have read scuba dive column detailing an accident in a post mortem it is easy to see the glaring warnings that go by like a flashing road sign. In my case I ignored them and put myself in a situation that was above my skill level and equipment for a penetration dive.

During a great dive in wonderful conditions on the SHIPWRECK we started talking about our second dive on the ship. A group of us talked about doing a slight swim through penetration dive through some large openings. My buddy and I opted in and I started gearing up for the upcoming dive. I turned out to the be the last one in the water so once I cleared "OK" upon entering the water I raced to catch up to my buddy who was #4 on a group of 5 about to penetrate the wreck. Being the trailing #5 diver I formed up and followed my buddy along one of the ship walkway at 100 feet. When I reached the door I saw daylight on the other side of the ship and thought this was a bit more than a swim through but entered anyway without lights.

I later learned after the dive that my buddy had formed up on an entirely different group, a group of three that had no idea who we were and that we were following them.

When I entered I quickly knew that something was wrong when I saw the group descend down a stair case, seeing bright sunlight ahead and silted enter way behind me I pressed forward in total darkness thinking I would find a clear path out.

I found myself in a room with only portholes out, no path to swim out. I was stuck in a silted dark room with a silted exit route and as panic began to set in I started burning through my precise air at an accelerated rate at 100 feet.

This is the point in which my fate was in the balance. Panic was starting to set in and I began to see my life flash before my eyes. Thoughts of my family, thoughts of how I was about to learn how painful drowning is, thoughts of how my death would tarnish ********references deleted to protect the identity of the diver******, all while flashes from a small blue LED light from my camera equipped mask reminding me that the camera was rolling would be part of the accident investigation.

The best way I can describe the feeling is that it is like when you have a near miss car accident, only this feeling lasted over five minutes.

Then something clicked that saved my life - in the waterfall of negative thoughts I yelled back. "Shut the fuck up!" "You know what to do, you have trained for this, you need to solve this problem right now or you are going to die." I told myself to take inventory of the situation, check your air, relax, let the silt settle, preserve your night vision by not looking at the bright light coming in from the port holes. I charged up the glow in the dark element of my gauges and then started to settle down. Somewhere in this time line my camera stopped, the stop button must have been pushed when I hit my head.

As a laid back and started to settle a square glint of a doorway appeared. I slowly peered out the door and saw a glint of a hallway. Knowing the hallways were safe from overhanging wires and ducts I headed into the darkness praying not to find any resistance. As I traveled down the hallway I found my environment getting brighter. I made it to the end of the hallway and found an entry that felt as big as the Grand Canyon. I swam for it and was free. Free, but alone - where was my buddy?

I was very low on air but my fear shifted to my buddy, I was worried that he had a similar fate and maybe he was still trying to get out of his.

I went to an ascent line at 60 feet and looked for bubbles and looked for the group that we mistakenly followed into the wreck. I planned to suck the tank dry and wait for him. My ascent from 100 to 60 was pretty fast and my computer was indicating that I needed to burn off some more gas. Once the deco flag went away from my computer I ascended to 15 feet and planned to burn off whatever I had left while I watched for my buddy. When I dropped below 500 psi I surfaced and found I was the first diver back.

Not knowing if an emergency was occurring I let the Captain know that I was #5 of a group of 5 that broke off a penetration dive and I wanted to look for the group. I grabbed my snorkel and fins and watched for the group to emerge from the wreck. After 5 minutes I saw the 4 person group emerge from the bubbles and surface.

When I met my buddy on the boat he was surprised to see me but unaware that I had left the group. When I spoke with the lead three of the group they had no idea who I was and that my buddy and I were following them.

For days I would shudder whenever the thoughts of what could of happened settled in my head. The mistakes and ignored cues are almost too many to count but I did learn a huge lesson from this dive. One that I am very fortunate to have survived.

I wish to remain anonymous but you are welcome to share this story if it helps keep someone from making the same mistakes I made.”

You can read the analysis here.

Be safe out there, friends.

Scuba Divers Report Hurricane Rina Shifted Cayman's Kittiwake Wreck 60ft

And that's 60 feet out to sea.

Strong waves resulting from Hurricane Rina have shifted the Kittiwake wreck about 60 feet out to sea, divers who dove the site over the weekend have reported.

Jason Washington of Ambassador Divers said the former USS Kittiwake, which was deliberately sunk as a dive attraction off West Bay in January, is now sitting 10 feet deeper in sand and 60 feet closer to the sea wall than before the storm.

“It is incredible. I thought, honestly, that if it was going to move, it would move toward the beach. However the storm worked and however the water moved, it moved the Kittiwake towards the wall,” he said.

An enormous anchor chain on the ship has snapped and metal plates on the side of the vessel have also disappeared.

Mr. Washington and others dived the Kittiwake on Saturday and took video footage of the wreck to show how far it had moved and what damage had been done in the storm.

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Scuba Divers Retrieve Cannon from Mystery Shipwreck

The artifact is one of many being pulled from a mystery shipwreck, estimated to be about 200 years old, off the coast of St. Augustine.

Archaeologists reeling in the artifacts said they possibly date back to the American Revolution. Now, they're working to solve the puzzle.

"It's just an exciting shipwreck. I mean, this is an exciting day," said Chuck Meide, director of the Lighthouse Archeological Maritime Program.

For Meide, a cannon raised from the second-oldest shipwreck was quite the catch. The artifact came from the vessel buried about 30 feet below the surface.

"It's a totally different world when you go from that silent dark world underwater, and you're just vaguely seeing these ghost-like outlines of these features, then all of a sudden we see it really clearly for the very first time," Meide said.

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First Paying Customers Scuba Dive HMAS Adelaide

You may remember we reported the Aussies were preparing to sink the Adelaide back in July of 2009. Almost two years later, the wreck is finally open for business.

The first paying customers are expected to get up close and personal with the wreck of former HMAS Adelaide at Avoca Beach this weekend.

Tickets go on sale at 10am this morning for the chance to dive the controversial wreck, with divers to pay a minimum of $78.

Depending on the weather the first group is expected to check out the wreck on Saturday.

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Scuba Divers Discover Caribbean's Oldest Shipwreck

The wreck's unearthed treasure is believed to be worth millions, and just a scratch in the surface.

A chance encounter with a fisherman has led one team of treasure hunters to discover what they believe is the oldest shipwreck in the Caribbean.

And after only diving the site - located off the Dominican Republic coast - a handful of times, the team at Deep Blue Marine has unearthed some serious treasure.

At the last count Captain Billy Rawson and his crew had uncovered 700 silver coins that could be worth millions, jade figurines and even a mirrored stone that was possibly used in Shamanic rituals.

Everything was in pretty good condition, despite dating back to the 1500s.

'We only started diving last autumn and haven't gone down that much because it's been the winter,' said Randy Champion, vice president of the Utah-based company.

'We have just scratched the surface,' he added. 'All of the stuff we've found is just from mucking about really.'

Although the team haven't officially confirmed which ship they are diving, Mr Champion said they had a pretty fair idea - but were keeping quiet for now.

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Scuba Diving Everything from Icy Lakes to Warm Wrecks, from Open Circuit to Closed

Yet another great episode from the folks over at Talk Scuba, this one including everything from an icy lake dive that didn't last long for Bob, Florida wreck diving stories, adaptive scuba, re-breathers and side-mounts.


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USS Arthur W. Radford to Serve as Artificial Reef

The decommissioned Navy destroyer will be sunk off the coast of Maryland, not to mention the 563-foot vessel will serve as the largest artificial reef to be planted on the East Coast.

"It's just a very big, bodacious project, and I have every expectation it will be a fantastic reef," said Hawkins, who is also an Ocean City Reef Foundation board member.

The boat's sinking location has been mapped to be roughly equidistant between Indian River Inlet, Cape May and Ocean City. Environmental entities from the three states are collaborating on the effort, with the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control leading the project.

The vessel will be sunk in the Del-Jersey-Land artificial reef, where numerous other objects and vessels -- including wooden dry docks and two World War II era U-boats -- have been sunk previously, Hawkins said.

The new reef site should eventually be a big economic boost and an attraction for fishing and scuba diving, said Erik Zlokovitz, artificial reef coordinator for the Maryland Department of Natural Resources.

"It's going to be a great fishing habitat and an impressive site for scuba divers," Zlokovitz said. "I think it'll be an economic boost, and fishing and diving boats from all three states are going to benefit."

An firm date for the sinking is not yet set, but officials are hoping for a time in late May or June, pending final federal approval for the project and weather cooperation.

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Scuba Diving the Vandenburg

A terrific glimpse into Talking Scuba host Bob Shoemaker's recent dive adventure on the USNS Gen. Hoyt S. Vandenberg.


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Interview with Shipwreck Explorer Valerie van Heest

Talking Scuba host Bob Shoemaker conducts a terrific interview with explorer and author Valerie van Heest, who shares stories and video footage of the shipwrecks discussed.

Don't miss this one.


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Also be sure to check out Valerie van Heest and Michigan Shipwreck Research Associates.

Rust in Peace: Stunning Shipwrecks Captured on Camera Around the World

That's the clever title of this terrific photo set article about underwater photographer Alex Mustard and his discoveries.

Here's a taste.




Read the article and see more photos...

Wreck diving, adaptive diving, river diving, oh my!

A terrific episode from the folks over at Talking Scuba this week.


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Death by Misadventure: Scuba Diver Dove too Deep While Exploring Scottish Wreck

A tragic reminder to dive within the limits of your training, as well as maintaining good buddy protocol.

A DIVER exploring a sea wreck off the Scottish coast died after he descended beyond the depths for which he was qualified, an inquest heard.
Father-of-four Neil Rodgers, 40, became separated from two other more experienced divers when he got into difficulties and failed to surface.

He was only qualified to dive to 35 metres, yet the trio descended to about 47m in the Sound of Mull before they hit trouble.

It is thought all three suffered nitrogen narcosis which affects the nerve cells in a similar way to alcohol as the divers explored the wreck of the Rondo, a cargo vessel which sank in 1935.

As they became separated, Mr Rodgers' "dive buddies" Dr John Fallon and Sarah Brough, each thought he was with the other and Dr Fallon had to ascend rapidly after he lost his weighted dive belt.

Alarm engineer Mr Rodgers, from the Rotherham area, was on a trip with other members of Doncaster Sub Aqua Club when he went missing on 16 March, 2008. His body was found ten months later, about 40 yards from the wreck, lodged between two boulders.

The inquest heard Mr Rodgers had been warned not to go beyond 35m by the club's dive officer beforehand. It is a limit recommended for "sport" divers of his experience by the British Sub Aqua Club.

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Florida Shipwreck Mystery Unfolds

Former scuba diver, Joe Mecko, is shedding new light on the source of shipwreck artifacts found off the Florida coast.

Claims by a local treasure hunter that there is a century-old shipwreck off our shores got a boost from a former diver in the area.

“I’ve seen that wreck,” said Joe Mecko, of Madeira Beach, after reading a story on the subject in the Beach Beacon.

The article told about Jim Leatherwood’s discovery of shipwreck artifacts while metal detecting on the beach in Indian Rocks Beach and Indian Shores. Leatherwood said he believed his finds were the remains of an as-yet-undiscovered shipwreck not far offshore.

The story revived Mecko’s memory of a dive he made a few years back. He was searching for a friend’s boat that had gone down. Mecko, who was a charter boat captain at the time, said sunken boats often make ideal reef material that attract fish.

The fiberglass boat he was looking for was missing, except for its anchor.

“I followed the anchor rope,” Mecko said, “and at the end I saw metal spikes sticking out of the ground.”

The spikes were standing straight up in the sand, over a dark area, he recalled. There was no rock exposed, only sand. The location was about 10 to 15 miles offshore from Indian Rocks Beach, in about 40 to 60 feet of water.

Mecko said he knew the spikes had to be attached to an object as they were straight up, and he assumed they were a part of something hidden in the dark area underneath.

It was then Mecko knew he was face to face with history.

“This has to be some kind of wreck, I decided. It couldn’t be anything else, with the spikes sticking up like that.”

At that point, Mecko recalls getting an eerie sensation. “It gave me the shivers,” he said. “I wanted to get out of there.”

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Cork Scuba Divers Discover WWI U-Boat

Historians believe the German submarine was destroyed in 1919.

All 27 crew on board the UC42 died when the submarine sank at the entrance to Cork Harbour on 10 September 1917.

It had been laying mines when an explosion was heard.

A team of five amateur divers from Cork discovered the submarine in good condition in 27m of water just off Roches Point on 6 November after a 12-month search.

Diver Ian Kelleher said they were very surprised and ecstatic to find it with little obvious explosive damage.

Positive identification was possible when they found its number stamped on a propeller.

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While U-boats in theory could have been quite useful as fleet weapons against enemy naval warships, they were practically most effective in an economic warfare environment (i.e. commerce raiding), charged with the enforcement of a naval blockade against enemy shipping. The primary targets of the U-boat campaigns in both world wars were the merchant convoys bringing supplies from the British Empire and the United States to the islands of Great Britain.

If you haven't already, Robert Kurson's Shadow Divers is a must read for scuba divers and history buffs alike. The journalistic narrative tells of John Chatterton and Rich Kohler, who in 1991 discovered an unidentified German U-boat at the perilous depth of 230 feet off the coast of New Jersey.

A story of the things men lose in order to find.

Scuba Divers Find Rare Bell Off St. Augustine Coast

The holy grail, if you will.

Their excitement rang through every word.

They had found a ship's bell, one of the most rare discoveries off the coast.

Divers from LAMP at the St. Augustine Lighthouse were on a routine site check of a shipwreck when Dr. Sam Turner saw what he described as a "horizontal shadow."

"And it was a bell," said Dr. Turner. "There was no mistaking it. I mean, there was stuff encrusted onto it, but it was very clearly a bell."

Employees with LAMP said only two bells have ever been recovered off the First Coast.

"The bell is traditionally known as the diver's holy grail," explained Chuck Meide, Director of LAMP. "That's because a ship's bell is extremely rare and also, a ship's bell is often the best clue to the identity of a shipwreck."

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World's Oldest Heidsieck Champagne Found in Shipwreck Cache

You may recall last year a group of scuba divers discovered a cache of 230-year old champagne in a Baltic wreck, as well as the Finnish government subsequently imposing a dive ban on -- what became dubbed -- Champagne Wreck.

Yesterday it was reported that a third brand of champagne has been discovered among the vintage bubbly.

Champagne experts have discovered what are believed to be the oldest existing bottles of Heidsieck champagne, salvaged from a shipwreck near the Finnish province of Aaland, local authorities said Monday.

Divers stumbled across a cargo of around 150 champagne bottles last July in a two-masted schooner which had run aground sometime between 1825 and 1830, and by last November experts had already identified the world's oldest Juglar and Veuve Clicquot brands among the bottles.

"When re-corking the almost 200-year-old bottles a third brand has now been discovered," Aaland authorities said in a statement.

Four bottles have been identified as having come from the Heidsieck & Co Monopole house, which is now owned by Vranken Pommery Monopole.

"In the 1800s and the beginning of the 1900s it was one of the leading champagne houses, and it was one of those that we expected we might find in the cargo," Richard Juhlin, one of the world's leading champagne experts, told AFP.

Juhlin, who has been helping local authorities re-cork and catalogue the champagnes, added that only one of the Heidsieck bottles was in prime condition.

"The Heidsieck Monopole is around 75 percent pinot noir... It has some flower notes, slightly more toasty notes than the Veuve Clicquot," he said.

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Anyone else suddenly thirsty?

Preparing for Ice Diving

In their latest episode, Talking Scuba host Jim Norton introduces viewers to Derek Wheeler and discusses a whole host of scuba diving topics: a New Years dive and resolution, redundant tanks, preparing for ice diving, and Our World Underwater.

Be sure to stick around through the whole episode to see Bob Shoemaker drop by with a very... shall we say... special holiday gift for Jim.


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Scuba Divers Claim Discovery of USS Revenge

We're not talking about the World War II-era Auk-class minesweeper.

The divers claim to have discovered the USS Revenge that was commanded by U.S. navy hero Oliver Hazard Perry and wrecked off Rhode Island... 200 years ago.

The divers, Charles Buffum, a brewery owner from Stonington, Connecticut, and Craig Harger, a carbon dioxide salesman from Colchester, Connecticut, say the wreck changed the course of history because Perry likely would not have been sent to Lake Erie otherwise. Sunday is the 200th anniversary of the wreck.

Buffum said he’s been interested in finding the remains of the Revenge ever since his mother several years ago gave him the book “Shipwrecks on the Shores of Westerly.” The book includes Perry’s account of the wreck, which happened when it hit a reef in a storm in heavy fog off Watch Hill in Westerly, Rhode Island, as Perry was bringing the ship from Newport to New London, Connecticut.

“I always thought to myself we ought to go out and have a look and just see if there’s anything left,” Buffum said.

The two, along with a third man, Mike Fournier, set out to find it with the aid of a metal detector. After several dives, they came across a cannon, then another.

“It was just thrilling,” Harger said.

They made their first discovery in August 2005, and kept it secret as they continued to explore the area and make additional finds. Since then, they have found four more 107-centimetre-long cannons, an anchor, canister shot, and other metal objects that they say they are 99 per cent sure were from the Revenge.

Buffum and Harger say the items fit into the time period that the Revenge sank, the anchor appears to be the main one that is known to have been cut loose from the ship, and that no other military ships with cannons have been recorded as sinking in the area.

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And on the eve of the bicentennial of the War of 1812, no less.

Photos: Cayman Islands Sink 1945 Submarine Rescue Vessel

The latest addition to Cayman's network of artificial reefs is the USS Kittiwake.

Contractors began flooding a decommissioned U.S. Navy ship Wednesday to sink it in the clear waters off the Cayman Islands, where officials hope the vessel will attract tourists and fish.

Plans called for the USS Kittiwake, a 1945-vintage submarine rescue ship, to rest on a sandy bottom off Grand Cayman's Seven Mile Beach. The 47-foot-tall (14-meter) ship will be at a depth of 62 feet (19 meters), so the top deck should be close to the Caribbean Sea's surface, making it easily accessible for snorkelers and divers.

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The ship, which was in commission from 1946 to 1994, was decommissioned on September 30, 1994 and struck from the Naval Vessel Register that same day. The Kittiwake's title was transferred to the government of the Cayman Islands for an undisclosed amount in November of 2008.

Check out the stunning Kittiwake Sinking Pictures by Elly Wray (via Sunset House Cayman)

Here are a few selections:

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Let's dive!

Mediterranean WWII Wreck to be "Preserved at all Costs"

The sunken supply barge near Manoel Island, which now holds a Class B certification, was originally designed for service in Gallipoli in 1915 and is the only ship like it in the world preserved fully intact.

A one-of-a-kind sunken wreck from World War II lying near Manoel Island has been scheduled as a site of archaeological importance to be preserved “at all costs”.

The wreck is an X127 Waterlighter used as a submarine supply barge during World War II and sunk by enemy fire while still lashed to its moorings beneath the arched colonnades of the Lazzaretto.

It was among 200 originally designed for the Gallipoli campaign in 1915 by Walter Pollock and Son of Faversham in Kent and is the only one in the world that has been preserved intact.

The site in Lazzaretto Creek is touted as ideal for diving and a number of divers have campaigned for it to be protected. They were worried it would be spoiled by the yacht marina planned as part of Midi’s Mediterranean marina village project on Manoel Island.

Last year, Midi CEO Ben Muscat had been reluctant to give a guarantee to protect it, saying: “We will try to work around it as much as we can. The breakwater won’t touch the wreck but at the end of the day it is still going to be smack in the middle of a marina.” He did not anticipate any works taking place close to the site but could only pledge to save the site “to the extent that we can”.

However, the wreck has now been protected through a legal notice that has just been published. This gives it a Class B certification which means it is “very important to be preserved at all costs”. Adequate measures must be taken to preclude any damage from immediate development, a spokesman for the planning authority said.

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