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I was wrong. into the highly variable, uncon­ In my 1989 foreword to Andrea trolled, and unforgiving open ocean Doria: Dive to an Era, I wrote, "People environment. Driven by the thrill of asked to name some famous ship­ discovery, the spirit of adventure, wrecks invariably rattle off the big and that most unquantifiable of three: the Titanic, the human traits, personal challenge, Lusitania, and the shipwreck exploration has Andrea Doria. continued to push to The Lusitania, at deeper depths. a depth of Indeed, so rapid 320 feet [98 has been the meters], has progress of been dived high-tech or by commercial technical scuba divers wearing diving that it cumbersome may justifiably be and expensive oil rig called an advent apparatus, breathing a rather than an advance, a mixture of helium and oxygen, revolution rather than an evolu­ and tethered to a surface support tion. vessel by means of umbilical hoses. In the overall scheme of this Only a few divers in the world are new era of deep wreck exploration, qualified to operate at this depth." the 1994 Lusitania project was but a Five years later; as I made the harbinger of greater things to descent into the dark waters off the come— a stepping stone to our coast of Ireland where the old pas­ eventual conquest of the deep blue senger liner lies, I realized that my sea. What once was accessible only prognosis about diving the Lusitania by expensive commercial means, would now be in dire need of was now being conducted on update. scuba. Multiple tank configurations At the time my book was pub­ and emerging operational tech­ lished, I had no reason to believe that niques allowed our team to achieve the Lusitania might be attainable by what previously had been consid­ non-commercial methods. ered impossible. Somewhat unexpectedly, one of the No expedition can be expected most tragic wartime shipwrecks was to function smoothly unless ade­ now accessible to free-swimming quate preparations have been made scuba divers, just five short years far in advance. Expedition organizer later, and I was one of the first partic­ Polly Tapson was primarily responsi­ ipants in the exploration of her ble for site analysis, boat charter sunken remains. arrangements, transportation logis­ When I wrote the book, individ­ tics including on site delivery of gas ual divers had attained and even cylinders, compressors and boosters, exceeded the depth at which the as well as hotel accommodations. Lusitania lay but they did not leave Our home base for the duration their vertical descent line. Their pur­ was Kinsale, a sleepy tourist town on pose was to break existing scuba the south coast of Ireland. A light­ depth records; they did not accom­ house a few miles away, known as plish useful work or make any obser­ Old Head of Kinsale, sits 11.5 miles vations. Similarly, the use of mixed from the Lusitania's resting place on gas scuba was also gaining converts the ocean floor. The village is remote, among the underground; a select a 45 minute drive from from the group of expert cave divers had nearest city Cobh, known as begun to make lengthy mixed gas Queenstown at the time of the penetrations into Florida's seemingly Lusitania's sinking. bottomless sink holes and fresh water Kinsale is less than ideal for the caves. headquarters of an equipment inten­ As a result, it was probably sive expedition. Everything the team inevitable that self-contained mixed needed or anticipated needing had gas diving would expand its horizons to be trucked in ahead of time or aquaCORPS Journal N9 27 brought along. No dive gear, or kit, as the British say, can be rented or purchased locally. Gas cylinders, compressors, and boosters had to be transported to the site. The Kinsale Folk House, a cozy hotel where we lodged, does maintain a tank filling station. Located on a narrow lane in a neighborhood of row houses, the Folk House caters to dive tourism. For the U.S. members of the team, all tanks, stage bottles, dry­ suits, and other paraphernalia had to be air-freighted weeks in advance, then shipped back at the expeditions end. Thoroughly vio­ lating the airlines weight limit, we brought regulators, cameras, and other essentials on the plane as baggage or carry-on luggage. Dive preparations were unending. Each team member had an assigned duty, but being on the team also meant pitching in where and when needed. Slack time was non-existent. Each day began with reveille----- a 6:30 a.m. phone call in each persons room. Two members of the twelve person team were assigned each day as dive marshalls, a rotating duty. The marshalls did everything from making the wake-up calls to keeping everyone on schedule to overseeing the dive to erecting the decompression station in the water. They did not get to dive the wreck that day. Since the restaurant at the Folk House did not open until 8 a.m., breakfast consisted of buns and cold cereal unless the owner could be convinced to have the cook come in early to prepare eggs, sausage, and French toast. Diver Christina Campbell served as liaison with the hotel and arranged for a boxed lunches. The first task after breakfast was to analyze the gas in our tanks. We began the expedition with thirty-two storage bottles of pre-blend- ed trimix 13/52 (13% O2, 52% He, balance N2). By the second week our initial supply was gone. The delivery of pure helium allowed us to custom blend trimix, which required more time than simple cascading and topping off. Each person analyzed his own gases, both bottom mix and nitrox which was used for decompression. Some people filled their tanks to 6/7 their rated pressure, then topped off with air, leav­ ing a final blend of trimix 14/45. This choice cut about fifteen minutes off the decompression at the expense of a deeper equivalent narcot­ ic depth. Blending on site unavoidably leads to slight variations in the final mix. Nitrox blends sometimes were off just enough to exceed the allowable tolerance for oxygen toxicity units according to the planned decompression schedule, or to affect the off-gassing curve adversely. When this situation occurred, Dave Wilkins quickly cut a new schedule on his laptop and printed it for the person in need. This procedure was quicker and easier than blending a new bottle of nitrox since boat loading began promptly at 8 o'clock. By 7:30 each morning, the dive marshals were already swinging their paddles. We loaded gear in the van. Called a lorry by the British, the vehicle was loaned to us by Peugeot for the expedition. Ten sets of doubles, twenty stage bottles, ten oxygen bottles, all personal kit and drysuit underwear filled the cargo area. Team member Paul Owen supervised the loading and drove the van to the dock. The rest of the team walked a pleasant half mile along the narrow, empty streets through the picturesque town. There is no rush hour traffic in Kinsale; in fact there is no rush of any kind. Two boats were chartered to take us out to the dive site each day. The 42-foot Sundancer II, owned and operated by Nic Grotto, was our primary support vessel. The Tornado, a rigid inflatable boat owned and operated by Howard Weston, augmented it, hauling the decom­ pression station, called a dec station (see "Decompressing On Starfish 28 aquaCORPS Journal N9 starfish Enterprise" pg 30), and doubling as a taken lightly. Then Captain Nic would call, 'Twenty minutes," sig­ enter­ chase boat. At the marina, we would nalling our imminent approach to our destination. At his call, the first prise first lay out all gear on a sloping cob­ two divers would jam into the cabin to begin kitting up as the U.K. docked blestone ramp. Its treacherous lower divers called it. Donning nappies (diapers) and drysuits, the pair end was overgrown with slick sea­ would transition to a spray swept afterdeck, making room in the weed, a hazard that knocked more cabin for the next two dressers. The dive marshal assigned to set up than one person on his bum. the dec station also suited up, and thus was ready to render in-water Tanks and personal kit were loaded assistance if needed. onto the Sundancer II in precise order Irish coastal waters are tidal. The flow of water is generally too so that equipment for the pair who strong for diving other than at slack time, when the tide turns. Each entered the water first was closest to day's departure was timed to put the team at the Lusitania at an ideal the aft dressing station, and so moment determined by the slack. Missing it meant losing the days on in sequence. Tanks were diving, so timing was essential as was each divert readiness to hit the rigged before leaving the water as soon as the flow stopped. In forty-five minutes, the tide dock to allow repairs and would run again, making diving again difficult at best, and nearly part replacement for regula­ impossible with the burden of double tanks and two stage bottles. tors, hoses, pressure gauges The tide follows the phases of the moon, so the slack slipped by and BCD's that showed any sign of fifty minutes each day. By the end of the week, our dives shifted to trouble. Then we lashed stage bottles the afternoon, at which point we jumped back a tide to catch the to the rail next to our doubles, new morning slack.

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