Diving

Belnahua

Iain Hosking, Geoff Hide

Down grapple line to bows, swam aft to bridge section via holds, mast and winches. Explored bridge, back along deck at 50m, down to seabed at 55m and came up. Total ascent time 30 minutes. Warm, sunny day, no current, good vis. Not noticeably narked.

own, except Rollo's twin 55s. 4lbs less weight. Decompressed using 82 cu ft cylinder on line, and Snark.

192

7 Jul 1984

Belnahua

Iain Hosking, John Llambias

Dived with John at 3pm, over 1 hour after end of slack (HW neaps). Current on the way down. Shot line was on starboard side behind bridge, by anchor, lifting bag etc abandoned by last group the previous weekend. Disentangled it, cut excess rope, inflated lifting bag and tied it off to shot. Didn't see much of the wreck. Vis 20-30ft.

own, except Rollo's twin 55s. 4lbs less weight (24lbs)

193

8 Jul 1984

Belnahua

Iain Hosking, John Llambias

Dived before calculated slack. Followed shotline down to the wreck at 55m. Shot was in hold behind bridge. Finned forwards past davits, remains of funnel, crockery etc to bridge. Binnacles etc still there. Swam aft again over holds, past mast (broken) and winches, over stern and down to prop. No blades visible [probably broken off when the ship hit the reef]. Rudder intact. Forward again and into hold, along prop shaft tube to engine room bulkhead. Cyalume lightstick showed up clearly.

own, Rollo's twin 55s, -4lbs. Used 150 ats on dive, 50 on stops. Air consumption 0.75 cfm.

195

22 Jul 1984

Belnahua

Iain Hosking, Derek Borthwick, Dougie McEwan

Threesome with Dougie and Derek. Usual good weather, flat calm, slack, good vis (30 feet). Dropped shot onto stern, port side, and went into free-fall onto the wreck. Derek followed Dougie, I followed Derek. We swam around the crew's accommodation, steering gear, companionway and had a look at the rudder before going forward to the officers' accommodation, into the holds and back to the shot.

own, twin Luxfer 72s, -4lbs (should have left it on). 100 ats left before stops.

263

19 Oct 1985

Belnahua

Iain Hosking, Sarah McCracken

Unpromising start to the trip when the car blew up, but despite all odds dropped the shot on the engine casing and went for it. Attached strobe to line and swam off. Found ourselves back at the light. Taking a different direction we swam forwards, past mast and winches to the lamp room. Found a light bulb. The wreck made much more sense on the way back - noted the 'greenhouse' over the engine room, funnel, soup plate. Fair current on the stops, which we occupied by untying Sarah [eh?], losing the soup plate and eating an apple. Vis not as good as previous dives, and more narked than usual. Engine room is much more broken up than other parts of the wreck - very disorientating.

own (Rollo's twin 55s)

264

20 Oct 1985

Belnahua

Iain Hosking, Sarah McCracken

On site well before slack. Dropped shot immediately forward of the bridge despite barely-visible transits. We were the second pair down. Spent a couple of minutes at the shot, then crossed over to the starboard side, back over the bridge (now collapsed) and aft along the port side to the engine room. Noted portholes, binnacle and pedestal. Vis OK, less narked than yesterday. On stops checked suit for leaks: none.

own, twin 55s

288

7 Jul 1986

Belnahua

Iain Hosking, Mark Inall

First pair onto the wreck. Recce trip, with Mark. Eyes pressed against mask as we noticed far more artefacts than I've seen before - binnacle, pedestal, portholes etc. We got up to the bows - very impressive with starboard anchor chain curving away to the seabed. Sea life - dead men's fingers, cup coral, wrasse.

Twin 55s

289

8 Jul 1986

Belnahua

Iain Hosking, Ian Kyle

Checked line, headed forward to examine line of portholes at front of officers' mess. Pedestal now gone. Going back to the line, found and recovered a binnacle. Very nice. Very wet on stops.

Twin 55s

290

9 Jul 1986

Belnahua

Iain Hosking, Sarah McCracken

Down line to greenhouse. Swam aft (by mistake) till we saw the spare prop, then forward to the estimated position of Sarah's gauge. No sign. Looked for the second compass. No go either. Experimented with sawing off a porthole. No go. Sarah found a lead acid battery in a glass case which was plonked into my goody bag. She also saw a squid. On the 15m stop I managed to drop the battery. Damn.

Twin 55s

291

10 Jul 1986

Belnahua

Iain Hosking, Graham Russell

Mega dive. Last chance to save the day, and Malcolm's steering pedestal, reckoned to be more than 150kg. In fact it slowly and gratifyingly rose off the bottom when Graham filled the lifting bag. For the rest of the dive we disentangled another pedestal and swam under the bridge into the boiler room.

Twin 55s

293

11 Jul 1986

Belnahua

Iain Hosking, Mark Inall

Fantastic weather - mirror-calm and sunny. Slick operation to raise the pedestal followed by a trip to the stern. Bottom at 58m. Prop blades sheared off. Good vis.

Twin 55s, 28lbs

294

12 Jul 1986

Belnahua

Iain Hosking, Ian Kyle

Trip to the bows. Visibility extremely good - could easily see the front of the bridge from the 'greenhouse'. Swam forward over the holds to bows - hung off bows looking back at the ship. Saw Geoff's lamp. Looked inside lamp room. Leisurely swim back to the line. Camped on Belnahua afterwards

Twin 55s, 28lbs

295

13 Jul 1986

Belnahua