Dive Log

Searching for  shipwrecks in deep water is a difficult task, but diving and documenting them is even harder. So where do you start? And why do it at all?

Shipwrecks are important for many reasons:

• They are reminders of Australia’s maritime past. By discovering shipwrecks, we can learn about developments of marine engineering and technologies, trades and cargos, past working conditions and life on board.

• Like many archaeological sites, shipwrecks can provide information that no longer survives in written archives, skewed through oral history or lost from memory all together.

Since European settlement in Australia, over 7000 shipwrecks have been lost along the Australian coastline - only 700 have been located. Of Australia’s 7000 shipwrecks, 1700 are dotted along the NSW coastline - approximately 280 of NSW’s shipwrecks have been located. These figures suggest we still have quite a number of shipwrecks to find.

Shipwrecks remain as fragile time capsules on the sea floor – waiting for rediscovery; and for divers shipwrecks are rare opportunities to revisit an era and experience firsthand the drama of each loss as they swim over the shattered hull and artefacts from the past.

An unfortunate reality for maritime artefacts though, is that they are more often than not stolen from shipwrecks, their historical significance forever altered as they are moved from their final resting place.

There are laws to protect Australia’s shipwrecks, but it’s a difficult and at times, impossible task to police all sites, especially remote sites. The removal of shipwreck artefacts makes the site less attractive to divers and doesn’t allow divers that follow the gift of witnessing a sites history and context. It’s unfortunate as well that many, if not most of the removed artefacts usually end up in private collections to be forever lost from the public.

A handful of people would argue that leaving artefacts on the ocean bottom would only lead for them to be consumed by the sea over time. In some respect this is a valid point, but the other side of the argument is by removing artefacts we not only loose valuable information about the shipwreck, but also we make the site boring for future diving. After all as divers we dive on shipwrecks to enjoy something different and unique, but if we left with just a rusting hull of the ship then there is not much interest in the shipwreck itself – a part of the history of the ship is removed each time an artefact is removed.

In a perfect world an archaeological survey of the site and removal and preservation of artefacts to be placed on public display would be ideal. Though since we don’t live in an ideal world, we must look at the reality and come to a compromise.

With today’s technology, images of such high quality that one would think they are on an actual shipwreck, can be brought back from sites to be viewed by those that can’t dive. A museum display with recovered artefacts that would bring these wrecks back to life - but it’s not that easy.

Proper preservation of maritime artefacts can cost a significant amount of money, money which is hard to come by. A museum display for the artefacts may never happen due to limited space, resulting in artefacts being locked away in archival storage away from public view.

So we back to the same situation - collectors collecting shipwreck artefacts and locking them away.

But let’s think about this logically; the artefacts have been underwater on our shipwrecks, in some cases more than 100 years, yet they are not showing signs of disappearing any time soon! So why not let the artefacts stay on their ships and document everything in its natural setting?

Surveying a shipwreck in deep water brings with it new challenges to the dive and the diver. Firstly - limited time on a dive, then the dive plan itself where nothing can be overlooked. So where do you start? What are the objectives to be achieved and how will it improve our knowledge of a particular shipwreck?

There may be several objectives of doing a survey on a deep shipwreck. The most challenging is the process of identification of a new wreck. There may be shipwrecks with a particular historical interest that can reveal information previously unknown through historical literature. What ever the objective may be, each one must be approached with careful planning.

The first step in surveying any shipwreck is finding as much historical information as possible to aid piecing together the events that took place at the time of the wrecking. This information is important in that it provides details as to why the ship sunk, and what damage to expect from the wrecking event. Was the ship involved in a collision? Where will the damage be and to what extend will there be damage?

Another scenario can be that of a ship that was torpedoed by a submarine. Did the ship go down at the attack site or did it steam on further from its last known position (similar to the HMAS Sydney scenario). Historical information also describes construction details of the ship to assist in identifying the actual ship when diving a shipwreck for the first time. 

With limited bottom time on a deep wreck it’s important to plan the dive in order to achieve your objectives efficiently. Each buddy team need to have specific goals to accomplish within limited bottom time, but must also factor in contingencies for each plan in case of environmental or any other conditions that may alter the initial plan.

With two more shipwrecks to uncover in the next twelve months, the Sydney Project is undertaking a mapping project - one of the first of its kind in NSW. The project has the specific objective to produce complete visual references of a number of shipwrecks the team has located in deep waters.

Methods being undertaken by the Sydney Project on this mapping project are; extensive photography, and video documentation, pre-disturbance site survey and recording. These methods of surveying do not involve any mechanical manipulation and excavation of material in, on, or around the site. It establishes the extent and nature of the site. To bring a three-dimension feel to the visual representations, clay models of each shipwreck as each wreck rests on the ocean floor, will be produced.

The shipwrecks the Sydney Project Team divers will be mapping are very large and it is a difficult task for divers to cover the entire wreck in one dive. Even though the use of scooters has made surveying wreck sites a much easier task, several dives are still needed before having a solid idea of the location of anything on the shipwreck. The information from mapping and surveying these sites provide a more complete picture of each site.

Divers wishing to visit these sites will have access to information that is clear and precise of each wreck site allowing divers to more easily target areas of interest straight away.

With today’s technology images of such high quality, that one would think they are on an actual shipwreck, can be brought back from shipwreck sites for those that don’t dive to still share in the beauty of shipwrecks without needing to visit the depths.

Completing the survey’s we hope to record as much information before we lose the window of opportunity record each site in a pre-disturbed state. As is evident on shallower shipwrecks such as the SS Bega, wreck sites don’t stay preserved in a pre-disturbed state for long; an unfortunate outcome for future visitors and generations to come. A display at the Australian Maritime Museum is planned in 2009 to showcase the results of this mapping project.

The Sydney Project is a technical diving club that welcomes new members, so if you’re interested in joining or just keeping up with our activities, then check out our website at www.sydneyproject.com