Down too long in the midnight sea…

The collision with the SHALOM was covered in the December 4, 1964 issue of LIFE magazine

Made it back out to the STOLT DAGALI Saturday on the Independence II.  The heart beat of the Atlantic was pulsing slowly with only a slight swell which made a comfortable ride out to the wreck which sits in 130fsw.  There were some conflicting visibility reports so I left the camera on deck and opted to to work on a project instead.  Dropping off the stern of the Independence, I realized I made the wrong choice.  The wreck was clearly visible from about 10 feet down as I passed some deco-ing divers.  The extra weight of the tools I was carrying gave me a speed boost and I alighted on the top of the wreck at 65 feet just as my bottom timer clicked over to 1.  I made it to my project at 120 feet 8 minutes later and kicked myself for not checking it when I originally found it… the “brass” turtle light I hoped to recover was steel 😦

With no plans and only 10 minutes of a planned 60 used I decided to spend some time exploring.  The visibility on the bottom was still 30 feet or more and I considered looking for scallops but opted to head inside.  I weaved my way through the tanker and had a really enjoyable dive.  There are so many places to get into, especially now that it is coming apart and leaving rust holes big enough to swim through.  At one point I got a little creeped out as I was looking at a shoe with my hand on a bulkhead and suddenly something was aggressively grabbing my neoprene cloaked finger.  It turned out a hungry (or angry?) cunner decided to go for it.  What he/she was doing that far inside the wreck I don’t know but it scared the bejesus out of me.

Deco was relaxing and it wasn’t until the ascent from my 20 foot stop that I finally lost site of the wreck.  Several decent lobsters came up along with a fair number of scallops.  Truly a wonderful day on the water.

Thanks to Mark Clark for sending me these topside shots…

Justin Clark with a tile and valve