Normandy 2008: The Show No Weakness Tour or “If
It’s Blowin’ We’re Goin’…”
After the success of the 2007 Normandy trip organised
by Rick Whitby I decided to charter
Channel Diver
for another weeks diving based in St Vaast on the Normandy coast. The
plan was to spend most of the week looking at unknown marks then finish
the week with two dives on the liner
SS Leopoldville. Only the
weather and cheap French booze could stand in our way, roll on the
Show No Weakness Tour 2008…
Monday 1st September and we’re off across a choppy
channel to Cherbourg, a half hour drive at the French side gets us to St
Vaast and sees us loading up the good ship
Channel Diver.
Steve had brought the boat over straight after getting back in from
diving on the Sunday, he’d had an awful crossing taking some 12 hours
where it was so rough he could only make 6 knots most of the way. The
plan for Tuesday was to leave early (6am) for our first dive, but the
wind was still blowing so we decided to do the later tide and hope it
had blown through. Once we were loaded we drove round the harbour to
find our digs then headed out for something to eat. Weakness had already
been shown by one non-Croydon diver who hadn’t even managed to make it
to the ferry!
I woke up the next morning to the sound of wind
whistling over the roof and rain lashing the windows, so I went out for
a walk to have a look at the sea state. It actually didn’t look as bad
as I thought it would be, with only occasional white horses and a
moderate chop, so after a phone call to Steve we confirmed we were
diving and set off for the USS Minnesota. Weakness was shown by
more divers, one having to go home and another deciding it was too rough
and that he’d be better off staying at the digs to get some work done.
Tsk tsk, only 6 on the boat.
Today the wreck sits in about 25m of water and makes
for an interesting dive. The large guns can be seen as can piles of
munitions, but the ship is very smashed up and not at all ship shape.
The wreck was alive with food, she was covered in large edible crabs,
lobsters and the biggest scallops I’ve ever seen. Unfortunately we
weren’t bringing anything up as the French are a bit funny about that
sort of thing. Odd lot the French… Anyway, after a very nice dive we
surfaced to a still-choppy sea but no rain. Steve gave us the option of
a second dive, but we’d have had to wait about for 4 hours in the chop
and wouldn’t have got back home until about 8pm so we decided to bin
that and go back for some grub and booze.
10.30am Wednesday and we were loaded and set to go.
The weather was looking iffy again, with a strong breeze that would
limit how far out we could go. Steve suggested going to the Empire
Broadsword which was a little further south than we’d been on
Tuesday but sounded a decent target. En-route we also managed to ping
two more wrecks Steve had been given numbers for, so that was the second
dive sorted. The Empire Broadsword was built in Wilmington, USA
in 1942, gross tonnage 7177 tons, and given to Britain as part of
Lend Lease.
Capable of 15 knots, this 417ft ship helped to land British troops but
on 2nd July, two and a half miles off Omaha beach, she was struck almost
simultaneously by two mines dropped by U-boats. The crew abandoned ship
and she went down, her back broken. On jumping in the viz looked about
the same 4-5m as we’d had on the USS Minnesota but the wreck was
much more intact and seemed much larger. Shoals of pouting covered the
wreck and there were lobsters and crabs all over the place again. Large
sections of the wreck were intact so allowed some nice swim throughs,
particularly the bows which was cavernous and was home to some very
large bass. Swimming back down the wreck we came upon more decent bits
to get in to and found among other things a rather nice porthole, two
bogs and a pressure gauge (unfortunately not brass), there were also
some nice bits of china and glass lying about.
After an hour at 28m we ascended to find the sea still
a little choppy and the wind gaining momentum. Unfortunately we had 5
hours to kill, so after stuffing our faces and pinging more new marks
Wayne, Bodd and Griffiths got their rods out – their fishing rods you
understand, not their love rods. The lads done well, bagging about two
dozen mackerel for the BBQ.
The second dive was a late one, 7pm in the water. We
were jumping in on one of the marks Steve had pinged earlier in the day
which he’d told us was only a small mark. We had no idea what it was, so
even though we were all knackered from a long day at sea everyone was up
for the dive. As it turned out we dropped on to a tiny wooden vessel
that looked as though it was a small fishing boat. A little
disappointing, but that’s the chance you take diving new marks. No
weakness was shown – the first time in the week. Finally the crew were
up for it.
4.45am. Yep, 4.45am on Thursday morning was when my
alarm went off. We had to be away for 5.30am and were to be diving at
about 7am on an unknown mark 16 miles straight out of St Vaast. We hoped
we’d get better visibility a bit further out, but the wind was blowing
and would make for a rough day. Chugging out to the site wasn’t too bad,
as we had the wind behind us so after catching up on a little sleep the
shot was in and we were ready to dive into a rather lumpy sea. Just as
we started kitting up a moment of weakness occurred which led to one
diver sitting the dive out – the sound of this weakness was like the
roar of a lion in rutt…only with more vomit.
On getting to the bottom of the shot the visibility
was no better that we’d already had, it was also a bit darker down there
as it was a) deeper at 38m and b) the sun was barely up so not much
light could get through the water. The shot had landed midships and I
couldn’t really tell which way was which. I took a guess and headed left
over some large winches. The wreck was a bit smashed in so there were
plenty of holes to look in, after about 10 mins of slowly mooching along
I came to the bows where there were more winches and a couple of
portholes wedged into a plate. I had a good scout round here looking for
the bell (every the optimist!!!), but to no avail, so turned and headed
back towards the stern. The forward hold was full of coal, and there
wasn’t any sigh of munitions so the wreck looked to be a cargo
ship/collier. Past the first hold were the two large boilers and behind
them standing bolt upright was the large triple-expansion engine. The
wreck was covered in the usual shoal of pouting and was home to several
very large conga and quite a few large lobsters – if we’d been at home
there would had been several dinners available from this dive…Anyway, I
continued aft over a second hold again filled with coal. Just behind
this I came across another bog (Bog Count for the week now 3) and a
broken sink amongst a lot of twisted wreckage that stood up a little
higher than the hold. This was probably the bridge area, although there
was no sign of any big stuff like the helm or telegraphs. Behind this I
was expecting to carry on to find the prop and rudder, but the back of
the ship just goes down into the sand. By this time I’d clocked up about
10mins of stops which I though was more than enough given the topside
conditions, so up went the blob.
Topside and the sea state had worsened and the wind
picked up. It was now a good 6 gusting 7 and was lumpy as hell, there
was no chance of a second dive. Once we had everyone on board and had
downed our tea we lashed down the gear and started our return journey.
We were punching into the wind, so the trip back was very bumpy,
certainly the worst I’d been out in that year, but after two hellish
hours we were back into St Vaast for lunchtime. As the wind was picking
up the decision was made to move the boat round to Cherbourg to ensure
we could get a dive on Friday.
Friday and I rise at 5.30am to lashing rain and more
howling wind. The previous night had been spent stuffing large
quantities of meat from the BBQ and already some had stated they’d be
showing weakness by blowing out the next day. The forecast on Thursday
showed the wind direction had changing which meant that the diving from
St Vaast would be blown out, so as I’ve already mentioned Steve decided
that he’d take the boat round to Cherbourg which would be more protected
and give us a better chance of diving. He’d had an absolutely terrible
journey round – it had taken much longer than expected and the seas were
huge. He said it was the worst he had, and after Thursday I can well
believe it.
A staggering level of weakness meant that only four of
us turned up on the pontoons to dive the mark of an unknown wreck, about
6 miles from Cherbourg lying in 40m. We chugged out and the sea was
relatively flat (relative to what we’d had already anyway…) and as it
was only a short trip out to the wreck we were there in no time. Jumping
in the water was dead slack, but still very green. The lights went out
at about 25m and viz on the bottom with torch was only about a metre.
The shot was draped over the top of what I initially thought was a
funnel. I followed this down to the wreck and turned right. The ship
very intact lying on its starboard side and after swimming for a while I
was soon at the bows. There were a few odds and sods lying about,
portholes etc, but nothing special. After a good bell rummage I turned
round at the bow and headed back towards the stern following the decking
on my right. There were some large holes in the deck which would have
allowed easy access to the interior of the ship, but as the viz was so
bad I decided to stay on the outside. Swimming over winch gear, bollards
and all the other boaty-gubbins us divers usually see I was keeping a
lookout for an engine or boilers, but oddly I couldn’t see anything. On
reaching the stern I went round the back to have a look at the rudder
and prop – the rudder was there turned hard to starboard, but there was
no sign of the prop, prop shaft or a hole where it should have been.
With an eye for nautical detail that would make Captain Birdseye proud I
deduced this was not a steamship, but a sailing ship, hence no prop,
engine etc.
I’d assumed that the shot was over a funnel, but as
I’d decided this was a sailing ship this must have been a mast. I turned
and drifted back down the wreck and decided to head away from the wreck
up the mast to check that this was definitely what it was. I followed
the 1m wide metal column along past the shot until I got to the crows
nest at the top. After this I headed back to the wreck and along to the
bows where I launched the blob and started my ascent. I was last up and
so as soon as I was back on board we started a slow chug back in whilst
drinking tea, filling cylinders and eating sweets and biscuits. For a
change, it was pissing down.
We decided to tie up and go for lunch before heading
out for the second dive. As such disgraceful weakness had been shown in
the morning I phoned the rest of the crew to see if they wanted to do
the afternoon dive, by some miracle they actually decided to come along
– a decision that at this point I would have bet my flat against. After
having lunch and gawping at the waitresses "assets" we went to the
harbour office to check the weather, Steve called me over and showed me
that they were now giving “7’s gusting 10’s”. He wasn’t really happy to
go so I called the weakness-crew who were on their way and let them know
it was off.
Steve: “I’ve never been out in a 10 before”
Paul B “Let’s keen it that way shall we”
After seeing the forecast for the next day I was a bit
despondent (understatement). The wind was easing off a bit but Steve told me there’d be
no chance of getting out to the Leopoldville, although it might
be a go’er for the Sunday. After making an alternative plan I toddled
off back to the digs for sleep, beer, grub and to get packed.
Saturday 6.30am - the cars are packed and we’re about
to head off to Cherbourg when I get the call I’d expected but had been
dreading. Due to the still-howling wind we wouldn’t be going out in the
morning but would try in the afternoon. Bollocks. After spending a whole
morning wondering around aimlessly we headed out to Cherbourg to try and
fit in the afternoon dive. The wind was still blowing and Steve and I
decided it was too rotten to bother going out. Double bollocks. After a
cup of tea and a little sit about on the boat a few of us headed off for
a tour of a nuclear submarine – very interesting, but not as good as
diving. At least no weakness was shown – mainly because we didn’t have
the option.
The forecast for Sunday was 4-5 southerlies. On any
other trip this would mean that I’d have been stomping about being
pissed off because of the bad weather, on this trip a 4-5 southerly was
a gift from God himself. We decided to have a look at another unknown
mark close to the sailing ship we’d dived on Friday. On getting past the
inner wall the boat started rolling about, not a good sign considering
we were still well within the outer walls of the harbour so were
supposed to be protected. Special mention to our Diving Officer here for
showing Olympic-level weakness by dropping out of the dive before we’d
even got out of the harbour!!
The trip out to site was horrible, I was on the verge
of showing weakness and suggesting to Steve we went back to do something
closer in when he announced we were on site. After a hellish kit up
being chucked all over the place I jumped in and dropped out of the
swell down on to the wreck. At 46m I was met with about 2-3m of viz and
a load of lumps of metal. I chose a direction and headed off. The wreck
was listing to about 45 degrees and very intact. I made it over a coal
filled hold and eventually found the upright boiler followed by a two
cylinder engine, this meant I was heading towards the stern and the ship
was listing to its port side. I swam over plenty of holes that in good viz would have made excellent swim-throughs
and eventually came to the stern where the rudder was turned hard to
port and the four-bladed propeller was still in place. On turning and
swimming back I thought I’d try to get to the bows, but this was a large
ship and I’d already built up quite a bit of deco, so just past the
engine I stuck the blob up and made my ascent. The journey back in was
much better and I was glad we’d managed to finish the trip with a good
dive.
So, that was it. Due to some truly shit weather we
only managed 6 dives, but they were all interesting in their own way. We
hadn’t managed to get to the unknown offshore marks or the
Leopoldville that the trip was originally focussed on, but I think
everyone still enjoyed it. Thanks to all who came along, roll on next
year’s expedition to the Channel Islands!
Paul Brown
Some pics:
Dinner
Dave a'kip for a change
4.45am ropes off...
St Vaast
Pub, St Vaast
The crew
