Project: Royal Mystery Wrecks 22-24 May '09

Information

For UTD members who want to follow along with the SREU BC Project: Royal Mystery Wrecks. You can ask questions, write comments and participate in this research project that is happening in Victoria, B.C. Canada in May 22 - 24, 2009

Website: http://www.thedirproject.com/diveprojects/2009/5/22/sreu-expedition-royal-bay-mystery-wrecks-22-24-may.html
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Latest Activity: Mar 15, 2011

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A little about the Porject

History

Very little is known of the three Roayl Bay Mystery Wrecks known only as: the Royal Bay 30m Wreck; the Royal Bay 35m Wreck; and the Royal Bay 55m Wreck. The wrecks were brought to the attention of the SREU by Jacques Marc of the UASBC. Jacques believes that it is likely that the ships were scuttled, and a dive on the Royal Bay 55m Wreck by a dive team from Washington State seems to support this hypothisis. On April 2, 2008 dives by Ron Akeson, Dave A Hancock, Paul Hangartner, Mark Theune, and Rob Wilson provided the following report:

Bottom depth 260-265 feet. The bottom type is a fine silt. The wreck is made of heavy steel/Iron and the hull rises 2 meters (5-6 feet) from the sand. It has a very narrow beam (20 feet estimated) and is canoe like, being pointed at both ends. The deck is gone, but some internal frames are visible, but mostly covered The bow is very pointy and has a slight upward rake to it. There is a circular hatch about 3 feet back from the bow (stern). One side of the hull is lined with short stanchions(?) on a chain, most have fallen over. There were no distinguishing features on the opposite side. About 1 /3 of the way from the stern to bow is a large net which is hung up on one of the stanchions. A number of floats are keeping the net suspended 15-20 feet in the water column. ) Paul found a slight wall aft(?) of amidships about 4 feet tall. Rob Wilson found some yellow plastic tubes lying in the hull just forward of the net. They were approx 1.5 - 2" dia x 8-10" long with no ID markings on them. The current has scoured an area around what appears to be the stern. The vessel appears to have been stripped prior to sinking. It is devoid any fittings or equipment

Scans of the the Royal Bay 30m Wreck, the Royal Bay 35m Wreck and the Royal Bay 55m Wreck were supplied by the UASBC:

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Comment by Andrew Georgitsis on July 30, 2009 at 12:45pm: Awesome

Comment by Richard on July 30, 2009 at 8:44am: Good job getting on this guys

Comment by Maciej Arkuszewski on July 29, 2009 at 11:11pm: very cool

Comment by Richard Parker on July 29, 2009 at 9:37pm: Awesome Mark! Congratulations to you and to Ray for a well executed exploration dive. Thanks for sharing the report. So the Royal Bay 35m Wreck hasn't been dove on yet.........

Comment by Mark Gottfried on July 29, 2009 at 9:22pm: Update #2.

On July 28th, 2009 we made a second attempt to get on one of the mystery wrecks of Royal Bay in Victoria, BC.

The weather was perfect... sunny, calm heat wave. Four of us departed early in the morning from Ogden Point. Within about 20 min we located the wreck. We tossed in 280' of shot line to mark the location. The buoy got immediately pulled under the surface by the current. Then, it was waiting time to see when the current will slow down enough and the buoy will pop up. About 70 min later that is exactly what happened, except the line got dragged about 300 ft away from the wreck. We pulled the line and luckily located the wreck again. After we dropped the line again all of us got suited and the first team (myself and Ray Lefrense) started the descent.

The vis was good for the first 80' where we paused to reset our timers.
The current was almost nil. As soon as we hit about 180' the vis dropped to 10' and the current started to push a bit. Shortly after that we hit the sand and found ourself in 240' looking at the grappler in the sand with no sign of our wreck. We had to keep our scooters running to stay in one position as we did not want to loose our only point of reference (grappler and the up(down)line. Also, trying to swim at that depth is only asking for hypercapnia. It was obvious that we would have to locate the wreck from there. It was pitch black and maybe 10' of vis. We tight off to the grappler and spool off about 70'-75' of line scootering into the current. At that point I let go of the trigger, kept the line taught and let the current sweep me in an arc. In less than a minute we ran into the wreck.

We tight off on the outside railing and started to scooter around. One of our objectives was to see if the ship was scuttled or if it sunk. The ship was sitting upright in 230'. It was a wooden sail ship with the mast missing. It appeared to be in very good condition about 120' in length. We spent 12 min scootering around looking for any signs of identification. Unfortunately, there was nothing specific. It was pretty clear that the ship was in all likelihood scuttled as only ropes and some riggings were left on it. There was not much growing on it (mainly because of the depth). We saw a ratfish, dogfish and a truly massive red snapper.

At this point we realized that the second team didn't follow us and thus didn't make it to the wreck. We reeled back to the upline, scootering at the same time (good skill to practice). The deco went without a hitch, albeit the current made it hard to relax.

On a boat we found out that the second team encountered gear issues, got delayed on their descent and ultimately got separated from the downline rending it impossible for them to find the wreck.

All and all a big success to find the wreck, being able to dive it and identify the basic layout and the fact that it was scuttled.

Max depth: 240', average depth: 220', BT: 20 min, Run time: 92 min

Comment by Mark Gottfried on July 16, 2009 at 7:45pm: First update.

Today we attempted to dive the shallowest of the three unknown wrecks. It sits in 200'-220'. Originally we thought it would be around 180' but the sonar clearly showed the bottom at 220'. We passed the wreck on the first go, clearly visible on the sonar. Unfortunately, our skipper decided that it wasn't necessary to mark the location since he found it so easily on the first try. By the time he got the grappler ready for deployment the current pushed us away from it. Next, we spent three frustration filled hours try to find it again. By the time we gave up the current was already going again so further looking would've been a moot point.

The adventure will continue on July 28th.

Stay tuned for a report then.