3/15/03 - A Day of Cape Ann, MA wreck diving

[Rick L]

Hey KKM you got a drysuit now?
How was the vis?
Rick L

 

[Rick L]

Rick L

 

[Northeastwrecks]

Rick L once bubbled...
Rick L

Sorry. Chelsea and Charles Haight.

 

[MASS-Diver]

Those are great wrecks (although the current can be tough over the Haight), how many divers were on board?

 

[Northeastwrecks]

Four divers plus the mate who handled the hook. All dry.

We had the big boat, so it was pure luxury in terms of space.

The current on both wrecks was fairly intense.

 

[King Kong Matt]

King Kong Matt once bubbled...
will write more when fingers thaw...

Northeastwrecks and I had decided about two weeks ago that we had enough of skills in the pool with and without students. We needed to get in the water.

We were the first two people to call Cape Ann Divers, and as you probably know, the first two call the spots (weather permitting, of course). We wanted to dive wrecks, but we wanted to do something very reasonable in terms of depth...nothing over the top in the kinds of conditions we still have in New England around this time of year.

I had spoken to the guys at Cape Ann and explained what we want and they mentioned that the Chelsea and the Haight sounded like they would fit the bill.

You've probably seen the pics, so you know it was cold. It was supposed to be a high of about 38°, but I doubt it ever got that high...and it certainly never felt like that on the open deck of the boat with the wind in your face.

There were two other divers on board...if you've been on the big boat of Cape Ann Divers, you know that having only 4 people on the boat means you have more space than you know what to do with.

Dan and I discussed our plan on the way out to the first wreck, the Chelsea. For the history lovers in the group, here is a little info (taken from http://www.state.ma.us/czm/ua-chels.htm).


At 8:30 Sunday morning on February 10, 1957, after loading fuel oil for delivery to Newington, New Hampshire, the coastal tanker Chelsea left Boston. Visibility was good, but a 35-mph northwesterly wind was whipping up seas off shore. Captain Keith Beale hoped to avoid the rough water by hugging the shorline, taking advantage of the protection it offered. Around 11:30 a.m., Beale turned command over to his Chief Mate, and went below. About 1 hour later, Chelsea ground to a halt. The Chief had attempted a shortcut, popular with the Gloucester fishermen, between Straitsmouth Island and the Dry Salvages. He cut in too close to the submerged section of the Sandy Bay Breakwater on the outgoing tide and the tanker ran aground. The force of the impact opened a gash in its bow.
Chelsea was hard aground and the crew's attempts to free it were in vain. At last, a Coast Guard 36-foot motor lifeboat came to remove all but skipper Beale. The Coast Guard already had their hands full when Chelsea happened onto the breakwater. Late Saturday evening, the tanker Franco Lisi grounded on Little Misery Island off Salem. Although the Franco Lisi freed itself shortly after noon on Sunday, no cutter was available to render immediate assistance to the Chelsea.
About 6 hours after running aground, the Coast Guard cutter Evergreen was standing by the helpless tanker. Pounding seas had opened the gash in its bow to near amidship, a length of 80 feet. In the hours before Evergreen arrived, it was decided to attempt to patch the hole while the ship was still aground. Its crew was returned, but before work could commence and just as the Coast Guard motor lifeboat was attempting to ferry a towline to the Evergreen, the rising tide floated Chelsea off the breakwater. Water was now pouring into the tanker through the gash in its hull. Immediately, the motor lifeboat removed two of Chelsea's crew as strong winds pushed the tanker in a Southerly direction. When roughly off Loblolly Cove, Chelsea began to settle fast. With little time for rescue remaining, the Coast Guard lifeboat edged in close to the tanker. Captain Beale and the remaining crew jumped for their lives, Chelsea literally sinking from beneath their feet. A crewman on the lifeboat quickly took an axe to the towline to prevent his own vessel from being dragged under as Chelsea settled into 60 feet of water.


We were anchored right in at the bow, which was very convenient. The ship has settled into what appears to be a canyon of rocks. You basically hit the deck at 45 ft and you are in the sand at 60, and following the debris field 15-20 degrees off the port side of the bow, I was told you can get in to 80+ ft.

There are plenty of exposed openings and places where you can look in / swim a few feet into the interior of the hull. I say that not having done that, but as a result of seeing exhaust bubbles coming up through holes in the deck from our two other divers on board. We did a nice long ascent up the line and prepared to get under way for our second dive.

Wasn't a real long dive...only about a half hour. But water temps clocked in at 36° so capping the dive time was a rather prudent thing to do.

The Charles S. Haight is shallower and subsequently fools you into thinking its a much easier dive.

Again, some info (taken from http://www.state.ma.us/czm/ua-csh.htm).


The evening of April 1, 1946 found the Charles S. Haight off Cape Ann, returning "in ballast" (without cargo) to New York after delivering coal to Newport, England. Visibility was poor, the seas were rough and a strong southeast wind was blowing. At the helm Richard Young of Detroit, Michigan, reported the freighter on a course of 215° traveling in a southwesterly direction. At 12:07AM, April 2, the Haight suddenly ground to a halt. Without radar and with poor visibility, the freighter was blown inshore by southeasterly winds and onto the Flatground inside the Dry Salvages, 1.5 miles east of Rockport.
Light as it was, without a cargo, the steamer slid high on the ledge and resisted all attempts to free it. The vessel radioed that its double-bottomed hull had been punctured near the No.5 hold, but otherwise the rest of the freighter was intact. Heavy seas pounded the stranded steamer against the ledge and soon water was flooding the rest of ship. At first, the pumps kept up with the deluge. However, by noon, Captain Mano ordered 29 of his crew to the lifeboats as rising waters in the engine room threatened a boiler explosion. For two hours, the crewmembers sat it out until the danger passed. At 3:30 PM, they were removed to the Coast Guard Cutter Ojibwa, standing by the vessel in case it broke up in the heavy seas.
By late afternoon, seas had moderated and the Haight stopped pounding, but the damage was done. The vessel had been pushed atop the ledge to the midship section. The holds were flooded and there was 30 feet of water in its engine room. A representative of the vessels' Boston agents declared that the ship was "dead."
On April 5, the Boston newspapers reported there was no hope of saving the grounded vessel as it was breaking in two at the No.4 hold. By April 9, the Charles S. Haight was considered a total loss.

Although, the dive is a lot shallower, if you dive the wreck in anything other than the slack, you can get some wicked currents, as we did. It actually worked out well, because the wreck can provide some respite from the currents...you can kind of drift dive, then swim upstream with the wreck providing a bit of coverage...and then drift some more.

Both wrecks have some really interesting things to see. You can still clearly make out different features of the ships.

Despite it being a little cold, and actually, it wasn't *THAT* bad, I thoroughly enjoyed the day and would go back to those wrecks in a second...especially the Chelsea.

One word, and perhaps someone with more experience on these two wrecks could comment. Despite the fact that both are in shallow water, there were enough openings and exposed entry points that I had the sense that you could get into as much trouble as you wanted/needed on either one of these wrecks.

All in all, a great day. Not to sound like an ad, but if you haven't been out with Capt. Steve on the big boat, then you are letting some of the best (IMHO *THE* best) diving in New England and one of the nicest operations pass you by.

-kkm

 

[King Kong Matt]

Rick L once bubbled...
Hey KKM you got a drysuit now?
How was the vis?

Got a Diving Concepts DuraTek...one of these days if Diving Concepts actually updates their site, you could see it on the web. LOVE it...LOVE it. Did I mention that I LOVE it?

The one piece underwear was the only thermal protection I wore underneath and I was fine...good for two 30-40 minute dives in 36° water.

 

[King Kong Matt]

PK once bubbled...
Did you see any marine life?

No fish or crustaceans roaming about. On the other hand, both wrecks are covered with any and every kind of anemone out there. Even the Naturalists among us would be well-served by some wreck diving. The remains of these ships look like an advertisement for that Andrew Martinez book...the one cataloguing (sp?) all the live in New England waters.

The second dive taught me the value of a nice POWERFUL light (which I don't have...saving pennies for Helios 4.5 with 10W head). One of the other divers in our group had an HID Light Cannon and as he got close and ran the light across what appeared to be white/off-white rows of anemones, you could see all sorts of brilliant reds and purples...its amazing what kinds of color tones you lose in the first 30 feet.

 

[MASS-Diver]

Great trip report!

And yes despite that fact that both wrecks are pretty beat up, there is quite a bit of penetration to be done by qualitfied divers. The best way to enter the Chelsea is to enter through the galleyway, but, if you want to try something new, there's a hole right at the base of the bow (on the sand) where the plating is pulled back, you swin up vertically into the wreck, it's very tight, but, it's a cool point of entry.

Have either of you done the Port Hunter? I'm thinking about doing it with CAD in May, I've dive off their boat(s) quite a bit, but, I've never done a long range trip like this? I guess she lies on a slant with a max depth of about 85'?

 

[King Kong Matt]

MASS-Diver once bubbled...
Great trip report!
if you want to try something new, there's a hole right at the base of the bow (on the sand) where the plating is pulled back, you swin up vertically into the wreck, it's very tight, but, it's a cool point of entry.

We were anchored right in at the bow. Dan and I were the second team in the water. By the time we descended down the line, I could already see bubbles coming up through the plates in the deck...I looked around and noticed the hole you are talking about.

Haven't done the Port Hunter...sounds like it could be fun.