| 9th April Dive on the Holland V Submarine Bob and I were fortunate this week to be able to dive the Holland V submarine. The Holland V was the first submarine to actually be commissioned by the Royal Navy in 1903. Technology was moving things on quickly even in those days and by 1912 she was obsolete and being towed to Sheerness for deconstruction. It seems that she didn't like this idea very much, and foundered about 6 miles offshore near Eastbourne where she lies today in about 35m of water. She was discovered again in 1995 by a Kent diver, Jerry Dowd and in conversation some years later told Innes McCartney who is now the wreck's licencee. More information can be found on the NAS website http://www.nasportsmouth.org.uk/projects/holland5.php Anyway, Bob and I set out from our various home locations in plenty of time to arrive without rushing and set ourselves up. For me this proved necessary as my rebreather had an amount of condensation in the head which caused a cell error when trying to calibrate. That'll teach me not to air it! Still, everything else went together fine and we loaded the boat. We were diving from Dive125 (http://www.dive125.co.uk) out of Sovereign Harbour in Eastbourne, skippered by Dave Ronnan. Dave's boat is a regular haunt for some of our club and is nice and big with plenty of well laid out deck space with large kitting up benches, a large cabin, and the all important diver lift for those divers like me who prefer a more relaxing day. There were 9 divers on the boat, most of whom were using rebreathers of one form or another. In fact, Bob was the only Open Circuit in the village! ;o) The sea state couldn't really have been more favourable. Unfortunately I have a bit of a disagreement with rough seas, so coupled with Kwells, the flat sea made for an enjoyable trip out. The sun was shining in fact which made the day all the more pleasant, and assisted in the drying of my oxygen sensor cell which decided to play ball only at the last minute. Anyway, Bob and I had arranged to dive in a three with another chap on the boat who was buddyless. This proved a little difficult as we were not able to all descend together due to the limit of divers on the shot at any time. Because the Holland V is a historic site, Dave is not allowed to shot the wreck itself but must do so nearby. This means that it is very possible that descending divers are able to pull the shot away from the wreck if they're not careful. Martin, our new buddy, was first off the boat, with Bob and myself following on. We met up with him at the bottom of the shot as arranged. The viz was only about 3m tops, dropping to 1m in places, which meant the lights went out as we got to about 10m depth. When we got down to the wreck, there was sufficient viz to get a feel for the layout, but I would be more than happy to go and see her again with better viz. She's only 17 or 18m long, so we were soon joined by the others, although this didn't inhibit our dive at all. We stayed exploring the intact wreck for about 30 minutes before beginning our ascent. Bob had incurred about 25 minutes of decompression, which gave us the chance to relax a bit. I can't understand why people pay loads of money to use floatation chambers when the could come out in the Channel and see a wreck as part of the deal! Still, Dave picked us up, gave us a nice cup of tea and we began the journey back to Eastbourne where we headed off back home. All in all a much better day than being sat in the office ;o) |
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Holland V - April 2008posted 12 Apr 2008 02:39 by jason greenstein [ updated 12 Apr 2008 02:39 ] |