Okay, this one goes back a good many years.. I cannot remember the exact year but it was in the late 50s, early 60s as I recall. Back in those days, diving was pretty much in its infancy as far as the general public was concerned. A diver was a 'special person' who dared to do the extraordinary; or at least that seemed to be the general view. People would come up and ask all manner of questions about the undersea world.
At the time of this tale, there was a club in Victoria called the Sea Searchers. We were a bunch of crazies whose only desire, at that point in our lives, was to get in the water as often as we could. Any excuse would do; spearfishing, collecting stuff, photography, wreck diving....we were game and not very much could stop us in our diving. Weather maybe on occassion but that was pretty much it. So when the opportunity came to dive on an intact wreck, [my first at that time] I jumped at the chance. It entailed a bit of a drive up to Barclay Sound on the west coat of the Island, but that was really no problem. We had Rods boat and so off we went.
We launched our boat at Port Alberni, where Wayne started his halibut trip, and headed west until we finally hit Turret Island about 40 minutes later. The water was clear enough that you could see the shape of the wreck starting about 15 feet down.
The HMCS Thiepval was a fisheries patrol boat that was used on the west coat. It was launched in 1917 [I Think] and sank in 1930. She hit a rock in what is now called Thiepval Channel and stayed there for quite a while. Eventually, she did sink and turned into a very nice artificial reef. There are anenomes, kelp, cod.....a whole gamut of sea life on the wreck so it was a beautiful experience to dive there. We explored that ship from one end to the other and in doing so, we discovered that the ships gun was still on her. This was a 12 pound cannon. Well, let me tell you, there was just no way that this gun was going to stay on that wreck. Even back in those days, I was heavily into cannons and I decided that the cannon was about to be mine. Thus it happened tha Dave and I set out to 'recover' this baby.
We only had a limited supply of tanks but there were enough for us to make a decent start at releasing it from the deck Remember, this had been on the bottom for 30+ years and the bolts really did not want to release their prize. We got a few off but the rest resisted all efforts to undo them. We had run out of air and made our plans to come back the following weekend. During that week, I made up a bunch of thermite figuring that that would get the gun free.
Next weekend, we were up there with a goodly supply of tanks [we had borrowed all of our buddies who could not come] and set to with a will. We applied the thermite [it is a mixture of iron oxide, commonly called rust, and aluminum shavings. If I remember right, we used vaseline as the binding agent.]to the bolts, and ignited it with a flare. It burns at a very high temperature and melts the metal away. Amazingly enough, it actually worked and with minimal effort, the gun was finally free. Whoo-Hoo!!!!. Unfortunately, we did not figure in the weight of this puppy, and no amount of heaving and cursing would get it up. We headed back for one more item; a small winch that would bring our trophy up.
Well, we had to celebrate our achievement, and we had to have a toast. Rum being the mandatory drink of divers,that was our choice of libation.. One led to two and two led to.......hangovers. We dragged our weary, sore kiesters up and out of the sack and slowly organized ourselves to go back to the boat. We arrived at the wreck site and, reluctantly, got suited up. Remember this was wet suit days and the suits were still wet and COLD from the day before. So down we go, rope in hand. HUH??? Where is the damn gun??? It was GONE!!!!!!!! Fall off the deck? Nope!! We killed 2 tanks just looking for it and could not locate it. Home we went dejected and irate and very puzzled. We were the only divers around so just where did it go??
Ah-Ha.. we were NOT the only divers around. A group from Ucluelet and come out and stolen our prize. They had taken it to Ukie and were intent on displaying it at the harbour. We were so peeved!!! Our work, that we had put all that time into getting, was now sitting in the harbour with someone elses' name on it. Well, we took the high road and let it go [what else could you do really?] . A few years later, we met up with one of our fellow 'competitors' and had a couple of rums on him. Had a few laughs and generally, felt pretty good about the whole thing. To the best of my knowledge, it is still there, on display.
But when I think of what might have been,.....
All the best
M
At the time of this tale, there was a club in Victoria called the Sea Searchers. We were a bunch of crazies whose only desire, at that point in our lives, was to get in the water as often as we could. Any excuse would do; spearfishing, collecting stuff, photography, wreck diving....we were game and not very much could stop us in our diving. Weather maybe on occassion but that was pretty much it. So when the opportunity came to dive on an intact wreck, [my first at that time] I jumped at the chance. It entailed a bit of a drive up to Barclay Sound on the west coat of the Island, but that was really no problem. We had Rods boat and so off we went.
We launched our boat at Port Alberni, where Wayne started his halibut trip, and headed west until we finally hit Turret Island about 40 minutes later. The water was clear enough that you could see the shape of the wreck starting about 15 feet down.
The HMCS Thiepval was a fisheries patrol boat that was used on the west coat. It was launched in 1917 [I Think] and sank in 1930. She hit a rock in what is now called Thiepval Channel and stayed there for quite a while. Eventually, she did sink and turned into a very nice artificial reef. There are anenomes, kelp, cod.....a whole gamut of sea life on the wreck so it was a beautiful experience to dive there. We explored that ship from one end to the other and in doing so, we discovered that the ships gun was still on her. This was a 12 pound cannon. Well, let me tell you, there was just no way that this gun was going to stay on that wreck. Even back in those days, I was heavily into cannons and I decided that the cannon was about to be mine. Thus it happened tha Dave and I set out to 'recover' this baby.
We only had a limited supply of tanks but there were enough for us to make a decent start at releasing it from the deck Remember, this had been on the bottom for 30+ years and the bolts really did not want to release their prize. We got a few off but the rest resisted all efforts to undo them. We had run out of air and made our plans to come back the following weekend. During that week, I made up a bunch of thermite figuring that that would get the gun free.
Next weekend, we were up there with a goodly supply of tanks [we had borrowed all of our buddies who could not come] and set to with a will. We applied the thermite [it is a mixture of iron oxide, commonly called rust, and aluminum shavings. If I remember right, we used vaseline as the binding agent.]to the bolts, and ignited it with a flare. It burns at a very high temperature and melts the metal away. Amazingly enough, it actually worked and with minimal effort, the gun was finally free. Whoo-Hoo!!!!. Unfortunately, we did not figure in the weight of this puppy, and no amount of heaving and cursing would get it up. We headed back for one more item; a small winch that would bring our trophy up.
Well, we had to celebrate our achievement, and we had to have a toast. Rum being the mandatory drink of divers,that was our choice of libation.. One led to two and two led to.......hangovers. We dragged our weary, sore kiesters up and out of the sack and slowly organized ourselves to go back to the boat. We arrived at the wreck site and, reluctantly, got suited up. Remember this was wet suit days and the suits were still wet and COLD from the day before. So down we go, rope in hand. HUH??? Where is the damn gun??? It was GONE!!!!!!!! Fall off the deck? Nope!! We killed 2 tanks just looking for it and could not locate it. Home we went dejected and irate and very puzzled. We were the only divers around so just where did it go??
Ah-Ha.. we were NOT the only divers around. A group from Ucluelet and come out and stolen our prize. They had taken it to Ukie and were intent on displaying it at the harbour. We were so peeved!!! Our work, that we had put all that time into getting, was now sitting in the harbour with someone elses' name on it. Well, we took the high road and let it go [what else could you do really?] . A few years later, we met up with one of our fellow 'competitors' and had a couple of rums on him. Had a few laughs and generally, felt pretty good about the whole thing. To the best of my knowledge, it is still there, on display.
But when I think of what might have been,.....
All the best
M
