Colin Jones, Author at Deep Blue Diver

Free Swimming Moray

January 4, 2020 by Colin Jones

This was a rare dive, a Red Sea live-aboard on the “Best of Wrecks” itinerary starting in the Southern Red Sea round the Brothers Islands and working our way back up North to dive the wrecks along the way. I had first dived the Red Sea 02/08/1997 on the Live-Aboard “Princess Dalal”, a week long diving expedition I organised for a couple of the Deep Blue divers of Fenton Sub Aqua Club. I will post that and more about Wreck Diving in the Red Sea another time on here, but this is the first attempt to get a YouTube video into the posts, and this one is a favourite filmed by complete accident by a friend of mine, Mark Milburn of Atlantic Scuba in Mabe, very near Falmouth.

Mark and I met on a previous Live-aboard in the Red Sea and I have dived with him and his partner Ruth on his RIB out of Falmouth and had a great time too. Mark is a former commercial diver, often found “Scalloping” or making one of his numerous appearances on TV, before he decided to take up scuba diving as a “career” and Mark has a talent for filming as you will see if this works out right! When I say the video is a complete accident, it does not mean Mark didn’t intend to film, it just means Craig Topliss (my dive buddy on the day) and I were never meant to be the subjects of the video, and as you will see, the real subject of the video was unintentional too, but changed the direction of Mark’s dive and stands as an iconic piece of filming in its own right

Free Swimming Moray Salem Express 2011 (Video M.Milburn Atantic Scuba)

The most obvious thing in the whole video is me being completely ignorant of the entire event, I am the First diver in shot and I never saw the Moray or knew it was there, Craig saw the whole thing but to be Frank, if I hadn’t seen Mark’s video myself, I wouldn’t have believed it happened! It goes to show several things, no matter how much you are enthralled by what you are doing and seeing…..just out of sight, just around the corner, something even more remarkable is likely happening! Those on the live-aboard have never let me forget this sequence, I have always said my diving is Wreck Diving, and will always be Wreck Diving, it is rare I dive for any other purpose nowadays, but if ever there was proof, this stands as being as close as you can get!

It is with great sadness we say goodbye to a friend, a diving icon and a truly larger than life character. Mark passed away very suddenly on the 06th April 2023. Diving has lost a true advocate and a local Cornish legend

Prayers are with Marks Partner Ruth and his world of friends

Rest Well Mark

“The Darkness Around Me Shores of a Solar Sea ……….“

Dive Leader

January 4, 2020 by Colin Jones

Croatia had certainly given me a direction I had not really considered up to this point in my diving. I had been diving since August of 1990 and I had 46 dives by the close of the tour in November of 1993. Not a great amount by anyone’s estimation, including mine, but I had undertaken some training, some breakdown of skills into easily repeated steps, necessary to show those venturing underwater for the first time how to achieve tasks such as mask clearing and regulator recovery, and it had been commented that I was good at this, and patient enough to make a difference to those who struggled a little initially, and , to be honest I had enjoyed showing people the underwater experiences I loved……..

Dive Leadership assessment dives, This one, a shore dive off Swanage Dorset March 1993

On my first dive back in the UK, Bowleaze Cove in Dorset, I had buddied up with Dave, a new diver working up to Sports level, the Viz was appalling, I described it as “Nil” in my log-book, but, rather than bin the event I got Dave to sit with me in the dark playing Naughts & Crosses by torchlight…..it saved the dive and Dave said it took away the apprehension of such bad viz, clearly that made a difference. It was recognising in myself, situations that were “edgy”, or times when slowing down and taking stock was a far better idea than just “forging ahead”, perhaps, that made a difference to those I dived with. There were a few in the club who were keen to dive with me out of preference and I took that as a huge compliment

I began to take part in the TIDSAC novice training sessions whenever I could………….Bulford Pool 1993

Norman, the TIDSAC DO was encouraging and supportive, allowing me to assist at every opportunity we had at pool sessions, and giving me the Dive-Leadership Theory lectures through April of 1993 in preparation for the Dive-Leadership in-water assessments. There were 4 of these, all taken by a BSAC Advanced Diver “observing” as the candidate “led” a Dive-Leader or Advanced Diver on open water dives. The aim of this, was clearly not to risk inexperienced divers with an untested trainee, but to allow the trainee to prove his competence “leading” more experienced divers in various situations, during which “problems” would generally arise, allowing the trainee Dive Leader to recognise behaviors, or potential “situations”, in relative safety and carry out corrective actions to guide the dives back into safe practice…….. The culmination on the Fourth dive was a Safety & Rescue Skills Test, essentially a rescue of an unresponsive diver from the shallows, somewhere around 10m or so, and the safe recovery whilst administering rescue breaths, and undertaking kit removal to facilitate beaching, or boat recovery, and due care until onward transmission into medical supervision was practical

Rescue breaths at the surface, luckily something I have never had to perform in a “real” situation……and something I hope never to have to either……

It took nearly a year to get the Dive-Leader assessment dives complete, my First being undertaken April of 1993 and my Final, Rescue assessment dive, taking place on the very same day exactly a year later, 04th April 1994. I was delighted to pass as a Dive-Leader, it was a 12 month journey, but I had enjoyed it, immensely, and by the April of 1994 I had already applied for, and passed the Assistant Club Instructor Training Course at Bulford over the weekend of the 12th & 13th of February ’94……I had decided I liked training people, I got a great deal more out of the satisfaction of taking others diving than I had ever believed I would, more, I knew than I had to put in……I loved it, and now I was eligible to put in for my BSAC Club Instructor exam, I could barely wait!

Helenus

January 1, 2020 by Colin Jones

03/09/1955 Ian Jones joins the Alfred Holt Ship SS Helenus at Birkenhead, Liverpool as an engineering cadet. Helenus was to be the first Blue Funnel ship dad would serve on, and it would be 3 months later he disembarked 16/12/1955 again at Birkenhead, just 8 days before Christmas. Helenus was the first of the H class Alfred Holt ships built in Belfast by Harland and Wolf in 1949, just 4 years after the end of WWII. Helenus was a steam turbine engined ship of 10,125 Tonnes, the second of her name, her predecessor having been sunk by a torpedo from U68 off Freetown, Sierra Leone, 03rd March in 1942. Helenus was 522ft long and 70ft wide and could make just over 18 knotts and was delivered to the Ocean Steamship Company (Alfred Holt’s Blue Funnel Line) in October of 1949

I can imagine my Father being both excited, and perhaps even a little intimidated, as Helenus was the pride of the Holt line when he joined her in September of ’55 and Ian Jones was just a cadet, on the first rung of a ladder that could easily be pulled right out from underneath you…… if things didn’t go to plan. Liverpool was the gateway to the world if you let it be, although the post war years had meant poverty for many and the city looked like a bomb site, in fact was still a bomb site in many areas, following the Nazi attacks on its industry and its docks, Alfred Holt and his like offered a very real escape route and many signed up to take it!

Helenus off-loading, probably Vittoria docks Liverpool c1960 (*Web Photo*)

The merchant navy was a prestige escape for whoever was looking for adventure and Alfred Holt and the Blue Funnel Line only wanted the best they could get, there were plenty looking for work, there were plenty to choose from, and that meant there was fierce competition to get into the Blue Funnel training programme. I remember my father studying long into the evenings in the back bedroom of our house, the exams were serious and you needed a high level pass to be considered for promotion. This was the first example I ever had of someone taking study seriously, it put me off and I resented being made to study in the same way for my 11+ exam……I passed it nonetheless, but I resented it, and took a path of resistance whenever further exams were looming, a stupidly childish thing to do which put me back years, but taught me a valuable lesson, Twice over!

Aulis, the Blue Funnel line Academy and students undergoing training before taking up posts on Blue Funnel ships (*Web Photo*)

Back in the day the Blue Funnel line didn’t only rely on transportation of goods, many of the ships also carried passengers on the routes to China, Australia and the edges of Empire. Those working for the Blue Funnel Line were not only deck and engine room employees, but also representatives of their company, with a very high expectation of standards by their employers. Those travelling with the Blue Funnel line in the day were of a pioneering spirit, or those with exotic business interests in the far reaches of the British colonies. The Blue Funnel adverts of the time have become iconic collectors pieces and the few I have collected myself are prized reminders of the days when Liverpool truly was the gateway to the world

The Blue Funnel Line…….To the edges of Empire (*Web Photo*)

Helenus had been designed in the 1940’s to take cargo, predominately, but to also accommodate First class passengers, in the sort of luxury they expected, whilst travelling to the exotic ports she would visit on her trade missions. Alfred Holt had become known for their China and Australia runs, these were scheduled trips and paying passengers could reach such exotic locations way before Transatlantic and long haul passenger air-travel was widespread.

Helenus was primarily a cargo vessel, her forward and rearward holds filled & unloaded by Stevedores using her deck cranes or “Derricks” (*Web Photo*)

The passenger accommodation, even though considered First Class, would not rival the 1912 Titanic “luxury” standards, space being somewhat of a premium, but it was of an excellent standard considering the post war austerity the nation was under, it was certainly up to high enough quality “hotel standards” as to attract the travelling classes in enough numbers to keep it viable up to the 1960’s, where international flights were far more common place, this was the turning point for the Blue Funnel line and passenger services were reduced significantly at that point.

Blue Funnel Flyer for the Helenus & Peleus Class Ships of 1950 (*Web Photo*)

I was lucky enough to spend a day on Helenus after my father had left Blue Funnel, somewhere around 1967 or so, we went to the docks and were allowed to tour her, spending considerable time in her engine room where my dad would have spent every waking moment when on watch. Helenus was a Steam Turbine driven ship and sadly I have no photos of her from the day, hardly surprising for a Six or Seven year old let loose around such a huge “playground”, but I loved being in the belly of such a huge Ship….

A Steam Turbine Engine room similar to what I remember, but perhaps a little more contemporary to Helenus (*Web Photo*)

Helenus wasn’t the only Blue Funnel ship I got to visit and my abiding memories are that I loved the alien environment, the huge cylinder-heads and valve trains with their rocker shafts, the suspended walkways with their see-through iron paths snaking through the air surrounded by ducts and pipes of all sizes…. valves and gauges everywhere. Half way through the day on Helenus, we were sat in the Officers mess and given a quite wonderful meal, the envy, I am sure, of anyone in a high class hotel of the time, Helenus will always be a part of my childhood, I loved her then, I still do now, even though she is long gone

Helenus believed to be off Gibraltar c1963

So, it was into this vessel Ian Jones, Cadet Engineer, stepped in September of 1955, the first step in an Eight year merchant navy career that would see him cross the seas of the globe, from Birkenhead in his home town of Liverpool to Hong Kong, Melbourne and Sydney in Australia, to New York and Capetown and ports beyond……..In so doing, he and my Uncle Keith, would have an influence on my life that I never guessed, started a fascination with Steamships that would see me travel the globe visiting their resting places and, whenever I could, researching their stories, the crews, the cargoes and the reasons they floundered…….

Ian Jones, my Father, & Kieth Jones my Uncle……. Engineer & Deck Officer…… the beginnings of a Diver’s adventures

Kit Transition

December 26, 2019 by Colin Jones

Until Croatia, and the UN tour mentioned in several of the sections in this blog, my kit had been pretty much static over the 2 years of my diving up to 1993 at the close of the Tour. I had, however, splashed out on a SUUNTO Solution, a dive computer, and I loved it. Up to my purchase, (tax free through my contacts in the Finnish Battalion serving with us in Yugoslavia) I had been using BSAC Tables, also Ned Middleton had left a curiosity in the Dutch bar before leaving Yugoslavia, a PADI Recreational Dive Planner (RDP), sadly in Feet, which, as I was used to metric (Meters), was confusing on Two counts, the units had to be converted to bear any semblance to a depth I understood, and, I had no real idea how to use it….but it was intriguing and I was determined to find out how to work it….eventually! So, I had moved from tables into the digital age, and I had been exposed to 15L cylinders for the first time, having used 12L versions exclusively up until Pula. I liked the 15L cylinders, I figured you could never have too much air to breathe on a dive….. and I’d seen a couple of really odd pillar valves too, double valves but on a single cylinder, and a cylinder with a reserve wire-pull down its side, when you get to 50bar, pull the wire and you get a further 50bar reserve…… Things I hadn’t seen at any of the dive-sites in the UK, all of this got me thinking……it was time for an upgrade!

Strange cylinder Valves…..intriguing (*Web Photo*)

I had been considering a pony set-up after seeing several at south coast dive sites, I could see the logic, an entirely separate air-source on an independent regulator. I knew this would be a step forward in safety and I knew I wanted a better regulator, not that my R190 was not serving me well, but as I had started to dive a little deeper, a little more often, I knew there were better regs out there and after 7 months on slightly better pay, it was now or never….a trip to Aqua-leisure in Melksham was in order…..

Typical Pony Set-Up, mine was in a Beaver 3L Cylinder bag with a drawstring top (*Web Photo*)

I settled on a 3L Pony cylinder in a Beaver protective draw-string bag, which attached easily to my main cylinder, and I sat it at the Right side of my Stab Jacket, moving my weights round a little to the Left on the belt to compensate for the additional pony cylinder weight on that side. I had agonised over which reg to buy, I knew the R190 would do on the pony, if I needed the pony, chances were I was on my way back to the surface, the R190 would still do in that role, I was comfy with that…. But which reg to go for, there were a few I could afford and it took me a couple of trips, and some long conversations with divers back at TIDSAC, before I finally settled on the Spiro Arctic, an environmentally sealed reg which boasted it was good for any water temperature I was likely to come across in the UK and probably many a lot worse

The Spiro Arctic Reg, the mainstay of the next 3 years diving

I needed to take one more step too, and ditch the semi-dry-suit! I had picked up a trapped nerve in my neck whilst in Croatia, one of those freak injuries that I’d have never believed possible if someone else had described it…..I was looking under the hood of a Bedford 4T truck, standard troop transport of the day, and turned my head …..something went crack and a bolt of lightening slammed my neck ……. I have never felt pain like it, and I couldn’t move my head, it was stuck…..this was bollocks wtf was going on? It turned out to be simple, I’d trapped a nerve, it would work its way out and in typical Army style I got Two “fcuk off” tablets (Paracodol) and a “goodbye” from the medics of 24 Field Ambulance…it would take nearly another month before the Americans arrived in Pleso, by which time I was self-medicating on Heineken just to get to sleep….and it was beginning to show.

The SUUNTO Solution….probably the best dive computer of its day (*Web Photo*)

The Yanks had a look, their Medic Captain said yep….trapped nerve, it’ll free up.…. eventually… but luckily for me the “orderly” a US Army corporal held me back after his Captain had lost interest…..I can’t offer you this “officially” because its not recognised military practice, but I am a chiropractor back in the US and if you give me 5 minutes I can help….What had I got to loose? I hadn’t slept much for a month, I was constantly half-cut and still in agony so I said, go for it! He said trust me….breathe out and this will hurt….my neck was snapped to the Right and I nearly passed out, you could hear the pistol shot “crack” as my neck reached its limit………and now the other way….and you have to relax even though you know what’s coming…….Crack, a pistol shot in my Left ear……. and he smiled at me…..and told me to get up off the trolley….I did and I could have kissed the ugly bastard….. I could move my neck, I could move my head….and the pain had gone, just like that…..gone….I was elated and promised they guy any amount of beer he could drink, whenever he wanted, and it turned out he was tee-total….result! I had to go easy on the neck for a week or so, and do exercises he showed me to strengthen the area, and he warned me it could come back any time, especially if it got cold! And so it was time to buy a dry-suit, or to give up diving as, during the very first dive after I had got over the injury I could feel the nagging pain from my Neck to my shoulder….and I knew what that meant……

My first dry-suit, a DMS bravo, 5mm neoprene and a sturdy piece of kit I loved this suit

So now I would lose the semi-dry suit in favour of a DMS Bravo 5mm Neoprene dry-suit. Seeing as I was back from Blue-Water diving, and once again in UK temperatures the transformation went almost unnoticed, apart from by my bank manager, with the SUUNTO, the new Spiro, the 3L Pony and the DMS I was out just over a Grand….still, I was diving and that meant everything, the money would come back, eventually, and the neck injury didn’t re-surface even in 4′ water, perhaps due to the double layer of 5mm Neoprene neck seal on the suit…..bonus!

Training the UN

December 25, 2019 by Colin Jones

I slipped into diver training without really noticing it if I am really honest about things. I was going to be in Croatia for a long stretch and would get limited time to do anything remotely useful, unless it was outside the UN envelope, anyone who has served with the UN will likely agree, it is not the most joined-up of enterprises and struggles to do anything effective when the mandate is “intervention” rather than positive action. I had been given a break by my boss Chris, he recognised there wasn’t much to write home about and approved a diver training programme, it had Two pay-offs, firstly down time at Pleso, (the Zagreb airport we were stationed at whilst rotating around 4 outlying regions), could be used productively, not just sitting around drowning in Heineken at the Dutch bar (an impromptu bar in an ISO container where you could get hammered on Heineken if you were invited in by the Dutch Signals contingent), secondly it was a tick in the seniority ladder, organising a recreational programme in a UN deployment, with multi-national access and integration, could not go unnoticed when the promotion board sat…… The local liaison officer Nick Stansfield, a decent enough officer ( a Captain, or “Rupert” to those of us at lower altitude) came along to ensure his box was ticked, and that everything was set-up legitimately…… no one would appreciate a death on this tour, let alone one on R&R…….

The road to Vukovar 1992, WO2 Chris Cjaza Left of arc, then “Billy” Cowie, our recovery (RECE) Mech, can’t remember the guy next, but Right of arc is yours truly…….. doing the Day-Job!

So the scouting had already taken place (see the post in general diving on Pula), the contacts had been made to get us into the water, and now we had higher echelon approval! All that remained was to let each unit in Pleso know that there was scuba-diving on offer, and we could see if there was any take-up. I had the BSAC lesson plans from the manual and knocked up some support materials on cards, this was before significant technical slide sets were generally available, and we were stuck, incommunicado with the outside world pretty much. This was in order to limit the communications opportunities significantly bored squaddie’s often make use of, which invariably end up in negative publicity for such international enterprises….(pissing off the senior ranks, who then have to justify themselves in the broader limelight, and often to the world’s press….…) I decided on an advertising campaign and came up with “Try Diving…. you wear rubber and it’s warm, wet and smells of Fish!”.…..which was instantly banned (never understood why tbh…..)and changed to a bulletin, put out to each unit offering “R&R diving courses” to the Finns, the Dutch, the French and the Norwegians we had serving alongside us……..and they came…..

Henk Patjee and Paul Baaker of the Dutch Signals Battalion with Slavko, setting up kit before a shore dive August 1992

Our first course saw a small take-up from the Dutch Signals Battalion, and a couple of guys from my own 24 field Ambulance support group, including my room mate Phill Talbot, who appears in the Cyprus piece on Vera K elsewhere in this blog. It was a pain doing a day’s work and then delivering a couple of hours on Buoyancy, the laws of depth and pressure, or Dive kit and underwater signals, but it was a distraction from the Dutch bar, which helped keep the blood/alcohol within reasonable levels…..or so I told myself! I didn’t keep a score of how many we trained but it was a steady stream of all ranks, I had Majors down to Privates and everything in between, where there were language issues we asked the guys to bring along an English speaker, and then worked out translations on the technical stuff as we went along….and it worked, the guys passed the academic side before being allowed to book the weekend of practical open water diving in Pula

Open Water skills tests in the bay at the dive center front Punta Verudella, Pula August 1992

There was an amazing co-incidence that had taken place earlier in this tour which had passed me by completely…. I had been outside the paymasters office, about to get some local currency, (which we took as Deutschmarks as the taxi-drivers gave a far better rate for the German Mark than we got for local Croat Dinars….) and had overheard a heated exchange between the paymaster and the Officer Commanding (OC) a woman at that time, unusually. I can’t remember her name but the paymaster was a Captain, one Ned Middleton, who would become pretty famous for his Red Sea and Maltese wreck-diving books, and someone I got to know a little later on in life. Ned called me in to the office, looked at me and said, “…….and you heard…..Fcuk all….. right Son….” to which I answered, no idea what you mean Sir! which was obviously the right answer as I escaped with my Deutschmarks and, later in life, I got a couple of Ned’s books, autographed 1st editions, and a better explanation of the event (and a bit of background too) when I related the incident back to him. Ned’s a top bloke and I thoroughly enjoy his books, which can only be described as “un-paralleled” in terms of accuracy and research, I strongly recommend them, brilliant reading!

An Englishman, Two Dutchmen and Two Finns walk into a Croatian Dive Centre…….

The skills tests went well, there wasn’t a single failure throughout the whole tour, which was a bit of a miracle to be honest as diving isn’t for everyone, but it seems to suit military personnel of all nations very well. The bay was a superb training area, with shallow beautifully clear water. A little further out there were rock outcrops with shoals of small fish everywhere and it got a little deeper too topping out around 15m to the extent we dived it. I regularly took part in the skills tests and was often used as a demonstration dummy too, I got wet, we had fun, there was even a bar on site which opened conveniently enough in the evenings, and served from mid-morning at weekends. The place was perfect for what we wanted and after an afternoon intro on arrival, and a day of training and skills tests we followed up with a couple of Rib dives a little further out from the bay on day Two of each weekend course, the guys loved it…..and so did I!

Gary & Markuu take a shore dive off the dive centre front

There were various dives to complete out from the Dive Centre off the quay-side, we even found a Brass Shell timer from an old WWII bomb intended for the Pula port, the casing itself sat off to one side 5 or 6m or so, probably still full of the high explosive packed inside it after decades underwater…. I logged 11 dives out of Punta Verudella, several shore dives, and 6 RIB dives in all, the majority being 10-20m with 2 over 25m and a couple into the “washing Machine” mentioned in the caves and cavern section of this blog. Every dive was great fun, the headland is rocky outcrops, with pine trees all the way to the sea, giving a most picturesque view from any location around the Murgon’s bay and offering plenty of tunnels and swim-through’s which are always enjoyable. Although the fish-life was there, it was generally smaller, pretty coloured fish, I saw my first John Dory and my first Spanish Dancer in the bay and always loved the myriad tiny fish darting away from us as we approached, I was lucky to have fallen on the right place at the right time and Croatia endeared itself to me through my diving there, in Punta Verudella

Phill Talbot kitted up for a late afternoon shore dive a couple of km down the headland road on the peninsula Nov 1992

A little later in the year I took a couple of second time divers down the peninsula a little, a couple of kilometers or so, just to try a shore dive, November of 1992. The viz was a little less than usual, we were in off the shore and round the headland a little, so as the light dimmed in late afternoon things were just a little gloomier. It was a good dive, we swam around the rocky headland and down to 8 or 9m just enjoying the fading light, and the independence of a different location, a bit of a minor adventure given we didn’t take torches. That was a mistake really as we nearly got run over by a returning fisherman in his small skiff, luckily he saw us waving our arms before things got too close, but it served as a reminder not to take anything, including daylight for granted!

Returning from the bay, warm clear water and an easy exit….couldn’t be better! August 1992

All in all we ran 7 weekends over the 7 months we were in Croatia and I reckon we trained 20 or so multi-national soldiers from at least 5 different countries, not a bad start to a career in diver training, and not one I had ever intended embarking upon. I said at the beginning of this piece that I slipped into training, that is true, but I actively sought out the next steps, I enjoyed being part of the training programme I had set up in Croatia, I couldn’t sign off the divers myself though, that fell to Vlado. The qualifications the lads earned were CMAS rather than BSAC awards, equivalent and just as legitimate, some might say even more “international”, but on my return to the UK I asked my DO to let me join some of the training programmes there, something I would eventually take over and run myself………and it started in Croatia, in clear Blue warm waters….

Pula Croatia

December 23, 2019 by Colin Jones

My first dive abroad, courtesy of the UN and Op Hanwood, which I have written up in the “other stuff” section of the blog so I won’t go into any more detail here. There will be other stuff on Croatia, it’s one of my favourite dive locations and one of my favourite holiday destinations too, but my first dive there, or anywhere abroad for that matter, was special. Bear in mind the only diving I had done to the 27th of June 1992 was on the South coast of the UK, 35 dives, all great fun but often in poor weather or difficult conditions, close to the edge of diveable occasionally, and definitely not diving any Blue water resort location would undertake. It had been a maul getting anywhere in the circumstances, I had started to believe the diving in Croatia had been so badly affected by the war that no-one would take me out, that meant I would be letting the boss, Chris Czaja, (my warrant officer on the tour) down, and letting those needing some R&R down too. I had kicked around for a day and a half with no results before being put onto a dive business working out of a hotel not far from ours, the Brioni, and as luck would have it, even though it had closed for the foreseeable future, the Brioni staff called the owner, Vlado and he agreed to meet me and talk

Igor (middle) & Jelliko of Murgons Dive School Punta Verudella June 1992

Vlado agreed he and his partner Slavko would open up the business for us and give me a look at the local dive-sites, so I could work out if there was a way to get students trained in the class-room aspects of diving, back in Zagreb, and then send them to Pula to carry out the practical side of things, kitting up, skills in the water and then some actual diving. Meanwhile there were forms to fill in……odd to me, but the dive industry in Croatia was very limited, the communist regime of Tito had seemingly been suspicious of sport diving, and it was a small and often difficult to operate niche even for Croat nationals. I let Vlado have my dive quals and he took care of filling in the requests for permission to the local coastguard representative, I paid the equivalent of £5 or so and we were in business….if I got approval. In the mean time Slavko took me to see the guys actually taking me diving, Igor & Jelliko, Two local divers who had set-up the underwater piece whilst Vlado and Slavko did the office and commercial side with the local hotels

Punta Verudella and Murgon’s sea-front location, a little piece of paradise far from conflict in Pula, June 1992

I met Igor & Jelliko at their sea-front dive location and was impressed, it seemed there was everything I would need to get our UN troops in the water, good changing rooms, a broad concrete front to kit up and de-kit on, safe steps into and out of the sea, and a broad, shallow bay protected on 3 sides, meaning the water was calm most of the time, and it was Blue….and clear……something I had yet to experience in diving terms, things were looking up……nicely! I checked out their compressor and cylinders, used but in good condition, their kit was decent too and they had a little English, more than enough to get by on, better than that of Vlado and Slavko who were older and a little less capable in that respect. All that remained was to discuss the details, to let the guys know what they were letting themselves in for….only fair in the circumstances. Igor & Jelliko were young and used to taking divers out, they were not instructors, more dive guides it would fall to me and Slavko to be in the water and assess the guys as competent, before they got any further than the shallow front of the dive center……. and that was another issue, Slavko was CMAS (Confederation Mondiale des Activites Subaquatiques) Cousteau’s legacy to the world, and I was British Sub-Aqua Club (BSAC) how would that work?

The Murgons kit room and Igor in typical good humour

We could work out the details later, by now I was desperate to get into the water and see what the diving was like, I asked if the approvals were in yet and was told I had a chance by the next morning, that was cutting things fine, it was our last day in Pula and if they weren’t in place tomorrow I would have to go back with half a story to Chris Czaja and worse….I wouldn’t have even got wet. I needn’t have worried, the Harbour-master was a friend of Vladko’s and the paperwork came through that evening, everything was go….and I couldn’t wait

Out to the dive-sites from Punta Verudella, Pula, Croatia June 992

I got on the RIB fully kitted, and we made our way out of the bay and off to the Left hand side of the headland, around towards the Hotel Histria where we were staying. The shore-line was not far off, a mile or so and it was typical of the area, rock outcrop, probably Limestone for the most part, (although I am no geologist), with pine trees coming right down to the water’s edge in many places, it looks magnificent! Last minute prep, an OK signal and off the side we went, backwards into the Adriatic……..Surfacing only to give the OK signal to Jelliko in the rib and then turning back to Igor to signal the descent, I was overjoyed, the water was warm, like a swimming pool, and as clear, I could see the rocks below us from the surface and it was wonderful! My dive-log records this…..Rib Dive, Frasker….. Fantastic dive, my first abroad, varied fish, multi-coloured, very pretty, marvelous drop-offs and to finish a cave and tunnel exit, stunning……water temperature 22′ visibility 30m…..

Official paperwork, duly approved by the Croatian Authorities, and my log book entry June 27 1992

I vividly remember the descent, I could not believe what could be seen, this was truly a revelation in terms of what I had dived in the UK, clouds of silver bubbles you could track to the surface, and small shoals of Silver and Blue Fish, like those in an Aquarium, not dissimilar to juvenile Wrasse, but definitely a different species entirely to that of the Atlantic or the Channel. There were no large fish on that dive and I’d heard the Med was pretty fished out, maybe the Adriatic was too? I loved the winding channel we swam through, it certainly looked like a cave from the entry, but it twisted and turned for a dozen or so meters and then exited, it was a swim through rather than a true cave, but I loved it, and when we swam up towards the RIB after 30 minutes, we passed over the rock it ran through, the bubbles we had exhaled were permeating through in Silver clouds looking like the aerator rocks in fish-tanks…….I was hooked, this was different, wonderful diving and I was loving it!

The end of a perfect day….Punta Verudella as dusk falls

The 3 hour plus drive back to Zagreb was spent re-living every minute of the dive and anticipating as many more as I could get…… It would be another month before I managed to train up a mixed group of UN soldiers and get them through the academic lessons of Novice 1 and 2 in readiness for the trip back to Pula, in between duties and the activities we carried out in support of the peace initiative, it was worth it too…….. but more of that later………

Vera K

December 21, 2019 by Colin Jones

I had the opportunity to spend some time in Cyprus following my tour of former Yugoslavia, my roommate (Pleso barracks, then ISO container) had been an RLC soldier called Phill Talbot from Radcliffe in Manchester, and we had kept in touch after the tour for a while. I had got on well with Phill, he had taken to diving after doing the R&R course I set-up in Zagreb, passing his CMAS 1 star, BSAC Novice Diver qualification whilst there. I had gone on to do Northern Ireland and after 7 months (what is it with 7 month tours, they were all supposed to be 6 months…..) there, I knew I needed some down-time. Phill invited me to stay in Cyprus with him and his wife, even though the only time I could get there he would be working so I’d be mostly on my own for entertainment. I didn’t have a problem with that and got the first “indulgence flight” out of Brize that I could get on! I was taking my dive-gear too, there were wrecks to dive and I couldn’t wait!

The Fort at Paphos breakwater, Cyprus December 1993

I had been in touch with Cydive in Paphos after a disappointing and drawn-out correspondence with the local military BSAC club, the DO there was a pain, nothing could be guaranteed, there would need to be a series of shake-out dives to prove my quals were “good enough”, and there wasn’t much chance of anything other than shore dives….if there were cylinders charged (which couldn’t be expected, I would be lucky or I wouldn’t depending on who was there to fill them and “if” there was someone to fill them….), basically a case of “you’re not welcome here pal,you’re too much effort” so sod that, Cydive here we come!

The gate sentinel at Phill’s Akrotiri posting, an English Electric Lightening

Cydive wanted a shake-out dive too, I had no problem with that and they had no problem with full dive cylinders, so Phill and I got to take a half-hour shore dive, close to the Paphos dive shop and it’s wonderful promenade location just shy of the harbour castle. Phill was working the next couple of days so I hired a 125 cc trials bike to get me to and from Akrotiri, a good half hours run out, but great fun in the circumstances, and I had booked my first Cyprus wreck….the Vera K! I picked up my kit from the Cydive drying room in the morning, and we made our way down to the jetty and the small skiff there waiting for us, I couldn’t have been happier, the Sun was shining, it was well over 20′ and we were heading out to a shipwreck……perfect!

The Vera K had led a varied life, prior to meeting her end outside the Paphos breakwater back in May of 1971, she had started life as yard number 624 in the Deutsche Werke shipyards in Kiel, Hamburg in 1951, just 9 years before I was born. She was named Sloman Valencia to 1967 and was a 2,214 Tonne, Diesel engined cargo vessel with sleek lines, a good looking transport ship of the day. The Sloman Valencia’s engine drove her along at a steady 13 Knots for her owners, the Danube Mediterranean Line (Demline) out of Beirut in the Lebanon. In 1967 she was sold, or perhaps transferred, and her name changed to the Jebel Sinneen, this period of her life lasted until 1970 when she was again renamed, this time to Vera K. If anything that would hint that she had transferred to a Greek shipping line, as using the “K” suffix was a Greek trait and I have latterly dived several other wrecks named with that protocol, more research needed here methinks! As is the fate of many Greek transport ships of the time, Vera K ran aground within sight of a port, on a known reef, in what was expected to have been very good visibility, now there is no inference here, (…at all your honour), just a slight feeling of deja-vu over the seemingly poor navigational skills of an ageing section of the Greek merchant marine community, often very close to retirement…….

Vera K (sailing here as the Sloman Valencia) C1966 (*Web Photo*)

Vera K ran into the Moulia rocks outside Paphos harbour in May of 1971, she was carrying cars, timber and Sodium Sulphate, amongst other general cargo. Clearly where Vera K ran aground was too close to the shipping lanes locally to be allowed to just let nature take her course, as, in 1974 the Cyprus authorities had her blown to pieces, to clear what was obviously a shipping hazzard. The explosions used to break up Vera K had an effect on the rocky outcrop she sat upon, the main of the wreckage is in 4 sections and very broken up. The dive is a good one, with plenty of time to look around her and the rocks she sits in amongst. I remember coming over a gully at around 6 m and seeing tunnels through the outcrop, by what remains of her bow and the bridge, or a large section of her bridge, unmissable as it was a very “block” like construction as you can see from the photos of her in her prime. There were stairs off on one side of the bridge structure, sat there in the Blue and I remember thinking Vera K would clearly make a very good subject for photographers back then…..

Vera K’s Bridge wing (*Web Photo*) showing her shallow depth 6-11m or so

I took a good swim around and there was plenty of wreckage evident, bearing in mind it was only 19 years before that Vera K had been blown to pieces, in order to clear her down to a manageable size for passing shipping to avoid. I found what looked like a transmission amongst a tangle of other debris, I figured it was the transmission from the huge fluid flywheel/Torque converter housing bolted to the rear of it. I was not sure it was large enough to have had anything to do with the main engine, perhaps a donkey engine for start-up?, it just seemed too big to be for a standard car. I managed to find a picture of the transmission on the web and I’d be happy to be told I was wrong if there are any with better understanding of her Diesel drive-train?

Fluid Flywheel or Torque Converter, I wasn’t sure, and I’m still not! (*Web Photo*)

The viz around Vera K was phenomenal at somewhere around 35m, my buddy on the dive, a NAUI diver called Stan, and I had no trouble navigating the area and spent a good 45 minutes on a single 10L cylinder enjoying the water temperature and the experience of diving in Cyprus. I have to admit, even though this was only my 14th “Blue Water” dive, I could see the attraction. There is more to research on the Vera K, there is limited information I can find at present, I will add to this post if I can go any further at a later date, however, let’s say the Vera K has yet to give up the last of her secrets, especially how she managed to end up on a known navigation hazzard, so close to a safe harbour on such a gentle sea……

Vera K (Sloman Valencia) c1966 (*Web Photo*)

Croatia

December 8, 2019 by Colin Jones

My first dive abroad was 27/06/1992 in Croatia, from Punta Verudella, a small promontory of the Istrian peninsula on the coast of what was until a couple of months beforehand known as Yugoslavia. For those of you old enough to remember Yugoslavia the country had only opened itself up to tourism over perhaps Two decades or so, it had quickly become a favourite amongst UK holidaymakers being as beautiful as Italy and the Amalfi coast but, being less developed and far less known, it was far and away cheaper and much less crowded but just as engaging! I found myself serving in what was known at the time as “former Yugoslavia” by the ministry of defence and her employees, I had been “invited” to tour with the United Nations on a little jaunt known as “UNPROFOR”, or to us Op Hanwood, an intervention if you like, between the warring factions of Serbia and Croatia, the purpose of which seemed to be to become a pain in the ass of local combatants, “observing” their atrocities but failing to be allowed to do anything about them…… A piss poor state of affairs we all hated in equal measure!

Corporal Jones, how would you like 7 months in former Yugoslavia? If it’s all the same to you Sir, No thanks……You get a nice shiny UN armband……..Where do I sign Sir?

So why did it all go Pete Tong then? It’s a long story, the short version goes something like this: Round the late 1800’s the Serbs and the Croats and Slovenians were fed up with being eyed up by the Austro-Hungarians, they wanted independence and “nationhood”, Around 1914 Archduke Franz Ferdinand is visiting the area, Sarajevo in what was Bosnia, and a Serbian separatist dissident, Gavrilo Princip shot Franz and his wife Sophie, severely pissing off the Austro Hungarians who decide invasion is a good idea….Cue the alignment of most of Europe, the Ottomans of Turkey and Russia and the onset of the “war to end all wars” otherwise known as WWI….Things don’t go well for the Austro-Hungarians, now more popularly known as the “Hun” ….or “Germans” if you prefer, and after Woodrow Wilson and the Americans step in to make a point (14 of them to be exact) they surrender and the world forgets what had become the “Versailles State” ….. After various political meanderings, step-up Crown Prince Alexander of Serbia, who, in 1929 decided to suspend parliament and declare the Kingdom of Yugoslavia with himself as regent (in brief, and yes….this is the short version!),

Yugoslavian Soldiers surrender to the Wehrmacht c1941 (Photo Wikipedia)

all goes swimmingly until Alexander’s assassination in 1934 and then the inevitable World War 2 point 0 (WWII)….when Germany invades Yugoslavia, easily toppling the status Quo, the inevitable resistance arises, centring around a certain Communist rebel, Josip Broz Tito who’s HQ was on the island of Vis, about which, far more later in various posts on here, and, following the inevitable collapse of the Axis forces and the sound beating of Adolf Hitler and the Nazis, once again after the belated entry of the USA into the conflict after having left Britain to stand alone for almost 4 years (there’s a pattern in here somewhere….) ….where were we, oh yes Tito…….

Josip Broz Tito with partisan fighters Viz c1944 (Photo Wikipedia)

raised to leader of the nation of Yugoslavia, by popular demand, and ratified by the 3 winning allies, Britain, Russia and the USA (a bit prematurely, at a bit of a “do” at Yalta) we now have the “Socialist Republic of Yugoslavia” a quasi communist blending of Croatia, Serbia, Slovenia, Montenegro, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Macedonia, all happily ruled over by Tito, a half Croat, Half Serb and genuinely loved by all to the extent a dictator can be (Perhaps the best form of rule possible really, a benign dictator who loves their country and people)…….Until of course, Tito steps into the beyond, leaving no logical successor, and then it all goes seriously Pete Tong.

Vukovar, the iconic image of destruction…. Bosnia 1992

Croatia decide they can be a lot wealthier with the upsurge of tourist revenue they are seeing following Tito’s opening up of the country to Filthy Western Capitalist Bourgeoisie……..and declare themselves separate from Serbia and the remaining countries of the old alliance……you know the rest of the story…..and after a couple of months of atrocious fighting between Croatia and Serbia in steps the United Nations…….and 3 Field Workshops…..including me…… off to call “time” on Vlado and Slavko who are still very keen on kicking the living shit out of each other….with heavy weaponry……… well at least that was the “plan”!

Dusting Off after local peace negotiations Vukovar 1992

Herzogin Cecilie

November 23, 2019 by Colin Jones

Herzogin Cecilie was my first and I think remains my only “Clipper”, a legendary class of sailing ship that included the Cutty Sark, that last remaining example of her type in the world, almost lost to history when she caught fire during a refurbishment in May of 2007. The term “clipper” comes from a bygone era when ships raced from Australia back to the UK, to ensure they got the very best price for commodities like wool and tea. It was a profitable merchant who’s ship arrived in port “first”, hence these sailings were essentially races, where it paid to be a winner. One of the fastest of the ships of the day (1870’s) the Cutty Sark topped out at 17.5 knots which is 20mph, the Herzogin Cecile was timed at Skagen, somewhere around 1920, at 20 knots which was quite a “clip”….. a term for rattling along at speed, and one which could have its origins way back in the days of horse travel…. Another term for these huge traders, with their sleek lines and immense masts was “Windjammers”, far easier to figure out when you take a look at how many sails flew from their huge masts and their bow-sprits…….

Herzogin Cecile fully rigged, a huge acreage of sail, a true “Windjammer” (*Web Photo*)

So, for those that like their numbers and details: Herzogin Cecilie was yard number 122 and was launched on 22 April 1902. Completion was on 7 June that year. She was 334 feet 8 inches (102.01 m) long, with a breadth of 46 feet 3 inches (14.10 m) and a draught of 24 feet 2 inches (7.37 m). Herzogin Cecilie was built for Norddeutscher Lloyd Bremen. Unlike other contemporary German merchant sailing ships, the black Flying-P-Liners or the green ships of Rickmers, she was painted in white. She was one of the fastest windjammers ever built (Wikipedia) evidenced easily, as she won the annual grain race from Southern Australia to Falmouth four times prior to 1921, she again won the grain race four times in eleven trips from 1926 to 1936…… a seriously impressive achievement

Typical seas of the voyages of the Herzogin Cecilie (*Web Photo*)

Herzogin Cecilie is an unusual name and I remember asking if anyone in TIDSAC knew what it meant, I was faced with a round of blank faces and it took me 27 years to find out, not that I was looking all of that time, it just took until now to take the time to find out. The answer is her namesake, Duchess Cecilie of Prussia, a striking beauty of the time and Crown Princess of Prussia, being married to Crown Prince Wilhelm of Germany (Son of Kaiser Wilhelm II) and daughter of Frederick Frances III of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, born September 1886 dying in 1954 aged 67. “Herzogin” being the Prussian for Duchess…. hence Herzogin Cecilie…. or in English “Duchess Cecilie” ……….far easier!

Cecilie, Duchess and Crown Princess of Germany & Prussia at her engagement to Crown Prince Wilhelm of Germany 1904 (*Photo Wikipedia*)

The Herzogin Cecilie came to her end as a result of a collision with Ham Stone in thick fog April 1936, whilst en route to Ipswich, she floundered at Bolt Head but that wasn’t her end. Herzogin Cecilie was a strong ship, used to the punishment of epic, global journeys, and built to withstand the worst the Roaring Forties and the like could throw at a ship, and she wasn’t going to go without a fight……..

Herzogin Cecilie aground May 1936 “….she had quickly become a curiosity to the general public.” (Web Photo)

Herzogin Cecilie had been running Wheat and her cargo was deteriorating, to the point where it could be smelt by those who gathered to see her on the rocks, where she had quickly become a curiosity to the general public. The local Devon council decided pollution from the cargo would be undesirable and that she should be salvaged if practical. Herzogin Cecilies’ cargo was removed and as she lightened it became possible to float her at high tides. Tugs were brought round to her to drag her from her ignominious resting place and it was decided to beach her in Starhole bay locally in order to facilitate repairs

Herzogin Cecilie under tow towards Starhole Bay Salcombe June 1936 (*Web Photo*)

Sadly Starhole Bay, considered a safe site to beach Herzogin Cecilie, was far from that, it didn’t help that a series of gales sprang up locally in July of 1936, just after her beaching, but Starehole bay, as any local diver today will tell you, is far from a sandy and benign cove, more a mix of Rock, Sand and Kelp…… It did not take long for the fury of the July gales and the rocks under her hull to break the Back of Herzogin Cecilie, and, after that, it wasn’t much longer before her masts began to give way and festoon her decks, a sorry and tragic end to such a magnificent example of a dying era……..

Herzogin Cecilie, beached in Starehole Bay for repairs, June 1936 (*Web Photo*)

I would dive her in May of 1992, just 56 years on from her demise in that secluded, but fatal cove just around the corner from Salcombe in Devon. The club had decided on a weekend away to dive sites around Salcombe as a change from those of Portland and Dorset. I was excited as we had recently dived a couple of “scenic” sites and they weren’t particularly exciting if I’m honest. The chance of diving another shipwreck was just what I was looking for, and kitting up and getting the RIB into the water from the small public slip at Salcombe was fun and full of anticipation. The trip around the coast-line to the Herzogin Cecilie site has either been blanked or has faded from memory, like so many trips out to dive-sites, they “grey” into every other trip you’ve been on…….The memory of the dive, as ever, never leaves you and even though she is well broken, it was never hard to find her final resting place, here’s what my log says from the day……

Herzogin Cecilie before her break-up Starhole Bay June 1936 (*Web Photo*)

“Down the shot line to 7m, the wreck is heavily broken and in a few sections, we found 2, corroded to the ribs but with some plating intact a lot of interesting life but a fair amount of swell….Viz 1-2m” Now I might be accused of brevity there by those who read this, perhaps even romanticising somewhat, occasionally, but I remember the dive clearly and we spent much of the time hunting in poor viz for signs of wreckage. There was steel everywhere, Herzogin Cecilie had a steel hull, and it was all riveted, so we knew our plates were pre-war wreckage and likely to be exclusively from Herzogin Cecilie, but you still see plates for what they are, big slabs of Steel, and as she had been well broken up over the last 56 years in the bay, we were unlucky not to find anything on the day that resembled more than that. Others have found her a far more giving dive and speak of tunnels to swim through and more recognizable wreckage and hull fittings, but we were to find nothing distinct, nothing “Ship” like, on the day

Log Book Entry for Herzogin Cecilie 24/05/1992, 56 years almost to the day she floundered on Ham Stone, Bolt Head

I remember Herzogin Cecilie as a series of plates and broken metal lying in a shallow grave under 7m of Devon sea, those who live locally, some of them at least, will remember her hard on the Ham Stone, or lying at the mercy of the July storms of 1936 in Starhole bay. Those who sailed in her will mostly, if not all, have passed into history with her, but it doesn’t take much imagination to think of her heeled over, flying a cargo of wheat or wool at 20 knots over howling seas…..in her prime….sails straining to cope with the wind and her immense masts creaking in the spray……….

Horsea Lakes

November 22, 2019 by Colin Jones

I am told that Horsea lakes, even now, sends shivers down the spine of many service divers, this was the Royal Navy Diving School where many would be Military divers were “Beasted“…… an Army expression meaning physically pushed to the point of, and sometimes well beyond, breaking…… I remember my own “Introduction to Basic Fitness“, back in 1986, an unassuming term one could be forgiven for thinking might be quite fun, educational even……….No………. just 4 hours of constant sprints, star-jumps, sprints, press-ups, sprints, sit-ups, jogging on the spot….. sprints…… burpees…….sprints…… more sprints…... screaming PTI’s (Physical Training Instructors) and people around you breathing their last, or being sick on the floor….. “did you just puke on my beautiful shiny floor you disgusting PoS…..take off that fcuking shirt and wipe it up then….get on with it….don’t look at me…..you don’t deserve to look at me you sack of sh1t…... ” Now we were only joining the REME, not the SAS, but that didn’t seem to matter to the resident PT Corps “Staff” (You call me staff…..I don’t belong to your unit and I don’t answer to your OC…..I answer to God….and he works in Aldershot…… so shout loud if you want him to help…….) They had a million of these, for every occasion, and I guess those trying to get their “Hard Hat” Divers quals on their sleeves heard different, but just as chilling, shit that their PT staff thought just as funny to shout…… as they watched us all die

Horsea Lakes, home of Royal Navy & Royal Engineer Divers, almost a mile of water running pretty much West to East in Portsmouth

Horsea was originally Two Islands, Great and Little Horsea, they were joined to form a torpedo testing lake in 1889, using chalk excavated from Portsdown Hill, 1 km to the north, by convict labour. A narrow-gauge railway was constructed on the site by the army to distribute the chalk. Although the lake length was increased from 800 yards (730 m) to over 1,000 yards (910 m) in 1905, rapid advances in torpedo design and range had made it all but obsolete by World War I (Wikipedia) It had become the home of the Royal Navy & Royal Engineer Diver Training Facility Portsmouth. I had suggested we try to dive at Horsea having heard that, years before, the club had been allowed in, as one of the units had an Engineer E.O.D diver attached. The guy enjoyed scuba as much as he did hand over hand searches along steel ships hulls, looking for mines or covert devices whilst docked in foreign ports, and crawling up drains looking for IED’s before Royal visits. It seemed like getting “in” was a bit of a challenge, and I was up for a challenge. I telephoned the Horsea Admin office from the directory number we had at our unit in Tidworth, and spoke to a clerk who promised to send me a form to fill out….etc… That usually meant you would never hear from them again, and they’d been “transferred to another unit” if you asked for the bloke you’d spoken to last week…….Par for the course….. But, on this occasion, he was as good as his word! I received a “request for access” form and had to get various permissions, including a visit to Major Andrews Adjutant, who reluctantly signed to say I was who I said I was, and the unit could call and verify that at will…….. Everything seemed positive and I gave our intended visit dates, suitably a weekend, which pretty much guaranteed “usual” activity would be minimum, if anything, at the lake itself as even PTI’s don’t like working weekends………..

Looking up the lake quay, the building seen is unusual as it replicates a “moon pool” within, clearly not evident from the outside….

I settled on the 15/12/1991 as it was a couple of weeks off and it was before my Christmas leave, in fact I was on leave the weekend after so it was perfect. I had a word with our DO, Norman, and he was surprised but made-up that we had an opportunity to go back there, Norman had been with the club for years, he was a bloody good DO and a great bloke all round, he and Joy, his (ex-Major QRANC) wife had forgotten more about diving than I know, even now. I think even Joy, taciturn as she was, was chuffed to be going back to Horsea, who knows, maybe I earned a Brownie point for this one…… Norman suggested we make a job of the dives and did some underwater work whilst we were there, which was another tick in the box for me, I had never thought of really “doing” anything whilst diving! So we decided there would be some cutting (Hack-saws) and some assembling, basic nuts and washers with simple metal plates to bolt together, sounded like a plan to me and I set about getting some kit from the unit to make it happen, we would add to that some simple surface and under water navigation exercises to round off my 21st dive, and close the day!

Kit of the day was transitioning from the ABLJ, still popular with BSAC club diver, to the Stab Jacket, a newer and not completely trusted piece of “tech”

I recall the gate guards looking at our paperwork and my I.D card with suspicion on our arrival, they rarely saw visitors, especially with “civvies” in tow, being allowed in. But after some odd looks and a phone call to the admin office, we were in, and directed to go a mile down the lake to the office blocks, and behind them to the car park…….brilliant….it was a “go”! We briefed the dive, kitted up quickly, as if at any moment this could all be called off, and I found myself on the quayside and rolling forward into the water………it was cold, 4′ cold and even I took a sharp breath as water hit me and was forced into my semi-dry Icelandic suit, but it was clear, and I signalled OK and in came my buddy Burnie and Norman after him. We had decided to have a general look about, the depth was never going to be an issue being between 6, and occasionally 9m, we had all day on 12l cylinders and there was plenty to see……dummy torpedoes, inert pieces of real torpedoes, shoals of tiny jelly-fish….seemingly pretty much everywhere, and other pieces of kit, metal plates, odd looking metal parts, (perhaps naval pieces), every ten meters or so there was something new to puzzle over

Norman hadn’t forgotten the task he’d set and we settled on the bottom to take out the metal bar I’d already drilled, and between us both we hack-sawed it into Two halves and then each set a bolt, a washer either side, and a nut to bolt the Two bars we had created together as One. Sounds easy, not in thick rubber gloves, necessary because of the cold, and practically feeling-less due to numb fingers………but with a sense of what I can only describe as exaggerated delight, we had achieved our goal! The second dive Norman took us up under what was, to all intent and purpose, from the outside, just a building, perhaps a work shed? From the lake, as you went under it, it became something completely different. You could surface inside it and look round what was indeed a workshop, of sorts, one where surface fed divers might have exited, or divers carrying out covert entry and exit drills, perhaps navigating in and out without being seen from the surface by patrolling guards? The imagination could easily run away with you, once you had surfaced inside and looked around at the benches and equipment contained within….it was great, something truly different and I loved it!

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