Diving The MV Aeolian Sky With Piers

On a blissfully sunny day in mid August, with flat calm seas and very little wind there was a splash at 15:16. An ‘OK’ signal was given and one diver drifted towards a buoy. Having grasped the line in the gentle current, he deflated his wing and dry suit, starting his short descent to an anticipated bottom at 30m.

Not yet able to see the bottom, he knew he was getting there slowly because his primary handset was showing bigger numbers. 10m passed, then 15m, then 20m and out of the gloom shapes, or rather shadows, started to emerge.

On arrival at the bottom, 29.7m he adjusted himself, his buoyancy and orientated himself. With enough natural light percolating from the surface he didn’t feel the need to really turn his lights on but having gazed into a black tube the decision to switch lights on was made. Low and behold, there were two eyes and some rather sharp looking teeth peering back out of the gloom. A conger eel had made his home inside this derrick. Knowing that there was a lot more to see, this particular vessel was over 100m long and displaced just shy of 11,000 Gross Tonnes, the decision was made to move on. The plan was always to come back!

The ships superstructure was obvious as it loomed from the gloom ahead. Knowing what should be where on a ship, location was relatively straightforward. The diver stayed closer to the bottom, passing over twisted and torn metal frames, it became clear that the aft mooring station was on his left shoulder. It was absolutely enthralling to consider this as his usual mooring location when at work. Identifying structure such as winches, fair leads, bollards and of course, the ubiquitous anchor held strangely enough by a mooring winch, with a tail from chain to seemingly rope. Not willing to get too close, snap back zones on a ship are dangerous enough, but on a sunken ship it could be even more lethal.

Continuing around the stern and over the transom, there were no signs of a name, disappointingly enough, but understandable given the length of submersion. The stern was at first confusing as a propeller was expected, the depth was roughly 29m, until the wrecks orientation is considered. Passing the turn of the deck and keeping the transom on their port side, the diver continued under the stern and followed the stern – passing underneath a rudder without even realising it due to the gloom. Getting pretty bored of seeing flat steel, he decided to turn around and head back to the stern in search of the bridge.

Passing once again the aft mooring station he shone his light into dark spaces and alleyways of the super structure, wanting to enter but not willing to without more experience on this wreck and having a spare reel (other than the two used for SMB’s) to ensure a safe exit, so continued on. Moving further forward, at a constant depth of roughly 27m (give or take a metre to shine a light into dark holes) he came across the unmistakable shape of a ships bridge wing, or rather, the structure below, supporting the wing, its consoles and the ships officers as they work to bring the ship alongside, or just to take the sun during a sunny afternoons oceanic crossing.

Disappointed as to be unable to find the bridge and its associated equipment, the diver headed back towards the stern as time was passing now rapidly. He was both searching for a place to ‘kill’ the last few minutes of bottom time but more importantly search for a good place from which to inflate an SMB.

43 minutes into the dive and 23m below the surface a bag went up. Sadly, so did the bolt snap so the fingers were now going to have to work a little harder. Metre by metre the line went onto the reel and the depth reduced. At 6m a deco stop was needed for 5 minutes. In spite of the calm and gentle conditions holding a depth of 6m was not perfect, up and down by 0.5m was frustrating and certainly not desirable. At minute 53, the ascent to the 3m was made for a safety stop of 3 minutes. However, this diver was not going to surface before 60 minutes had elapsed, so he did not ascend from 3m to the surface until that moment.

On surfacing an ‘OK’ signal was given to the boat, whether or not this was seen is unknown as they were picking up other divers first. It seemed like a logical decision therefore to start slowly swimming over to them while they made their way gently over to him. With the lift metres away, the line around the stern was grabbed and the lift stood on. With both hands holding the lift, the familiar ‘whiiring’ noise provided reassurance that a warm tea was waiting in a flask inside their dive box. Once back onboard and seated at the bench, the diver took a moment to relive that dive, to enjoy the sun on their face and just smile to themselves.