Mission (Im)possible

He opened the door and there laid, on the pavement, a package. It looked ominous as the street lamp cast upon it an orange hue. He knew who it was from. He had had similar packages before. “| thought all this was behind me,” he mumbled as he picked up the package and closed the door behind him. He made sure it was locked and bolted.

He removed a cassette and a folder from the package. “It has been so long. What do they want from me now?" he thought as he slid the tape into his player and pressed the play button.

“In about 150 feet of water just out of the bay or Tenggol Aqua Resort lies an unidentified wreck. An earlier surveiilance report by an undercover diver shows potential of it being an outstanding wreck. What seems to be the most promising side of the wreck is shrouded in darkness. The diver ran out of bottom time and was unable to investigate further.”

”Your mission, Mr Lim, if you decide to accept it is to survey, penetrate and identify the wreck for further exploration in the future. You have four days to complete the mission. This tape wil self-destruct in five seconds. Good luck Mr Lim,”

As the tape and the player went up in smoke, he sat back. There will be no sleeping tonight. Michae! felt an adrenaiine surge as he opened the mission folder. He could net pass up the opportunity and he knew it. He quickly studied the contents. OK, there’s no nitrox fill station on Tenggel, so all nitrox tanks have to be lovingly hand carried from Singapore. The target is relatively unexplored. So. we don’t know what to expect.

Not for those with faint hearts, he thought. For this mission, he knew he had to put together a team of dedicated tekkies. Peopie who were willing to endure untold hardship and uncertainty. And, more importantly, shut up about the location of the bloody wreck! He knew whom ne wanted...

Back to the present

The mission went into the annals of local tek diving history. Word has it that it was successfully executed with clockwork precision. Others (those who wanted to know where the bloody wreck was) had to know more. So one dark, lonely night, while making his way home after a meeting with Michael, Tony was abducted by enemy agents. He was subjected to inhuman torture. He said not a word when they scrawled “wimp” or his helmet. He nearly bit his torgue when they used compressed air on his oxygen cleaned equipment. The breaking poirt came when they started to spray paint nis twin 80's PINK! NOI NO! Anything but that! - Tony blurted out the details of the mission.

The Truth

Here, exclusive to the Decom Stop, is a blow by blow account of the mission as extracted from Tony:

The planning and briefing for the mission began late one Monday evening in TDI Asia headquarters in Singapore. Potential team members were invited to the briefing. The depth of the wreck as well as other unknown parameters, which only added to the stress to be borne by all mission members, were major considerations. As such,all members of the team were chosen mainly for their familiarity with limited visibility, wreck diving and their ability to handle currents. After an exhaustive selection process (basically finding out whoever was free), the final team was drawn up. They were: Michael (self-designated team leader/dictator etc.), KC, Pearl, Yu Lin, Nick and myself.

When the briefing continued, we were told the mission would be carried out under the guise of an Advanced Wreck Training course. Equipment requirements were also covered and finalised. It was to consist of aluminum 80's supplied by the local team, these were to be rigged using special double tank bands, two primary and two secondary regulators. High lift technical BCD’s were to be used which, due to the possibility of being damaged on the wreck, would be rigged with redundant bladders.

The team would also provide for themselves the necessary gas for decompression needs. This, for the sake of safety, would consist of several different sizes of tanks containing 39% nitrox. Each team member was to carry one 3 litre pony and one 7 litre stage bottle.

A previous visit to the site by an undercover diver reported little current with limited visibility. It seemed the most promising side of the wreck was shrouded in darkness, so high intensity lighting would be needed. This was to consist on at least three separate light sources. All necessary line cutting tools were discussed. Each team member was expected to carry at least two different line cutting tools.

The initial plan was to execute one shallow training preparation dive at the Tenggol Aqua Resort, followed by one 20-minute survey dive on the first day. There would be three 20 minutes’ dives the following three days. The last of these dives would involve surveying (if and when possible) the interior of the wreck.

Helmets were recommended as penetrations were planned. For future reference, video footage and photographs were to be taken of the whole mission. The local surroundings were discussed with the aid of local charts and knowledge from our local moles. The departure date was set for 1000 hours on Wednesday evening.

Wednesday evening arrived and we discovered a vital part of the video equipment missing - the batteries. Telephone calls made in panic located the missing parts and whilst these were being collected by part of the team, the rest of the members escorted the equipment across the border into Malaysia. We joined up again in JB and together headed farther into Malaysia - towards Dungun and Tenggol.

The team arrived early the following morning in Dungun. While off loading our equipment onto the fast boat, the Mission's main land camera took a swim and became our first casualty. This was the first of many unpleasant incidents that would plague the team over the next few days. Undeterred, we had a final briefing and practice dive at the resort. This dive was executed in order to ensure that all were completely familiar with equipment, procedures and techniques. This practice was critical to the success of the Mission.

Disaster struck again, this time while searching for the wreck on a fast boat. The transducer of our echo sounder system had been temporarily attached to the boat by a short plank. As we went into deeper waters off the bay, the plank broke and the transducer sank into 120 feet of water. A short search failed to locate the transducer.

This was an essential piece of equipment. Its loss led to the abandoning of our dives for the rest of the day.

That evening was spent in earnest discussion. We finally decided to use the old-fashioned technique of trawling for the wreck. We needed a big fishing hook (anchor) and a line (12mm thick rope), both of which we found with relative ease. The plan was to trawl the anchor behind the boat in the hope that it would snare the wreck. Being optimistic, we wiped our our Pro-Planner and Abyss software and planned our dives for the following day.

Early the next morning, we set out to find the wreck. We knew the rough position and hoped to find the wreck quickly. But luck was not on our side, we only caught mud on the seabed several times. The only way we could confirm this was by sending a diver down to check. Several deep dives, one to 165 feet, were performed only to result in disappointment. Having searched all day with nothing to show for it, we settled for a night dive on the resort’s house reef.

The following day again saw us starting early to trawl for the wreck again. By lunch time, we still had not found the wreck. Depressed, we headed back to the resort.

Late in the afternoon, a local fishing boat pulled in to the bay. We were elated when we discovered it had an echo sounder aboard. After an animated discussion with us, the boat’s owners were happy to help us locate the wreck using their echo sounder.

Within 45 minutes of setting off, we had a line on the wreck. As it was starting to get dark, we attempted one dive. The entry was interesting and dicey. As the swell was high and the current strong, we could not tie the boat to the marker buoy (It was too large a boat for the line). The only way in was to launch ourselves off our boat and grab the marker buoy as the current swept us past it. This was a difficult manoeuvre as we were carrying twin 80’s and a whole lot of other equipment and, at the same time, trying to avoid the boat which was drifting with che current into us. Once we had completed this manoeuvre successfully, we had a long haul down the 300 feet plus of rope to the wreck against a two to three knot current. All except one made it to the wreck. He missed the marker buoy.

Reaching the wreck was worth it. The wreck was intact and, as far as we could tell, unvisited. That evening was spent planning the dives for our last day on the island.

All successfully made it to the wreck the next morning. The main aim of these two dives was to survey the wreck fully, mapping it and identifying potential penetrations for future visits. We successfully mapped the wreck from stern to bow and did nor find any point of possible penetration(s). All hatches were tightly shut or covered with fishing net.

The wreck was a coastal steamer around 300 feet in length and 40 feet across the beam. It is yet to be identified as no clear markings can he found on it. It appears to be a wartime supply ship but further research is needed to confirm this. Further visits are also needed to complete the survey. We think we may have found a cannon, adjacent to the wreck, but from a different period. More questions and more reasons for further trips. Even though we did not do as much as we hoped, what we did see of the wreck only whetted our appetite for more.

There were times when we wondered whether the Mission would end up a total failure. Actually, we had an omen that this would not be an easy mission. From the stare, we had this nameless individual playing the theme from “Mission Impossible” over and over again on his portable. We must have all heard it about a million times by the end of the trip!

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