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'Diving the Titanic'~ A Day to Remember
For two British deep wreck divers a drop to the words most famous
shipwreck was a dream come true, linked into their own explorations
of Titanic's sister ship Britannic they where able to make scientific
comparisons. Deep Ocean shipwreck Photographer Leigh Bishop joins
them as Kevin Gurr relates his and Carl Spencer's story.
Words by Kevin Gurr Photographs
by Leigh Bishop
| It all started with a simple email. “Would
we like to dive the Titanic?” The answer was obvious.
Actually the conversation had started some months earlier in
a hotel suite in Park Lane London. We were there with Hollywood
director James Cameron to discuss filming & saturation dives
on Titanic’s sister ship, Britannic, but we never really
thought the invite would arrive. |
|
| Its mid June only a few days after that email and Leigh Bishop,
Carl Spencer and myself are on a plane to St. Johns in Newfoundland.
I could see the research ship Akademik Mstislav Keldysh from
the air on the way in. A big white whale, almost the size of
the iceberg just out side the harbor entrance (icebergs in June!
Could this be an omen?).St John’s is one of those places
you expect to see a Polar bear rummaging amongst the dustbins.
After a day ashore the ship was ready to depart. The Keldysh
was used as a marine research vessel by the Russians before
the Berlin wall fell and while still fulfilling that role also
relies on private charters from scientists and tourists alike
to visit sites like the Titanic and the mid-ocean geo-thermal
vents. She was also used by James Cameron to gather much of
the footage for his movie ‘Titanic’ the crew themselves
acting their own roll in the movie, as Cameron himself says
“these guys are the real deal” |
So here we were a diving instructor,
a heating engineer and a fire fighter actually on route to
the worlds’ most famous shipwreck aboard one of the
industry’s most famous ships. British deep wreck man
Leigh Bishop was along to work camera systems for us and Carl
and myself could look forward to a seat in the MIR submersibles,
two of only four deep diving submarines in the world. In fact
the Keldysh is the only operation capable of launching two
subs together. As if we didn't’t feel out of place enough
the guest list of scientists reads like a Nobel Prize dinner
entrance card. To be fair we weren't’t there on a ‘jolly’,
this was a joint scientific expedition with NOAA, so we had
been assigned several experiments to complete as well as wanting
to visually identify certain sections of the ship to assist
us with our own planned penetrations on Britannic.
|
The Russian scientific research
vessel Keldysh |
The Russian crew are fantastic and seem to appear from all over
the place, you never see the same face twice. Somewhere the
ship secrets approx120 of them, all very cheerful and helpful
but mostly non-English speaking, so briefings and other discussions
such as what you want for lunch have a surreal air to them.
More than once Leigh even resorted to pointing at what he wanted
on the menu only to get something completely different. Potentially
the non-communication would continue into the dives them selves,
as two of us at a time would be with a Russian speaking pilot
in each MIR submersible. Carl was seen frantically copying down
Russian phrases for practice during the 12-hour dive we were
scheduled to have. He seemed keen to know what ‘where
is the water coming from’ was in Russian. |
 |
Two days later we arrived at the site. Laying
in bed, waking up after the incomprehensible Russian roll call,
I was aware that the ship had stopped. I immediately had a sense
of eeriness. This became more marked as I noticed we were on
a flat calm sea shrouded by fog, somehow a poignant reminder
of the 1500 souls who lost their lives on that calm April night.
Today was submersible briefing day when we would meet our pilot
and get our first look into the MIR’s. |
| The MIR submersibles are a triumph of technology, capable
of reaching depths in excess of 6500m (the Titanic is at a comforting
3750m or 2.5 miles!). Each MIR comprises a pressure sphere with
a theoretical crush depth of 12,000m and is approximately 2.5m
in diameter and capable of carrying a crew of three. However
if you are claustrophobic don’t volunteer. The crew sphere
is a mass of electrical fittings and camera gear and instantly
reminded us of an Apollo space capsule. It felt there would
probably just about be enough room for our sandwiches and us.
In theory a 3-man crew can survive for 100 hours on the life
support which comprises a CO2 absorbent pack and an oxygen injection
unit. Our dive was planned to be approximately 7 hours on the
bottom with a further 5 hours spent ascending and descending,
the mission would comprise several tasks as well as our own
Britannic comparison agenda. |
Captain Craig McLean inside
one of the science labs aboard
the Keldysh. |
As the day wore on I think we all began to feel
just how privileged we were to be apart of this expedition.The
Keldysh is basically a scientific operation, unfortunately no
longer funded by the Russian government, it still manages to
do vital science all around the world. However it’s ability
to function as a scientific ship is almost entirely funded these
days by private charters, either from scientific organisations
or through ‘tourist’ dives like some of those undertaken
on Titanic. This is a shame as the MIR design is cable of exploring
nearly 80% of the world oceans but will not continue to do so
without funding.
|
Dive day.
Prior to the dives fluid and food intake levels are carefully
monitored, as there are limited toilet facilities in the MIR’s.
Carl and I were to be in MIR 2. As we watched MIR 1 being launched,
I found the ships hero, the ‘O’ ring guy. One Russian,
straight out of a Marx Brother’s movie was carefully preparing
the main hatch O ring. If that failed it would hurt. In reality
the O ring is only designed to work for a limited depth and
the hatch design relies on a precision face-face metal seal,
but it was still nice to see him take the care.
Continue feature to page two click
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CDNN
news site EXPOSED as thieves
click here
TITANIC
Two and a half miles below the Atlantic Ocean lies the most
famous of shipwrecks RMS Titanic. DeepImage now brings you the
2003 scientific expedition to the site.
Read
the full story here
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