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Old 09-26-2008, 12:01 AM   #1
Diver1111
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Default More Pile Driver images

Hi All,

I re-scanned the Pile Driver barge off Weirs recently then dove it; Sits 45 feet deep, then bottom slopes down towards Eagle Island; Viz was about 15 feet, 48 degrees. Dry suit took care of that.

I went down to 60 feet or so easterly to look around after landing on the wreck; Wreck about 90 feet long as expected, massive timber design also as expected; Gunwhales were about 7-8 off the mud line with various side-planks (2 x 10s' roughly) missing. Slight current perceived heading south to the channel of course; Didn't expect that because except for river diving (last week in the CT River in VT for ex.) I don't expect currents in fresh water that I can actually see. Subtle, but it was there.

Derrick was toppled over as expected pointing at about 280 magnetic. Large timbers, planks and poles with debris everywhere at this end. Had deck planking before the bow gone sporadically with more gone as you swam back along it. These are the dark images you see. Hold of the wreck pretty much empty except for more pieces of wood of all kinds. Between this end and the derrick mess was a huge upright "H"-shaped wood beam structure-prob. a crane part of some kind that could hold weight and pivot off the bow or handle cables perhaps like a suspension bridge. I just don't know.

2/3 of the way back huge drum-type objects down in the hold sitting perpendicular to length of wreck-winch spools it appeared-prob. 8 feet wide-prob. 6 of them. Behind that on deck a can/drum of some kind (boiler?). About 4 feet in diameter filled with debris, and above deck it showed about 6 feet. This was apparent from earlier scans-makes sense now that I've seen it in person. I was looking for large metal boxes or drums-this is what I saw on side-scan. I knew it was metal but wasn't sure about shape.

Off this end of the wreck on the bottom more debris with what looked like connected decking material to the south facing Weirs Beach.

Didn't see any champagne glasses, bottles, tools or other objects of interest I had read about but I didn't bring a metal detector this time to dig deeper into what might be there.

The long stretched-out barge images attached were shot with side-scan PARALLEL to the length of the vessel-this will give a somewhat distorted but still very useful image-a whole new perspective actually. Scanning this way will produce detail not seen at other angles-note some of the deck ribs-all consistently spaced.

Each scan angle has its advantages-but for the most part scans are at 90 degrees to a vessel length not parallel. When you see the vessel or object extend into the blue area of the image (the water column) , regardless of scan angle it means I was too close OR the image is in fact sticking up into the water column. Could go either way.

The thin white dotted line in some images is the surface float line I marked the site with it descending to the deck of the barge. Before anchoring I flagged it then anchored nearby by dragging backwards until I caught the barge. My buddy anchored the same way. The little dots on the line equally spaced are the stainless steel split rings I have on the line every five feet or so to allow me to adjust how much slack is in the line holding the marker. Frankly I'm amazed they showed up but they did. Go figure.

Lastly, in one of the images attached I was turning my boat and scanning at the same time-and the image of the wreck itself got "bent"-this is typical. It's amazing to see however the can/drum I mentioned earlier that was sitting on the deck now apparently hanging in the water column-it's not of course-but look at the clarity of the drum-mechanics would call it a bushing-obviously circular-wow-odd place for it but there it is...........round-ish.

If I get underwater pictures at some point I will post them. Enjoy.
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