New Island, Falkland Islands, South Atlantic Ocean

  So how has a routine dive become one of the best ever dives of a self-confessed Wreck Addict you might well ask? I would normally not have to answer as the chances are honestly “slim to nothing” and if any of my dive buddies or those who know me through diving would say…..not a chance….in hell!  But here we are, on a diving expedition in the South Atlantic Ocean and we have stretched our legs, over some impressive distances, to dive some remoter sites off New Island, and in little more than large rubber dinghy’s to be honest

This trip, on the 24^th of January 1996, is a long one, we are going North around the headland, out of our little bay at Coffin’s Harbour, the weather favours the route, the wind, mild on the day, is from the South which means it’s at our backs on the way out, if it turns while we are out we can choose the better direction as it suits, the distance is less returning in a Southerly direction and either way, North or South, will give the shelter of the islands cliffs for the most part of the journey home

This will be near the limit of the little Inflatables ability to carry fuel and take the weight of us and our dive kit, we will head towards Sabina Point and then on to Bold Point, rounding the Northernmost tip of the Island before turning South through Barnard’s Passage, named after the islands own Robinson Crusoe, and pass North Bluff across Albatross Bay towards our final destination and dive site, Landsend Bluff. This was the point I had spied when visiting the Penguin Rookery at Rookery Hill, visible to my Right, shrouded in mist and then rugged cliffs looming against the background of open sea as the mist cleared and the sun broke free of the leaden sky for a while

  We passed the seal colony under Precipice Hill on our way, and ran in closer to the shore to take advantage of the easier waters nearer the headland, and to enjoy the company of the inquisitive and playful seals as they dived into the water to indulge their curiosity at the sight and sound of our little craft, and the oddness of the appearance of such weird looking creatures in their pristine, largely unvisited, natural environment, where we must have, quite literally, looked like visitors from another dimension…… I loved seeing the Seals and the odd Sea-lion lazing on the rocky headlands, sunning themselves, I loved the reactions as we passed, the splashes as they dived in, the leaping and flash of those under the surface, powering out to get a closer look at us, and there would be a head popping out at whatever distance the individual animal felt safe at, close enough to see if we were a threat, far enough to effect an exit if that threat became real, a visceral demonstration of predatory behaviour….., essentially, from a Seal’s perspective……. “Are they friend or food?”

  As we closed on the Landsend Bluff dive site we approached more spectacular rock formations than we had seen so far, the headlands around New Islands Western side can only be described using superlatives, the imposing rock formations are magnificent carrying local names like Apache Chief, the pillars of Hercules, the Cathedral…..all evoking their own particular expectations, but on approach, and from the vantage point of a small inflatable at sea-level, they became ominous, magnificent edifices, rising from the Southern Ocean to truly dwarf us into universal insignificance

  On arrival at Landsend Bluff we spent some time ticking the outboards over and just steering around the cliff bases looking at the dive opportunities….and there were prime sites wherever we looked, it would be a challenge deciding where to make the best entry, everywhere looked amazing, it would have been easy to just run out of time moving from great, to better, to even better and on…..and on…to a point where we just had to say, this is it, we’ve just got to get in and check this out! Everywhere we looked was a Deep and inviting “Blue”, all we could do was select the most impressive looking “best of” and believe me….that was a tough decision!

  I don’t know who eventually chose where we went in, I know I favoured the narrow passage at the Pillars of Hercules, I don’t remember why we didn’t do a swim through on that site, but we ended up close, on the Southern side of the narrow, towering cliff sides, where those of you (old, Like me) who spent every Boxing Day watching Jason and the Argonauts, would picture the Symplegades, (The Clashing Rocks, or Cyanean Rocks of Greek legend, supposedly in the Bospherous) held apart by the sea God Triton, as Jason and his Argonauts row their ship Argo through to safety. The Greek legend being slightly enhanced there as the myth has Jason releasing a Dove, taken by the rocks, before the Argo makes the journey, the Goddess Athena allowing Argo through in the Dove’s wake as the rocks rebound from each other

After we had taken the inflatables around the imposing cliff base for half an hour or so, marveling at spectacle and grandeur, the decision had been made and we kitted up, I would buddy with Percy on this dive and we would soon come to know the site as the Cathedral……..my dive log records: “24/01/96 RIB Dive – Land’s End Bluff – S.A. The Cathedral. Very marginal sea conditions – heavy swell but a great dive in along sheer walls covered in Krill millions of the things like a Red carpet everywhere – in through a Blue Green split in the rocks & into a huge open roofed shaft 180-200’ straight up on all sides. Down to the floor at 11m & in and under the giant slab remains of the roof then out through 4m swell along the passage. Spent time with Penguins & Seals & Dolphins (Peale’s – 3m long) on the return boat ride a Magnificent Summer day – Viz 10m Air In 200 Out 150 Buddy Perc.” This is one of the longest entries for a dive in the log, it shows how much I loved this particular site and the dive but it falls way short of the full reality of the dive

  On entry the water was deeply Blue Green as the diffused sunlight, bright overhead, lit the shallows and danced off the submerged rock walls to our Right, we had significant swell on the surface but it was diveable and less under the water from 5 or so metres down. Percy and I settled in and started to swim forward through shoals of Krill, they really were like clouds to our front and all around, amazing Red colour out of the water but slightly more transparent, no translucent really when under, although the millions that made up the shoal were very tangible and often right in front of the eyes, you could see through the shoal to navigate and we quickly found our cliff base coming to an end, there was brilliant light behind what was a very short passage in the rock face, wide but very bright and inviting, we didn’t have to ask, Percy and I turning almost synchronously into the  20 or so foot gap into what seemed to be a huge indoor pool, with a bottom strewn with huge rocks and those surrounded by hundreds more smaller rocks piled up, so the back wall rose at a pyramidal angle to the surface, the remainder forming the odd isolated pile or , as in the far side of the space, dropped one, onto several others forming an almost Celtic burial chamber, with side supports and a huge boulder, resting on top acting as a shallow roof…..the perfect swim-through! Neither Percy or I had either of the exped’s cameras, but it would have made no difference, the huge space, with shafts of light dancing everywhere you looked, was like the effect in St Paul’s, a holy place where we were perhaps the only humans ever to have visited, (the selection of the dive having been entirely random, the result of our slow meander, under the imposing cliffs where the swell and rolling tide was slightly less imposing) the likelihood of either of us wasting time on photographs was zero

    I lack a single poetic atom in me, but if ever I could have “waxed lyrical”, it would have been in this pristine sanctuary, with its incredible colours and light show and its impressive magnitude. Percy and I swam to the huge boulders and I signaled “up”, I wanted to see the place from the surface, after all, we couldn’t get the rib in here or we’d already have found the entrance and done so.  As we surfaced I looked around at the walls of what was an immense shaft, you could hear the gulls and Skua’s calling overhead, hear the swell of the tidal surge rising and falling back, hissing against the walls…..  you could see….hundreds of feet above you, the tight circle of light that had once been the rocks strewn on the floor below, where once a roof existed, and now was brilliant shafts of sunlight bouncing around the shaft walls. We were speechless, I can’t remember a single word said, I know I was just awe-struck at the effect, the scale, the simple, natural magnificence of such a place and, after what seemed an age, we just slipped back under to take in the even more impressive drama that was beneath the surface….I dropped to the side of the “burial mound” and took time to swim up and to the back ,so I could swim through the wedged rocks exiting to brilliant White shafts of sunlight, as the gap widened in front of me to become the immense pool, hidden in the cliffs, and its rock filled seascape. Percy and I did several more lazy circles in the cavernous space, checking huge boulders, swimming between and around them and eventually, very reluctantly we headed for the break in the cliff face that formed the exit from our incredible find and swam out, back in time to the real world and the shoals of Krill waiting to greet us outside the Cathedral, like a horde on the steps as you leave a service………

  The swim out of the cavernous and sanctified space we had been in scant seconds before brought us through the shoal and we were surrounded by the beautiful little creatures that form the base of the food chain for so many of the species of marine life found in the South Atlantic. It was impossible to avoid the shoaling Krill and as we rose through the water column to surface and hauled ourselves back into the inflatables we were covered in the last of them, unwitting passengers in the water clinging to our Dry-Suits. We brushed them off, back into the sea as carefully as we could, but it was an odd experience to see them all over our suits, something I’ve never seen before, nor since!

  Now I don’t know how or why the other divers didn’t find our entry point and the wonder within, but when we did the usual, “how was your dive” courtesy, Percy and I were the only divers who had entered the cliff face, the only ones who had seen the stunning, pristine best of what the South Atlantic and New Island had to offer, I was both elated to be one of the only two divers, perhaps on Earth, to have been there, but also a little disappointed there was no one who could relate to what we had both just seen, no one to discuss the spell-binding sights both under and above these waters hidden within the immense stone cliffs of Landsend Bluff

     The trip back to Coffin’s Harbour was another joy, on the odd occasion we were joined by pods of Peale’s Dolphins, bow wave riding just for the joy of it, in what had turned out to be a wonderful sun drenched afternoon. As we passed plateau’s of rock shelf, low to the Ocean covered in Seals, with the odd Sea-lion in amongst the horde, we were joined by some of the smaller Black and White flanked Commerson’s Dolphins as we came back into the mouth of the harbour, as if to welcome us home……..Brilliant!.……. If ever I get the chance to return to New Island it won’t take a second to make the decision to go…….and I know where I will be heading to dive

I first dived SS Thistlegorm from the Princess Dalal on a week’s live-aboard with FSAC, the First overseas exped I had organised, a small scale affair really, for a couple of friends. I had heard of Thistlegorm for years having seen Jacques Cousteau’s 1950’s discovery on TV when in my teens. I’ve mentioned this before in another area of this blog and won’t repeat the story here, enough to say Thistlegorm is the subject of one of the wreck posts (or “will be” depending on when you read this!).  Thistlegorm has to be the most iconic of the world’s wrecks, there are bigger, there are more intact, and there are certainly more sought after shipwrecks, but there are few, if any, more prestigious wrecks. Thistlegorm has it all, drama, situation, cargo, history, heroism and global conflict and she is still largely intact, a tribute to her builders Joseph Thompson & Son of Sunderland

  I consider myself to be one of the lucky divers who have spent some time in and around Thistlegorm, having now dived her 6 or 8 times over 2 decades, and one of the “privileged” who have dived in, and on her at night. Thistlegorm takes on an air of melancholy at night, almost as if she were a dingy South Coast wreck, rather than the magnificent picture she presents in daylight. The dive video was taken in 2015 and was one of a series of Three night dives our group had the pure luck to be granted by our dive-boat captain from Blue02, an unusual honour. We dived Thistlegorm, Salem Express and Rosalie Muller, the holy Trinity of Red-Sea shipwrecks (as far as I am concerned), over Three glorious nights in 2015. At the time night diving Thistlegorm was rare enough, to dive all Three, this was unheard of and we could all simply not believe our good fortune……

The dives were all with a long time dive-buddy of mine, Craig Toplis of Nottingham, and filmed using a go-pro (Hero- 7- Black) for those of you remotely interested, I have had this permanently mounted to my dive-mask (for several years now) which makes it easier to dive as I can simply “press go & forget” as long as the red light is flashing to begin with……I apologise in advance to those purists who would rather stabilise their shots and set-up multiple story-boards in advance, in order to capture specific agenda video’s, that isn’t me and I simply dive the dive, the camera records what it does……. The only planning Craig and I did was to agree to spend our time on the main bow and for’ard section of the Thistlegorm, in order to show, or travel the most interesting of the areas with our available air and deco-time……..enjoy!

  The front page of this blog has me in what was known as Standard Dress, a hard hat diver’s working kit, something I had seen in movies since I was a kid.

It is nothing short of miraculous what was achieved in this equipment over the years, once you have tried on the gear, and if you get the chance, as I did, dived this gear, it just makes you more incredulous, trust me! Those who worked under water back in the day were determined, strong willed and courageous people, have no doubt!  The entry into the suit was the first challenge, achieved by climbing in through the neck, no front entry zips, no step-in from behind, just one leg after the other and then up over the body and arms and head follows……not for the claustrophobic!

  Many of the UK coastal wrecks of WWII were first visited by these divers sent in to remove sensitive documents from them, or to retrieve potentially useful information from enemy wrecks, often hours from the initial sinking under conditions that would have been horrendous to say the least. The image of a fully rigged diver, making their way through torn and mangled corridors and walkways into bridges ripped from battle damage, still carrying those who died desperately defending their ship to its end, is the stuff of nightmares, hero’s no doubt, and the stories of Lionel “Buster” Crabbe (RN) and, latterly, Navy Chief Carl Brasher (USN) have quite rightly gone down in history. For those with a thirst for knowledge I can personally recommend Kendall McDonald’s “The Tin Openers” full of stories like these but from WWI. If military diving is not for you then check out the story of William Walker the man who saved Winchester Cathedral, literally with his own hands, diving and repairing its foundations over 5 years from 1906 to 1911…….Or there are the early dives carried out in Wookey Hole around 1935 in Standard Dress, you can read more on that in “Wookey Hole 75 years of cave diving and exploration”  (Hanwell, Price, Witcombe) or check out the video “Wookey Exposed” by Gavin Newman which again, I can personally recommend as brilliant stuff!

   So let’s shift to Stoney Cove on the 15th June, a couple of days following my 53rd Birthday, I have been in touch with the Historical Diving Society over the previous 3 months or so and been lucky enough to be invited to dive at their annual outing on the Cove quayside. After gingerly helping them out of the van with various, priceless, items of what can only be described as beautiful and perfectly maintained “antique” diving equipment, it is time to get started….

  The equipment used is relatively simple in concept, a standing bellows pump, or dual pump depending on the make and age, the one we would use was a later, piston operated pump, is housed in a box which has hand driven wheels either side and operates the bellows via a crank shaft, eccentrically, allowing the bellows to fill and discharge fresh air down the air-pipe to the diver’s hard hat

  Once you get into the suit it’s time for the boots….these are more Herman Munster than “Berghaus” to be honest and would later prove very awkward on the rather rock strewn 6m shelf of the cove. I was fascinated to find them fitted using rope and they are a dead weight too, it helps to keep you upright on the sea floor as the Hard Hat is quite buoyant, but walking around is something only done out of necessity and the closer to the ladder you are, the better, simply stepping around onto the rungs takes concentration and no small amount of co-ordination too

   The corselet is fitted over the neck, it usually carries 4, 6, 8 or 12 “studs” and the outer rubberised neck on the suit opening fits over it via holes in the rubberised seam. The seam is clamped between the corselet and Copper bars, pressed over the studs it carries, but above the suit seam, and then wing style clamping bolts are tightened to seal the whole issue together. The corselet is mated to the helmet by a screw thread which is not around the entire rim, allowing the helmet itself to be dropped down and “twist locked” into the corselet, following which a locking bar is dropped between Two lugs on the back of the corselet

   You can see on the photo above, the twist ring style helmet locking system, you can also see the front weight roped in place which adds to the stability of the upright diver when underwater, but also sits the corselet directly on the bones of the shoulders and “wrecks” until you get yourself fully underwater! In the background you can see, over my Left shoulder, the underwater communications box allowing “Top-Side” to communicate with the diver and the diver to acknowledge or report activity, the line to the Hard Hat are intertwined with the long air-hose which would, in latter days, incorporate a heated water pipe to keep the diver warmer in colder water commercial dives

  Putting on the helmet is a strange experience, the feeling is one of slight claustrophobia, mixed with amazement, and the surprise of how different it is to have to turn your head to see through the ports, something I really hadn’t expected to be so different from diving with a mask, but one that made perfect sense once you are actually “in there” isolated in your own, new, but kind of “little” Gold-Fish bowl world!

  You can imagine, communication underwater is not something divers, sport divers at least, do on a regular basis. To have the ability to speak to someone whilst diving seemed somewhat bizarre and was definitely, to me at least, an afterthought. It was also odd having to use the hard hat exhaust to equalize the pressure, and adjust the buoyancy of the equipment too. There was never a problem breathing, and that too was odd, not having a regulator in your mouth whilst underwater was novel to say the least! So, fully kitted up I was assisted upright, steadied is more the case really, and I made my way slowly, stepping on very flat, heavy boots, to the ladder on the quayside fitted for the purpose by the team. I slowly but surely made my way down to the water, it was a maul, the relief once the buoyancy of the water began to surround me was intense and very welcome, it was a hot June morning and I was already sweating buckets!

 Climbing from the ladder at the bottom, turning around to see the 6m shelf stretch away in either direction made me stop and look and check what was in front of me, the boots were flat bottomed and if you stood on even a small-ish stone they tended to throw you forward or backward to begin with, I could see it was a completely different way to move around than on land. I found the easiest way was to have a little bounce in your step, but like anything else new, it was unnatural and somewhat ungainly as I made my way along the bottom to the extent the hose would allow

  So, what was it like down there then? Well, to say it was different is an understatement, the limited freedom of being tethered by air and communication hoses was one thing, the different “feel” of standing and walking around the shelf was another. I enjoyed every minute of being under water in a completely new and unique way, however the limitations of the kit, and it’s new constraints and unfamiliar ways were definitely part of the experience. In truth, it just increased my admiration of those who used this kit to get into ships and submarines, and to explore caves and work on docks and piers and in complex salvage and military operations around the world, to wonderment! 

  I guess the idiot grin shows how I felt about getting into the water and diving Standard Dress, the slightly more considered and thoughtful shot as I was de-kitted afterwards perhaps says it all, the kit is different, by a long way than any other I have used, the experience was awesome and I can’t wait to give it another go, but the overwhelming feeling was the utmost respect for those who did this every day, in some of the most harrowing and difficult circumstances imaginable. To have shared, even in such a tiny way, the feeling of diving their kit, was kind of overwhelming to be honest….. 

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

        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     

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.….

   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….. 

  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……

  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 

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! 

  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…….

  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

  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

  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

  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.

  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 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

  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

  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

  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  

  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

  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.

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