|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The l'Uranie Expedition By Chris Harris This is the record of a weekend expedition to locate and explore the wreck of the French corvette l'Uranie. The ship was wrecked in the Berkeley Sound, Falkland Islands, in the bay now named after her on 14 February 1820. Although the location of the wreck has been discovered before by several groups they have kept the location very much to themselves. Our group, as divers and amateur historians, with a strong interest in the maritime history of the Falklands, wanted to see the wreck for ourselves and formulated the plan for this expedition over several months. One of the biggest problems was finding a date that was suitable for the majority of those who wanted to go. This of course turned out to be almost in the middle of winter, but we didn't let that put us off. The plan was to take the tug Lively to the site and use her as a base for the exploration. The Lively is an ancient wooden harbour tug. She provides adequate accommodation for six people and what she lacks in comfort is made up for in character. As well as providing accommodation the Lively is equipped with a compressor for refilling the scuba cylinders and a small ROV (remotely operated vehicle). Day one - 5 June 2004 The approximate location of the wreck was calculated based on hearsay, rumour, what published information we could find, and a chart of Berkeley Sound surveyed in 1834 by the crew of HMS Beagle (Charles Darwin's ship) that showed the position of the wreck (this was later shown to be very close to the actual site). 06:30 - Paul Ellis (owner of the Lively), Chris Harris, and Russell Smith departed from Stanley on the Lively. Jeff Halliday and Nick Watson, who both had other commitments, were to travel to the site overland later in the day. Jeff and Nick arrived at Uranie Bay before the Lively and parked their landrover at the location on the beach that Neil Watson (the owner of Long Island farm, which borders Uranie Bay) had indicated to them as being near to the site. When the Lively arrived, at about 09:30, she headed right for the GPS way-point taken from the 1834 chart and lo and behold was also heading straight for the landrover. This was a good start, the modern source and the 1834 source agreed, and the weather was great! The day was bright and sunny, with the temperature around seven or eight degrees centigrade, not bad for the time of year. First dive Whilst Paul and Russell sorted things out on the Lively, Chris (the only non-diving member of the expedition) took the inflatable ashore to pick up Jeff and Nick. After a discussion it was decided that we had anchored too far offshore so we picked up the hook and re-anchored much closer to the shore. Nick had to leave in the afternoon so it was decided that he and Jeff would dive first. They proceeded to search the south side of a prominent kelp patch but found nothing. While they were in the water the others deployed the ROV, which was driven by Chris, erratically at first as he was a bit rusty, and Paul. After searching several areas with the ROV Paul spied a likely looking object, something that look suspiciously like some timber sticking out of the sand, but the tether was too short to allow a full investigation. After lunch of roast mutton, Branston pickle, and cheese sandwiches it was Paul and Russell's turn to dive. But before they went in we were visited by an RAF search and rescue helicopter who put their winch-man on board for practice. After the RAF had gone we repositioned the Lively closer to the suspect area, using a kedge to hold us in position and stop the boat swinging over the nearby reef, the water depth being only about four metres, with rocky reefs and the suspected wreck much shallower. Paul and Russell entered the water and were to search the western end of the kelp patch, where the ROV had picked up the likely object. Chris was again driving the ROV. Nick had to leave at this time and Jeff ran him ashore in the inflatable. Jeff's inflatable surfing skills turned out to be a bit rusty and he ended up going for a swim, much to Nick's amusement, and Jeff's horror as was not used to swimming in five degree centigrade water while not protected by a dry-suit! We would all have loved to have seen this, but unfortunately Paul and Russell were under water and Chris was operating the ROV. We've found it! Whilst the rather damp Jeff was returning to Lively Paul and Russell surfaced yelling something along the lines of "Yahooeurekayipee", which translates to "I say old boy we have found the wreck what". Paul and Russell submerged again to further investigate their find. Chris tried to drive the ROV to the area of the wreck but the tether would not reach so contented himself with practising holding position in the current using an unsuspecting sponge as a video target. At 15:30 Paul and Russell were back on board and telling of finding timbers and copper fastenings sticking out of the sand, along with other artifacts such as iron wheels, bricks (oven bricks?), a large circular thing (possibly a coil of wire rope) and much other debris. With sunset rapidly approaching there was no time to do another dive so we moved the Lively to a safe anchorage for the night. Whilst we were all having a cup of coffee and watching video footage from the ROV, the generator died. Investigations indicated that the trouble was terminal, which was bad news as it meant that we would not be able to use the ROV tomorrow. This incident resulted in several utterances of the phrase "f*$@ing generator" over the evening and next day! While we were tucking into an excellent stew cooked by Paul we listened to the weather forecast, which was:- (for that night) Wind West-Southwest Force 4-5 reaching 6 at times; Scattered showers with chance of hail; Sea state: mainly rough; Temperature -2 centigrade (and for the next day) Wind West-Northwest Force 5 occasionally 6; Scattered showers; Sea state mainly rough; Temperature 6 centigrade. Because of the location of our anchorage this suited us fine as long as the showers didn't become too annoying. After discussing tactics we turned in at 20:30. Day two - 6 June 2004 People began stirring as light started to filter into the cabin through the skylight/hatch. A fine bright day with a few patches of frost on the deck. Barometer 995mb and steady. The wind was westerly about force 4. By 09:30 we had breakfasted on eggs, bacon, sausages, beans and tomatoes and coffee all round. We moved the Lively closer to the dive site and Paul, Russell and Jeff suited up and went for a dive. Russell took his digital camera (Olympus mju:400) along for this dive. Chris was left to keep an eye on the boat and to get an accurate fix on the wreck site using GPS. While Chris was watching the boat he heard a bit of a commotion in the water and saw a very large bull sea-lion doing battle with what appeared to be a large octopus. The sea-lion was having trouble scoffing the octopus because it kept wrapping itself around the sea-lion's head; naturally after a minute or so the octopus met its end and made the sea-lion's breakfast. All this took place about 200m from the divers and Chris was expecting three divers to do Polaris missile impressions at any moment, but the sea-lion stayed away. During this time the wind picked up a little and Chris had to veer some anchor cable to ensure that it wouldn't drag. At 11:25 the divers were back on board. They reported finding extensive evidence of the wreck with timbers, fastenings, wheels, large areas of rust (these were probably the water and vegetable storage tanks), and pieces of pottery. This dive was the last that we had time for on this visit to the site so once the divers were changed out of their dry-suits and everything was stowed we weighed anchor and were under way at 12:00. We had a very pleasant run down the south coast of Berkeley Sound, passed Kidney Island at 14:10 where we were treated to a fine display by a school of peals dolphins. We were back in our berth at FIPASS, Stanley, at 15:30. Everybody had a great time and will no doubt be back to dive this site again, but probably overland as now that the wreck has been located that is the easiest way to operate. We are now in the process of deciding what wreck to try to locate next - we have a few in mind so it is just a case of prioritising. Everybody is enthusiastic about taking part in the next expedition. Next time we will try to do it in the summer! A fuller version of this article, including underwater photos by Russell Smith of artifacts found by the divers, and photos by Chris Harris of the Lively and her complement, can be seen on Chris Harris's web site www.viking-house.com. Many thanks to Chris for allowing us to reproduce this article.
|
|
Introduction, Acronyms, Census, Freedoms,
Geography,
Government, Governors,
Lifestyle, Listed Buildings,
Poetry,
Royal Visits |
|
| Copyright & Disclaimer |
Site Designed and Maintained by eb-host.com |