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Gallipoli September 2018

October 20, 2019 by Colin Jones

There is no greater honour I can think of than to be invited to place a wreath on a shipwreck in memory of those who sacrificed their lives to bring us freedom

100 years on, laying the wreath at the Naval Memorial Gallipoli 

        17th February 1915…….. under the command of the 1st Sea Lord of the Admiralty, Winston Churchill, the allies landed at Çanakkale in Turkey, a place that would become known to the West as Gallipoli. When, finally, after 8 months of what was one of the most dire episodes of WWI, on 9th of January 1916, the Allies abandoned any hope of prevailing against the native Turks and their supporting German military advisors, some 250,000 had fallen on both sides     

Australian & New Zealand forces encamped and landing at Çanakkale 1915 (web photo)

It might seem, almost in anticipation, that Laurence Binyon wrote his famous eulogy, published in the Times in 1914: 

                                                                                                                                                                                  They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old; Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning We will remember them.….

Soldiers heading for the shore at Anzac Cove 1915 (web photo)

   I was working in Istanbul in 2018, living in Kurtkoy, and had decided to take a week off to holiday in Kalkan with my wife Ellen. I had planned to take the opportunity to dive, if one presented itself, luckily there was a local dive operation, Kalkan Dive Centre, which made things pretty convenient. I had arranged to drop my kit with them and take a scenic dive out to a local reef, and was buddied up with a small UK group, one of which I had a sense might have been military….it turned out Michael “Doc” Cox was a lieutenant Commander in the Navy at Landcom, Izmir, and was indeed “military”, (having been ex-Army….Navy doesn’t really count!) Doc may eventually forgive me for that, it’s a military thing….. 

Michael “Doc” Cox to the Right of me in the shot then Levent, TJ & Isi

  I liked Doc, we chatted over the next couple of dives and I mentioned I was ex-services, we swapped “sand-bag” anecdotes and enjoyed a couple of decent dives together. It turns out Doc is a bloody good photographer and takes a very well thought out shot. Doc had been planning a series of dives off Anzac cove to mark the 100 years anniversary of the end of WWI, this had taken him some 2 or 3 years behind the scenes and was taking place in a couple of weeks…… I made an off-hand remark about how I’d love to help if there was anything I could do…. I left it at that and, a couple of weeks later, following the swapping of photos and Go-Pro videos, an e-mail from  Doc invited me to join the trip if I could make the time? If I could make the time….there wasn’t a thing on earth was going to stop me….even the Birthday weekend that Ellen had arranged for us in Paris….surely she’d understand….? I copped hell for it, but, stalwart as Ellen is and has always been, she agreed I’d hate myself for ever more if I didn’t do this, and that, on this One occasion, she would be alright flying to Paris on her own and staying for the night alone until I could join her the day after……. Doc, very tactfully, sent a thank you to Ellen from the British Embassy, for “allowing her husband the time to join the memorial dives” it helped….I’m still breathing……

Crossing the Bosphorous from the Galata “Fisher’s” bridge

  I travelled the 4 hours from Kurtkoy after finishing work on the 29th September at around 3pm, the traffic through Istanbul and over the Bosphorous was it’s usual bedlam, it was the first time I’d driven in Turkey and although it was a pain the journey was filled with anticipation. I couldn’t wait to get to Çanakkale and see Gallipoli with my own eyes, I had wanted to dive the wrecks of the Bosphorous for longer than I could remember and the idea I might get to help, in some small way, to pay tribute to those who fought and died there was something I couldn’t believe might actually happen 

Blackfish dive boat, our transport for the Gallipoli dives

We had been bunked in a small hotel in Eceabat, run by TJ, (TJ’s Hotel ironically) who’s knowledge of the Gallipoli campaign is second to none. TJ runs & guides trips to the memorials, to the battlefields, and has quite  a comprehensive array of memorabilia from the campaign dotted around the hotel too. This is a compact town hotel and somewhere you can get good conversation and decent food, it has no pretention to being up-market and suited me to a Tee! 

Heading out on what was a beautiful morning into the Bosphorous

  We left TJ’s and joined our boat, run by Levent, owner of Blackfish diving in Çanakkale, loaded our kit and made ourselves comfy on what was a spacious and accommodating vessel. The journey out was idyllic, with sunshine and calm, although as we approached Anzac cove, arriving an hour or so later, the wind had picked up a little and the current was running fiercely. There was a briefing, who would be where, and what our roles and responsibilities would be and I must admit, when I was asked to carry and lay the wreath I was pretty overwhelmed, I don’t think I gave that away, but inside I just could not have been any more proud or humbled in the same breath…….

L to R Reena Konia, Gordo Falcona, yours truly, Andy Pix, Isi Morse, Thore Kempenich, Volcan (in the headband) Doc Cox & Levent, owner of Blackfish diving

  The current was ripping and it took time to get us into a decent position to dive the first of our wrecks, HMS Louis. At approximately 20m depth HMS Louis had eventually been rigged as a de-salinator to provide fresh water to those ashore, she lies upright with 2 prominent boilers and all the associated pipework, sitting on a sandy, flat bottom. It took time to get everyone ready to descend together, so we might keep visibility reasonable and film and photograph the event with some chance of success. Doc had decided the wreath would be placed on Two wrecks, being brought out after each to be finally laid at the Anzac cove Marine Memorial, as you can see in the lead photo of this piece, that eventually worked out perfectly

Laying the wreath and Rugby Ball on HMS Louis

  The Louis is an interesting dive, there is the hull outline remaining, remarkable really as the current and weather can be fierce in this area and she is not deep at around 16-20m. I loved the raised boilers and the pipework which was arrayed to ensure sea water was condensed into fresh almost direct from the boilers. There are plenty of hull plates and ribs still standing around her too. As a small vessel HMS Louis gave us plenty of time to pay our respects, and also enjoy diving such an historic site, even on such a solemn occasion

             Looking through HMS Louis Desalination plant to the second of her boilers with Lt Cmdr Michael “Doc” Cox between the Two and the hull outline behind

  When we eventually left HMS Louis after 40 or so minutes diving, it was with a profound sense of the history and importance of remembrance both of, and for those who had given all in such terrible circumstances on both sides of the conflict. Whilst the British and Allied forces had no desire for a war with Germany, neither did the Turks have a desire to be in such a strategic position that their country would be invaded, and their young men forced to defend it with such valour

Safety Stop on the shot-line following the dive on HMS Louis

  As we decompressed on the shot, eventually climbing back aboard our dive-boat it was clear the weather was closing in, the approach to the spit of iconic land jutting up from the beach in shrapnel alley was under dark and looming clouds, the cove itself seemingly becoming moody and sullen in the acknowledgement of the solemnity of such an occasion.

Anzac cove encampment 1915 (web photo)

  You will have noticed we were taking a rugby ball with us as part of the memorial dives, the significance of this was the loss of over 15 international rugby players in the Gallipoli conflict, and the many more lost in the wider arena of WWI, something close to Doc’s heart as a keen player, with Bristol RUFC club affiliations himself. The list of those lost in the war can be found here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_international_rugby_union_players_killed_in_World_War_I 

           The Gilbert Game Ball used in the Memorial Rugby Matches back in the UK (photo UKAF womens RUFC)

  The Gilbert game ball would eventually go back to the UK and be used to kick off the  UKAF Women’s Remembrance match against South Africa (2nd November 2018 at Rosslyn Park) and the UKAF Men’s Remembrance Game against Bristol Bears

Dive Magazines coverage of the memorial dives of Gallipoli

  The significance of these dives, and the remembrance of the Dardanelles conflict and its cost were not lost either on us as individuals, nor on the diving world, the event receiving press coverage in the UK forces magazine, on the British Forces Broadcasting Services (BFBS) and in Bristol Tigers own publications, also appearing as a comprehensive article in Dive Magazine. Whilst travelling to the sites, and on our return to the shore, there was an entourage from the Turkish news association filming and Doc was interviewed for and appeared on Turkish national television

The dive team reaches Anzac Cove

  Doc had spent years planning these memorial dives, he did a thorough job which, to some extent, was helped by his appointment to Landcom in Izmir, an international collaborative force based in Turkey. The international nature of the command in Izmir allowed Doc to invite serving and, in my case, ex-serving members of multiple military forces and members of the British Embassy in Istanbul, the UK Army and Navy (Doc and myself) Reena Konia, Gordo Falcona, Isi Morse of the US Army, Andy Pix, Thore Kempenich (German Army) and Levent and Volcan both Turkish nationals

Memorial at Anzac Cove carrying the words attributed to Mustapha Kemal Ataturk (web photo)

  Gallipoli is just as poignant to the Turkish Nation as it is to the Allies, indeed, standing on the headland in the Memorial site at Anzac Cove is a monument carrying the words of Kemal Ataturk, who not only fought at Gallipoli, but went on to become the leader of the Turkish Nation, whilst it is true, there is no direct proof these were his own words, Ataturk praised the men of both sides who fought at Gallipoli on many occasions, so they remain both fitting and reverent in equal measure  

On the surface about to descend onto SS Milo

  The team re-entered the water to dive the far shallower SS Milo, one of the troop transports that ferried soldiers as close to shore as practical under the withering fire from the defending Turks

It seemed Anzac cove knew the occasion was one of solemn dignity as she became moody and sullen as we moved to dive the Milo

  The dive on the SS Milo was, again, poignant and undertaken with reverence for those who had been so brave, to land on a foreign shore and face the hailstorm of shrapnel valley, and the assaults on Anzac cove.

Placing the wreath on the SS Milo

SS Milo is a ghost, an outline of a ships hull, her keel lying in the sands of time, slowly passing from this world…… as those lost on the shores and in the hills of Çanakkale slipped away from it…….lest we forget

   

 

Filed Under: Best Dives Ever

The very first dive!

October 19, 2019 by Colin Jones

Fort Bovisands Harbour (Plymouth England)

The slipway down to Bovisand Harbour

    21.08.90 (pm) Shore Dive – Bovisand Harbour – Viz 3-4m Basic Dive – scenic – Rock Sand Kelp.   Instructor Paul. L – Buddy Andy . H  Depth 0/8m Time 29 mins Equipment SCUBA

Page 1 of what has become a treasured RN Divers log spanning 28 years…..
who knows how long Log book 2 will span 

  That was the very first step I took underwater, and it very nearly was my last! I was nervous and excited in equal measure, we had kitted up and navigated the very hazardous slipway down to the sandy area you can see in the lead photo. Next task was simple, swim out until your feet don’t touch and then duck dive like you practiced in the pool…. or so we were told, there had been four buddy pairs, each with a BSAC instructor and the traipsing into the water, by the time me and my buddy got there, meant there was zero viz…..not even a bit! Add to that I had been underweighted by a good couple of pounds and then imagine trying to descend in shallow water using a duck-dive…..I kicked and kicked to try to get under, I was young and very fit…..but very quickly breathing through my arse!

Very much better Viz than I had in August of 1990!

  You will just be able to see the harbour wall steps by the van in the picture….luckily my instructor Paul, realising I was not going anywhere fast, got me to swim across to the steps and added another 2kg into the pockets of my stab jacket. Now he said, we’ll try this a different way, just relax on the surface, look at me and slowly release the air from your jacket using the inflate/deflate hose…..I started to sink, gently under the now far clearer water and into the peace and calm of the sheltered harbour…..I could breathe….better still, I could see! We knelt there for a minute or so until Paul was happy I wasn’t going to cardiac on him and then he beckoned us out for a swim round the area, even taking us out of the shelter of the wall and deeper into the bay beyond

What lay beyond…superb shot of the Harbour entrance at Bovisands (web photo)

  I remember we felt the slightly colder water of the outer limits of the harbour as we went around the wall keeping it on our Left shoulder and passing an old anchor, a small cannon and numerous rock outcrops covered in Kelp and hiding small crabs, tiny fish and all kinds of nooks and crannies full of micro-life….it was awesome, all thoughts of kicking and gasping had gone, replaced by a feeling of adventure and freedom that was all I’d hoped it would be……I knew it right then….I was a diver, and I would now always be a Diver!

The bar at Fort Bovisands, we often had dive briefs here for the following day
…always accompanied by a beer or Two….

The next day we carried out another Two dives in the harbour and rooted around the rock and sand and Kelp in the area until we knew it well. Every dive had skills to carry out, ditching and then recovering regulators, no mask swims, buddy breathing, all building skills and competences whilst building each of our confidence levels for the next part of our Novice 1 and Novice 2 BSAC qualifications. Back in the day no-one’s feelings were in the slightest bit challenged by the term “Novice Diver”, we all knew we were fledglings and that we needed to build our experiences safely, it made sense, this was an environment that didn’t suffer fools…..as we were constantly reminded….there are old divers…….. and there are bold divers…..but there are No old & bold divers! 

Sunset over Bovisands Harbour (web photo)

  The next day would be quite something, a trip out of the harbour on the JSSADC inflatables, the entry would be a whole new experience and getting back in another thing entirely, we went out in the morning, rolling backwards off the tubes of the small inflatables easily and returned from our dives, handing up our weight belts to those in the little rubber craft and then flopping, without a trace of elegance, back in to take our places for the journey back in for something to eat and to collect fresh cylinders……… and then back out we went.    

Inflatables……One step beyond…..Paul on the Left and Andy next to him, my buddy diver

  Everything went brilliantly, the diving was great, colder and fresher, more to see and the sense we were now really getting the hang of things, and we were diving deeper, 14m which made a difference to your air consumption, shortening the dive slightly and making you focus just a little more keenly on that contents gauge. It was brilliant and the 22 and 27 minutes of each dive flew by, even getting back in the small ribs wasn’t an issue, I was loving every minute of this!

Looking up the hill…it was a maul walking back, kitted up, from a dive in the harbour

  I loved Fort Bovisands, the history of the place, if you took the time to look, was astonishing. Bovisands was part of the defensive response to the French threat in the Napoleonic wars, the curve of the outer wall showing 12 wide, but substantially protected openings, which each contained massive cannons arrayed to protect the approach to Plymouth from potential French attack. The rear of the buildings contained barracks for the Naval Gunners to keep them as close as possible to their cannons, and below them were the ammunition stores down tight and dank corridors which served modern day Bovisands, and the Joint Services Sub Aqua diving School (JSSADC), well as kit stores and compressor rooms where cylinders could be filled in relative peace, away from those learning in the makeshift class-rooms above where once those sailors and soldiers slept

The arc of gun-ports evident on approach to Fort Bovisands

  I have visited Fort Bovisands many times since that auspicious day in August of 1990, I have completed several more courses there including BSAC Sport diver, BSAC Advanced Instructor and PADI Open Water Instructor, but I can’t think of a more important moment in my life than that dive in a summer’s afternoon, in a small protected harbour where a lifetime of adventure began…….. 

Officially…….Scuba Divers!

Filed Under: General Diving

The very first wreck!

October 19, 2019 by Colin Jones

  It is perhaps ironic that the very first wreck I ever dived was the James Egan Layne, very probably the most dived shipwreck in the world, and probably one of the most popular….if Carling made shipwrecks…….

The James Egan Layne (Plymouth, England)

The Little Red book of wrecks….. a carve out from my dive log book

  This was only my 15th open water dive, and for those who know the wreck it was the main Bow section, it would be years later I dived the stern section of the wreck which isn’t that far from the main wreck, but distinctly separate from it

  The James Egan Layne was a “Liberty Ship” of WWII vintage, essentially utility boats made in the US in record times, basically of necessity, to out produce those lost to U Boats. The Liberty ships were made to the same pattern in multiple shipyards across the USA, they were welded, a fairly new technique, where ships of previous generations were steel hull plates riveted together. Riveting was a method of joining Two overlapping plates by drilling through them, pushing near molten dowels through the holes, and hammering the ends to make them “pin” the Two plates together. This was a slow and arduous method, meaning shipbuilding took many months, sometimes years to complete. Welding, by contrast, is a technique where an electric current is passed through metal between Two plates butted up against each other in a “run”, the metal creates a molten “bond” between the plates essentially joining them together, permanently, in a very much shorter time. Liberty ships could be “churned out” at an astonishing rate of 3 ships every 2 days over 18 shipyards in the US

US Liberty Ship Design (wikipedia photo)

  The James Egan Layne was launched in 1944 and named after a US marine Engineer lost aboard another ship, the Esso Baton Rouge, sunk in the same manner, by a U Boat torpedo in 1942……… ironically the year U399, so central to the story of the James Egan Layne, was built. The James Egan Layne was a part of the US war effort, ferrying supplies vital to the UK and its allies, fighting Hitler and the Nazis in Europe.

U Boats under construction (web photo)

  The James Egan Layne joined convoy BTC 103 ferrying supplies from Barry Island (Wales), en route for Ghent (Belgium), when she unwittingly became a victim of the German U Boat U399 (Wikipedia) commanded by Oberleutnant Heinz Buhse. U399 had been laid down in Kiel shipyard 12th Nov 1942, launching 4th December 1943, and Buhse was on his first patrol after joining the 11th flotilla out of Bergen (Norway) and aged just 29 (U Boat Net)

Oberleutnant Heinz Buhse (photo U Boat Net)
Technical Drawing of a type VIIc U Boat of the type U399 represented in 1944 (web photo)

 The James Egan Layne was hit on the 21st March 1945 and survived the torpedo attack, with no casualties, to be towed ashore by the tugs Flaunt & Atlas (Wikipedia) in Whitsands Bay West of Plymouth. The U399 didn’t have the same luck as the James Egan Layne, only 5 days later she was sent to the bottom by the Frigate HMS Duckworth (U Boat Net)  and 46 German U Boatmen went down with her….miraculously 1 survived!

The launching of the James Egan Layne in New Orleans 1944  (web photo)

  I recall there being little current running on the day I dived her, 10th of July 1991, I was taken by the huge amount of dead mans fingers on her, she literally looked White along huge sections of the landward side of the bow section, an eerie sight as anyone who has seen dead mans fingers will attest to……My Little Red Wreck Log records the dive “10/07/91 PLYMOUTH “JAMES EGAN LAYNE” Descended shot line to prow dropped over the side and moved round the prow, re-entered the prow section and dropped to the lowest accessible level, plenty of wreckage, good viz, up to 10m, small Pollack shoals and the odd small Wrasse lots to see, the superstructure is rotting heavily, access to one lower forward section same condition throughout. Air In 150 Out 50 Buddy Roy“

James Egan Layne superstructure (web photo)

   I was with a diver called James and we were diving from Cee King, a 25′ hard boat out of Plymouth, we made our way through the very open hull on the Starboard side, then up through the Two deck levels we could easily access through the shattered remnants of the ribs and deck supports. I was spoiled on that first wreck dive, I loved it, for all its eerie Green haze and the limited 10m or so of viz we had on the dive, not bad for the area as it happens, I could make out mashed metal everywhere but I couldn’t readily identify much, I did see a couple of large reel-type objects, the kind industrial electric wire might be wound around on a civil construction site….There were fish too, Bib and small Pollack, occasionally, when we disturbed them from their shadowy hiding places, or they swam bizarrely down the hull plates in small shoals. They were nice to see and, along with the odd Wrasse, showed what a haven a shipwreck becomes to wild-life and soft corals everywhere

The James Egan Layne as she is today (ADUS Image, web photo)

  At the time there was no way I could afford an underwater camera and there were not the huge internet resources now available to us, the image above is a great development, one which I believe came from Aberdeen University research, and a combination of Sonar and Bathymetrics (sea-bed topographics) along with some clever GPS work. It is amazing to see clearly where James and I swam on that first breath-taking dive, on one of this Earth’s most iconic shipwrecks…….

 

Filed Under: The Wrecks

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