USS Aaron Ward (DD-483)

[Kapiti Diver]

I have just returned from a weeks diving in the Central Province of the Solomon Islands based at a place called Tulagi, the pre WWII capital of the Solomons. This place was central to the US and allied efforts to stem the tide of Japanese Imperialism and was a strategic Japanese foothold to enable the building of military airfields on Guadalcanal and then the inevitable invasion of Australia and New Zealand.

Fortunately this never happened owing to the efforts of the US Marines and US Navy and her allies. The naval and land battles are well documented but to give you an idea of the number of naval casualties the area is part of what is today known as Iron Botton Sound. The US navy suffered more losses here than any other fair fight in WWII (ie exclude Pearl Harbour)

Tulagi and the surrounding Florida Islands provided a natural harbour and sea plane base for the Japanese.

Dive sites in the immediate vacinity (not counting the amazing reefs) include the USS Kanawha (first fleet oiler), the HMNZS Moa (Mine Sweeper), several H6K4 Kawanishi type 97 "Mavis" flying boats and the incomparable wreck of the USS Aaron Ward (DD-483).

I want to talk here about the Aaron Ward because I believe she is possibly the only diveable US WWII Destroyer in the Pacific.

She sits upright on sand at 70 metres with her impressive armoury still pointing upright to fight off the Val dive bombers she eventually succumbed to.

I have now dived this wreck 7 times on compressed air. My maximum depth has been 69 metres (last year) although this year I resisted temptation and didn't go below 65 Metres. We dived as a team of 6 divers with two dive masters. Each diver had redundant air and back up regulators. The wreck is bouyed in two places but we descend and ascend the same line each dive. We had a Deco bar (like a suspended wide ladder) that readily facilitates deco stops at 12, 9, 6 and 3 metres. We had extra compressed air at the 12m bar and we had two regs attached to oxygen bottles on the dive boat suspended to a depth of 12 m.

I am glad to report that none of the emergency gear was required.

The dive plan was always to stay in visual and close contact with each other (25-30 metre viz) and be back at the ascent line with 100 Bar left in the main tank, ascend to 18 metres, stop for 1 minute then follow your computers deco plan (or 3 minutes at 12m, 6 minutes at 9m, 12 minutes at 6m, and 24 minutes at 3m).

By and large we got 13-15 minutes bottom time. I dive with an Aladin Air (hose integrated) which worked a dream (other recreational models spat their dummies with this profile). I have graphs of all my profiles (use WLOG) for anyone interested.

I have lots to share about this wreck (and the other) site(s) and the experience of diving this deep on air if this is of interest and the correct forum. (I am new at this forum stuff and somewhat intimidated by all of the expert knowledge this site appears to attract).. so here's hoping someone finds this topic interesting.

Glen

 

[aue-mike]

Kapiti Diver once bubbled...
I want to talk here about the Aaron Ward because I believe she is possibly the only diveable US WWII Destroyer in the Pacific.

What about the USS Anderson and USS Lamson at Bikini. the USS Perry at Palau, or the USS Tucker at Vanuatu?

 

[Kapiti Diver]

Mike... appears I was mislead or possibly my memory has played some tricks on me (most likely the latter)... Maybe she is the only diveable WWII Destroyer in the Solomons! Do you have a view on that? She does however have a lot going for her as a wreck site and is relatively untouched... I was surprised not to find any other mention of her in ScubaBoard... particularly given the apparent US centricity of the SB membership... My research also suggests JFK was alongside when she got mortally wounded. Were you aware of her and if so do you have any specific info that may otherwise not be generally available on the web? I have met the guy who did the research that lead to her discovery in 1994.. He has some amazing stuff that he intends to publish one day. Locating her was 98% research, 2% sounding out the target area!

 

[Kapiti Diver]

having just done a quick surf of the net I have discovered/confirmed that the USS Lamson and Anderson were sunk by the A Bomb experiments at Bikini and the USS Tucker was sunk by a US Mine in Vanuatu (all own goals) and the USS Perry was sunk by a mine in Palau. The Perry is on her side and at 270' is only accessible by Technical Divers... she was discovered in 2000.

How about this re stated claim about the Aaron Ward... she is the only upright US Destroyer sunk by enemy action in the Pacific accessible by recreational divers, and happens also to be completely intact.

 

[DA Aquamaster]

Kapiti Diver once bubbled...
How about this re stated claim about the Aaron Ward... she is the only upright US Destroyer sunk by enemy action in the Pacific accessible by recreational divers, and happens also to be completely intact.

You will probably have problems with the claim that it is accessible to recreational divers. 210 to 230 ft dives requiring staged decompression qualify as technical diving. It is well below the customary recreational dive limits and deeper than what many divers would consider to be the maximum safe depth for air.

 

[Kapiti Diver]

DA

I thought that loose language may have got me into deep water, and it did, but you are now steering me towards what I really wanted to explore on this thread which is how do you classify this sort of dive (and there are many others like this undertaken in the Pacific - outside of US Territory I suspect) and what lessons can be learnt from it. I suspect I am in delicate territory here and that there will be many views as to the wisdom or otherwise of this dive profile on air.

I didn't consider it to be a Technical Dive as I am not a trained Tech Diver, although I clearly recognised it breached many of the rules I was taught as a recreational diver and planned accordingly.

With only about 300 dives crammed into my 5 years of diving I don't consider myself to be particularly experienced although I regularly have (planned) diving experiences that are somewhat challenging... Diving the Aaron Ward is an extreme example of this.

Whilst I considered the diving arrangements to be "safe" the obvious risks and the need to plan the dive and dive the plan were not new concepts to take on board, nor did we need any equipment or mixed gases that required specialised training... and we were well supervised.

No one got badly narked nor did anyones O2 go toxic, both reasonably well understood risks at these depths.

I am keen to find out from the boards "experts" if this sort of dive behaviour is considered way out of line or perhaps marginally acceptable given the precautions taken. I suspect there may be some strong views on this and in particular if anyone has any real concerns I would like you to share these with me (and others who may have similar experiences).

 

[DA Aquamaster]

I am probably not the ideal person to ask as I am not a product of the current tech training trend, but I can give you a different perspective and one that I think is in many ways more balanced.

I have been certified to dive since 1985 and pre-date the current tech diving craze although the roots of it were firmly established by that time (by other divers exceeding the accepted limits just like I was doing).

At the time I certified deco procedures were taught as a part of AOW and while not actively sanctioned, were not actively discouraged. There was a lot more emphasis on theory, gas laws and math and the current OW and AOW courses are not really comparable. Deep air diving was the norm and dives to 180 ft or so on air were not considered the sin they are now assuming you had the experience and training. Nitrox was considered a very irresponsible thing to be using, 100% 02 use underwater was regarded as a bonified suicide plan and tri-mix had little or no recreatioonal use. "Tech" training was around but was informal and more of a mentorship under someone else. There were no formal classes.

If you live in South Dakota, there are still no formal tech classes. The nearest classes are a 10 hour drive away and for the convenience of the locals are spread over a two week period with the in water portions scheduled over yet another weekend whihc makes it virtually impossible to attend one if you have a real job.

So consequently it is very hard for me to pick up additional training. To make it worse, regardless of 1500 or so dives and despite doing deep air and advanced nitrox diving for years, it seems most instructors do not really care what I know or how I dive but just want me to start at the bottom and spend a lot of time and money getting where I already am with pre-requisiste courses like gear configuration, deep air and advanced nitrox. So tri-mix is probably not in my immediate future.

And to be honest I am not the ideal candidate for some agencies as I really prefer to consider my own gear configuration based on my experience and what I have read or learned directly from others in the last 18 years. I would gladly incorportate the stuff I pick up in another tech course, but I would probably not adopt everything in wholesale fashion. That probably makes me very non-DIR.

I also have some heretical beliefs like going below 130 ft on air will not automatically get you dead and that with proper training, the right mindset and expectations, a slow buildup to progressively deeper depths and lots of recent experience, you can develop a tolerance to the effects of nitrogen narcosis and function effectively down to 180 ft or so. That goes against the grain many current tech philosphies and I have seen this over time go to extreme opinions such as trimix should be used on all dives deeper than 100'.

I also like independent doubles as they really fit the diving conditions, profiles and threats I enounter in my neck of the woods better than some type of manifold. This is considered uncool due to increased gas management demands, but to be honest I am really worried about any diver going deep who cannot manage his gas between two tanks and remember to switch at the appropriate thirds. In my opinion, if you don't have the situational awareness to handle that or feel it is too much in terms of additional task loading, you need to find another sport to occupy your time.

In any event I routinely do staged decompression to depths of around 150' on air and depending on the situation and bottom times may use a deco gas such as Nitrox 50 or Nitrox 80. I'd go deeper on air, but in this area I'd need a shovel.

I do regard what I do as technical diving as it very much is and in my opinion what you are doing has more to do with it than the C-cards in your wallet. I also believe that each diver has the responsibility to determine their own limits and to determine if they have the required training, experience, and (way more importantly) the proper mental attitude and discipline to do the dive they are planning to do.

I would not hesistate to make the same dives you did based on my training and experience level and I would not regard doing so as unsafe. But that's a miniority opinion an one that would not be held by the products of most of the current tech instructors.

 

[Kapiti Diver]

DA

well that's somewhat reassuring and in many ways mirrors my feelings and views on the number of topics you touched on. I felt safe and felt we dived safely, notwithstanding the risks that needed to be mitigated.

In the back of my mind I knew however that the recreational dive agencies would be going just as white knuckled about this profile as would the Tech Diving agencies.

Because my AOW did not really prepare me for this I too have had to rely on my own discovery and research and bottom time to feel comfortable with diving beyond PADI's prescribed limitations.

Ascent rates from real depth was something that also interested me when I discovered that my Aladin came with an algorithm that allowed a variable ascent rate. With this knowledge I found this year that I could reduce almost 15 minutes off my computed deco obligations (against a near identical profile previous yeaer) by executing a significantly faster ascent up to about 35-40 metres without setting off the ascent alarm.

Do you have any thoughts on this as I believe there are also a number of points of view on how fast is fast and how beneficial is this when ascending from real depth on any gas.

 

[SwimJim]

Kapiti

Technical aspects aside, it sounds like a really interesting wreck surrounded by great viz. You didn't by any chance take a few pictures while you were on it that you'd be willing to post here did you. I for one would be interested in seeing them if you did. I know I'm not alone.

Tanks

Jim

 

[Shanronn]

I have been diving since 1972. Long before there were any "established" Tech courses. I feel I was well trained and told to try and stay within the no deco limits, however, I was drilled effectively on planning deco dives and was told that if you double the partial pressure of O2 you might die so don't go near 285 ft. All of this part of REGULAR training by NASDS. I dive a lot and after hundreds of dives I routinely go deeper than 150ft, all with planned deco stops. I don't think I am doing anything wrong at all, after all, I have been trained to use the tables (no computers when I started) and plan the dive and execute it accordingly. The only thing I lacked in the early days was some of the redundancy now required which I now use, I also use a computer that figures a PO2 of 1.6. I do feel the effects of narcosis but, again, I had been trained on what to look for and have learned how to deal with it. I continue to push the "established limits" and have recently been well over 200' on air. Inappropriate behavior? I'm taking tech classes now, I have to, most won't take you to deep sites without paper. But I worry, spending buku bucks, taking several weeks of classes, and making a few dozen dives. Is this all it takes to be a competent deep diver?