reefseal
Contributor
Following is a recent contribution I made to my dive club newsletter (United Divers of NH) I thought it might be of interest to those NELD's on this board.
Getting tired of Nubble light and in Cape Ann, I was looking for a change and looked into new diving sites in my NH back yard. I used to live in Portsmouth and used to dive sites near Portsmouth (Great Island Commons, Ordione Point State Park, Fort Stark..) I found these ok when I was a beginner. As I got more experienced, more comfortable diving in more challenging conditions (currents) I decided to try out some of sites in Portsmouth Channel/Harbor in the Piscataqua River. Besides Harbor Seals, the Portsmouth Channel/Harbor is well known old bottles, antique ceramic fisherman's pipes and artifacts littered on the bottom.
I was fortunate to hook up with some divers from Portsmouth Scuba who knew where the waters, tides and where good spots were for finding artifacts. Diving the Piscatequa River is tricky given the strong currents and heavy boat traffic. It's best to dive off season. The trick is knowing when the beginning of slack tide is which varies on how far up you are in the river. Depending on where you are diving on river, slack tide can lasts 30 to 50 minutes. Visibility in the river varies. At times I expected poor vis because of runoff from rain, the vis was great. You can't really tell what the vis will be until you get in.
The first site I tried was Harts Cove in New Castle Island. This site is next to Fort Constitution and the Coast Guard Station. There is plenty of parking right near the entry point. Please note: Divers are restricted from diving on the right side of the Coast Guard Pier. A neat dive is to dive the left side of the pier as there were lots of large lobsters hiding in pilings and Sea Anemones. Because it's a cove, the current is light in between periods of slack if you stay close to shore (20-30 feet) The further you go towards the center of the channel, you can get caught in the current. (Also, that is where the heavy boat traffic is) Don't expect a lot to see but it is here that I found my first ceramic fisherman's pipe. These pipes were smoked by fisherman in the late 1700's. The stems are long and when the pipe gets blocked with tobacco, the fisherman would break off part of the stem. Eventually, the fisherman ditched their pipes overboard when the stem would get too hot for them to smoke from because stem is too short. I've even seen some small sea scallops. To the left off Salamander Point are some old wooden wrecks which are hardly recognizable but somewhat easy to find. You'll need to snorkel towards the point from entry point by parking lot. One wreck is a the Salamander which sank around 1723. She was an Armed merchantman and lies in 20' to 25' of water only about 50 feet from the from the tip of Salamander point. Sank circa 1723. The other wreck is the Shallop which sank circa 1660. This one lies in 25' about 100' to the SE of the Salamander.
Another site I've dove is the Pierce Island wall. Parking is on access road just before Public works. Walk across grass and to the right, you will see a goat path to entry point. What's neat about this dive is it's a 70 foot wall with about 400' of frontage. Slack is about an hour and a 1/2 after high tide. This is a site with only 1/2 hours worth of slack tide. I stay close to the wall. On my first dive, I found an old antique bottle and old pop bottle which I left as I didn't have my catch bag. Supposedly there is an old Chevy Van to the right at the point but I have yet to find. Don't bother to dive at low tide as Bill Harvey and I found out vis is poor!
My most favorite site is the North west side of the Sara Long Bridge which is the oldest bridge site in Portsmouth. This is a great shore dive for old bottles from 1820's to present. Slack at this site is about an hour and 15 minutes after high tide and at this part of the river, slack is about 50 min. It is not advisable to dive this site when heavy boat traffic, especially during the summer between the 2nd and 3rd stanchion which is only at 20 feet depth. If you do, keep your head down and surface between shore and 1st stanchion!! Also be aware of underwater pilings. There is plenty of parking right underneath the bridge and access is through a goat path down to the water. There is an old sea cable the runs parallel with the bridge along the bottom which goes to the other side. We use this as a guide. I have found some neat old medicine/apothecary bottles. One of which was for Mrs. Winslows Soothing Syrup from the Anglo American Drug Company. The other bottle was for Sloan's N&B liniment from Dr. E.S. Sloan of Boston. On one of my recent dives, I even found an old hand gun which obviously someone had ditched off the bridge. We quickly turned the gun into the Portsmouth Police who were quite interested in my find. On the other end of the river, is an old train wreck. In 1940, the train fell through the old train bridge. This is only a boat dive because it's not accessible from shore.
If you want to see lots of neat artifacts, see Jay at Portsmouth Scuba. His shop has the largest collection of Antique clay pipes I've ever seen. He also has lots of old bottles on display and can give you some guidance as to where to dive in the river. Atlantic Aqua Sports in Rye also has some neat items collected off the bottom from the river.
The URL below is a Portsmouth channel chart describing the dive sites: http://www.portsmouthscuba.com/flash/chanlmap.pdf
I'm interested in talking to others who have dove the river and always interested in trying new sites. (like some of back channels)
Live Free or Dive
Getting tired of Nubble light and in Cape Ann, I was looking for a change and looked into new diving sites in my NH back yard. I used to live in Portsmouth and used to dive sites near Portsmouth (Great Island Commons, Ordione Point State Park, Fort Stark..) I found these ok when I was a beginner. As I got more experienced, more comfortable diving in more challenging conditions (currents) I decided to try out some of sites in Portsmouth Channel/Harbor in the Piscataqua River. Besides Harbor Seals, the Portsmouth Channel/Harbor is well known old bottles, antique ceramic fisherman's pipes and artifacts littered on the bottom.
I was fortunate to hook up with some divers from Portsmouth Scuba who knew where the waters, tides and where good spots were for finding artifacts. Diving the Piscatequa River is tricky given the strong currents and heavy boat traffic. It's best to dive off season. The trick is knowing when the beginning of slack tide is which varies on how far up you are in the river. Depending on where you are diving on river, slack tide can lasts 30 to 50 minutes. Visibility in the river varies. At times I expected poor vis because of runoff from rain, the vis was great. You can't really tell what the vis will be until you get in.
The first site I tried was Harts Cove in New Castle Island. This site is next to Fort Constitution and the Coast Guard Station. There is plenty of parking right near the entry point. Please note: Divers are restricted from diving on the right side of the Coast Guard Pier. A neat dive is to dive the left side of the pier as there were lots of large lobsters hiding in pilings and Sea Anemones. Because it's a cove, the current is light in between periods of slack if you stay close to shore (20-30 feet) The further you go towards the center of the channel, you can get caught in the current. (Also, that is where the heavy boat traffic is) Don't expect a lot to see but it is here that I found my first ceramic fisherman's pipe. These pipes were smoked by fisherman in the late 1700's. The stems are long and when the pipe gets blocked with tobacco, the fisherman would break off part of the stem. Eventually, the fisherman ditched their pipes overboard when the stem would get too hot for them to smoke from because stem is too short. I've even seen some small sea scallops. To the left off Salamander Point are some old wooden wrecks which are hardly recognizable but somewhat easy to find. You'll need to snorkel towards the point from entry point by parking lot. One wreck is a the Salamander which sank around 1723. She was an Armed merchantman and lies in 20' to 25' of water only about 50 feet from the from the tip of Salamander point. Sank circa 1723. The other wreck is the Shallop which sank circa 1660. This one lies in 25' about 100' to the SE of the Salamander.
Another site I've dove is the Pierce Island wall. Parking is on access road just before Public works. Walk across grass and to the right, you will see a goat path to entry point. What's neat about this dive is it's a 70 foot wall with about 400' of frontage. Slack is about an hour and a 1/2 after high tide. This is a site with only 1/2 hours worth of slack tide. I stay close to the wall. On my first dive, I found an old antique bottle and old pop bottle which I left as I didn't have my catch bag. Supposedly there is an old Chevy Van to the right at the point but I have yet to find. Don't bother to dive at low tide as Bill Harvey and I found out vis is poor!
My most favorite site is the North west side of the Sara Long Bridge which is the oldest bridge site in Portsmouth. This is a great shore dive for old bottles from 1820's to present. Slack at this site is about an hour and 15 minutes after high tide and at this part of the river, slack is about 50 min. It is not advisable to dive this site when heavy boat traffic, especially during the summer between the 2nd and 3rd stanchion which is only at 20 feet depth. If you do, keep your head down and surface between shore and 1st stanchion!! Also be aware of underwater pilings. There is plenty of parking right underneath the bridge and access is through a goat path down to the water. There is an old sea cable the runs parallel with the bridge along the bottom which goes to the other side. We use this as a guide. I have found some neat old medicine/apothecary bottles. One of which was for Mrs. Winslows Soothing Syrup from the Anglo American Drug Company. The other bottle was for Sloan's N&B liniment from Dr. E.S. Sloan of Boston. On one of my recent dives, I even found an old hand gun which obviously someone had ditched off the bridge. We quickly turned the gun into the Portsmouth Police who were quite interested in my find. On the other end of the river, is an old train wreck. In 1940, the train fell through the old train bridge. This is only a boat dive because it's not accessible from shore.
If you want to see lots of neat artifacts, see Jay at Portsmouth Scuba. His shop has the largest collection of Antique clay pipes I've ever seen. He also has lots of old bottles on display and can give you some guidance as to where to dive in the river. Atlantic Aqua Sports in Rye also has some neat items collected off the bottom from the river.
The URL below is a Portsmouth channel chart describing the dive sites: http://www.portsmouthscuba.com/flash/chanlmap.pdf
I'm interested in talking to others who have dove the river and always interested in trying new sites. (like some of back channels)
Live Free or Dive
