Here's the link to Nick's pictures: http://www.n2scuba.com/MIT/20060729/

This past Saturday (7/29) Chris Russo, Nick Schwertner and I took a trip out to the U-853 aboard the charter boat Tresta. Nick took a few pictures of the trip, which you can see at the attached link. The Tresta is operated by Ninigret Divers (Capt. Jim Beardsley) and leaves from Quonochontaug Pond along the southern coast of RI. After a nearly uneventful drive down from the Boston area (we passed an accident in Providence that had just happened, had we passed it a few minutes later it might have cost us a lot of extra travel time) we arrived in beautiful south county RI. The day started out perfect with bright sunshine and a light NW breeze. We had tried to fill the boat to its capacity of 4 divers, but after loading the boat we were already stumbling over bottles, boxes and bags, the boat isn't all that big. We didn't leave the dock until 8:30 am, and Jim had planned to take us to the Grecian, a freighter wreck south of Block Island, thinking it was too late a start for the u-boat. We conferred, and decided we really had our hearts set on the u-boat, and we'd take a chance on there being a crowd on the water by the time we got there. On the trip out we had a quartering chop superimposed on some very large ocean swells. It was a bumpy roller coaster ride, but was largely dry due to the following sea.

A few miles from the site we spotted one charter boat already on the moorings, and another boat rapidly approaching from the Pt. Judith direction. Thinking this might be competition for any remaining moorings Jim picked up the speed to about 25 knots. We arrived to find the Patience (Capt. Rick Walker) with 6 divers already in the water or getting ready for a second dive. They had spent their time in the enlisted men's quarters and forward torpedo room, so we had the aft section of the sub to play in. We picked up the only other available mooring, which was tied off on the conning tower. We were all diving dry, with Nick using a 119 and pony, Chris a 100 and pony, and I had my double 80s. Getting suited up was a bit difficult with the crush of gear and the boat tossing in 3 foot seas. When we got down to the wreck we found the vis on the outside of the wreck to be quite good at 15 feet or so, but the ambient light level was pretty dim (as you'll see in Nick's pictures). Chris and I had planned to penetrate the middle section of the sub while Nick toured the outside of the sub between our entrance and exit. After getting a good look at the periscopes and conning tower structure we descended to deck level to see the implosion hole forward of the conning tower. We then set off aft along the starboard side of the wreck. Along the way I pointed out the folded snorkel mast to Nick. The current was sweeping us north, so we had no problem swimming aft to the implosion hole in the aft torpedo room, where Chris & I waved bye to Nick and we entered the interior of the wreck, with me leading. The vis inside was good, too, and we both took our time looking at various things as we worked our way forward. The dive was uneventful until I paused in the control room to see if I could still find a seaman's boot I knew to have been there, to show to Chris.

The boot seemed to be gone, but I spotted something I hadn't seen there before, a human lower jaw bone with most of the teeth intact. It was sitting in debris on the aft side of the periscope pedestal, which is a structure about 3 feet in diameter and dominates the center of the control room space. Thinking Chris might like to see it, I passed over it and to the port side of the pedestal intending to loop around the pedestal on the starboard side and illuminate it for Chris to see (handling or picking up remains in the sub is considered a no-no). I gestured for Chris to look aft, and this is where things started to go awry. We were only a few feet from our exit point, but Chris interpreted my hand signal to mean that the way ahead was blocked, and my looping around the pedestal as turning around to go back the way we had come. I couldn't really see Chris on the opposite side of the pedestal, and I didn't see him reenter the engine room. The pedestal is too close to the starboard side of the control room to comfortably go all the way around it, so I backed out and began to turn around to exit the wreck through the forward control room hatch and the implosion hole forward of the conning tower. As I backed out I was momentarily distracted by a bright red thing caked in silt that turned out to be a pink flamingo reflective driveway marker that someone had lashed to the pedestal, I suppose to help with navigation through the wreck. After pondering whether to clean up the trash (I left it) I exited the wreck to find Nick patiently waiting (he had swum back forward over the outside from our entry point), but no sign of Chris behind me. At that point it occurred to me that Chris had turned around and swum back aft through the wreck alone, with two undersized lights and reduced vis from our passage forward. I gestured to Nick that I was going aft to look for Chris, and he had the good sense to stay put. He was at the base of the conning tower and in view of the mooring line, so he was safe for the moment. I thought briefly about reentering the wreck to follow Chris aft, but then decided I could do better by swimming over the outside of the wreck (along the path we had taken minutes before) while looking in various hatches to see if I could see his lights. By the time I reached the aft torpedo room I hadn't seen him, so I reentered the wreck thinking I find him somewhere inside. What I couldn't know is that he had already swum through the wreck and had exited the implosion hole in the electric motor room, which is low and on the starboard side of the wreck. He paused there for several minutes thinking I had followed him and I'd eventually come out behind him. We think this was where we passed within feet without seeing each another. He probably began swimming forward over the outside but down low about the time I was reentering the wreck from the top through the aft torpedo room. By now the vis in the interior was truly zip (about 6 inches) and I was reduced to my memory of the layout and feeling my way through. Even at that, it was one of the fastest trips I've made through the wreck. By the time I reached the exit at the forward end of the control room I was satisfied Chris wasn't inside (I couldn't have passed him, it's too tight a squeeze), but I still didn't know where he was. Then as I popped out into the relative light, there was Nick and Chris, who gave me a very puzzled look. The biggest regret of the 5 minute mix-up was that it had burned valuable time we could have used showing Nick the forward end of the wreck. But by then we were at 17 minutes bottom time and into our 10 foot stop so it was time to come up. After a hang of about 10 minutes we climbed back into the boat and began to sort out what had happened. While no one was ever in any real danger it showed how easily things can go bad, and while penetrating wrecks you really have to rely on yourself, even if you have a buddy. By now the wind had picked up and the boat was tossing quite a bit on the mooring.

Incipient seasickness was upon some of us, so we decided it wasn't worth spending a long surface interval for another very short dive on the u-boat. We cast off and headed for the lee of Block Island and a very relaxing drift dive through a boulder field in about 15 feet of water.

The bright sunshine, good vis and mixture of white sand and colorful seaweed growing on the rocks was a contrast to the deeper dive earlier in the day. We saw numerous fishing boats and a boat nearby with some free divers spear fishing for large bass. The trip home was uneventful, but slow, plowing through a head sea all the way back to Quonochontaug Pond. After unloading, Nick headed back toward Boston. Chris and I had carpooled down, so we took a side trip through Newport in search of the propellers from the U-853. They had been on display on the lawn of the Inn at Castle Hill on Ocean Drive, but when we got there we found they had been donated to the Navy, and it was just too late to go looking for them any further. After fighting Newport traffic we settled on an early dinner at Wendy's and thankfully had a quick ride home from there.

- Peter

Just wanted to add my comments to Pete's version of the events. This dive was a good lesson to me how even minor misunderstandings between experienced dive buddies, familiar with a wreck, can snowball quickly. Things happen quickly at 125 feet - had this happened at 200 feet, things could have gotten ugly quickly. I feel bad that Nik didn't get to enjoy the dive as much, since he was spending the entire time worrying about us.

When we arrived on site and found the Patience moored with six divers in the water, I figured our hopes of getting to see the inside were nil. I was cheered though, when a diver on the other boat shouted over that none of the divers had been anywhere aft of the control room. (They also told us that they were moored to the conning tower, which led to a moment of surprise when we descended and found our boat moored there instead.)

We descended the line together, and I tied off my strobe to the line, and after poking around for a few minutes, we all headed aft past the conning tower to the aft torpedo room. Peter and I ducked inside, with Peter going first, and we had a nice trip up through the electric motor room and engine room into the control room. Since we weren't planning on coming back that way, I didn't make too much of an effort to avoid silting up the interior behind me, which was going to come back to haunt me. We reached the control room, and Peter headed to the port side of the pedestal. I couldn't see beyond him to the circular hatch which led out of the control room, so I was a bit surprised to see him turn around 180 degrees and point towards the stern. My thought was that he had seen some piece of wreckage blocking our exit out of the control room and that we needed to turn back. When I saw him circle around the pedestal to the starboard side with his lights facing aft and pointing in that direction, I took it to mean that we had to turn around. I made a cramped U-turn in the control room, and headed back through the circular hatch into the engine room. With two trips through there already, vis was about six inches at best, and I was swimming blind. As Peter mentioned, I had had some problems with my main light on the boat, so I borrowed one of Peter's, and as a backup, I had my backup light on and both lights active inside the sub. Not that that helped much, as I had to feel to either side of me and in front of me to see where I was. I made my way through the electric motor room, and deciding that we had spent enough time in the sub already, exited through a smaller opening there. Knowing that the vis was bad, I stuck my upper body back through the penetration hole, and held both lights facing the bow for Peter to use as a beacon coming through the silt-out. I waited for several minutes, and it eventually dawned on me that I had misunderstood, and that Peter had actually exited the forward hatch in the control room. I was swimming forward, fighting the current at this point, so I stayed close to the wreck, and was pulling myself along the exposed latticework to get myself forward faster. We later determined that we probably passed within a few feet of each other, although I was looking into every penetration hole and the escape trunk for some sign of bubbles or light inside, and so never bothered to look up above me, where, I probably would have seen Peter.

I eventually made my way forward, met Nik, but no Pete, and was very confused. We had a rough ascent, as the line was heaving quite a bit, but made it to the surface, none the worse for the wear, and eventually pieced together what had happened. Peter and I took a detour through Newport on the way home, only to find that the props had been donated to the Navy.

- Chris

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Rockport breakwater and Folly Point 07/22
Saturday, 22 July 2006
Authors: Robert Granetz and Nick Schwertner

Divers:

Cathedral Rocks
21 m / 70 ft, 50 min, 8 C / 47 F

Burnham
33 m / 109 ft, 41 min

Poling
29 m / 96 ft, 48 min

Depth: 13.1 m (43 ft)
Bottom Time: 52 min
Temp: 9 C (48 F)
Visibility: 4 m (13 ft)