Setting the Hook: A Diver's Return to the Andrea Doria

[denniscloutier]

Peter:

Is this book available in Canada, especially as an epub?

Thanks,
Dennis

 

[settingthehookPete]

Dennis,

Yes, trade paperback and Kindle formats are available through Amazon.ca (please see the below link)

http://www.amazon.ca/Setting-Hook-D...d=1375666074&sr=1-1&keywords=setting+the+hook

Thanks for your interest,
Peter

 

[Akimbo]

...Obviously you are correct, as you were there...

Since you were there maybe you can explain something that I've been curious about. I always thought there would be a flood of recreational divers on the Doria after the doors were off. I didn't hear of anyone diving her between 1973 and the Gimbel operation. I could never understand why.

Her port side was only in 160' and the amount of publicity on the Sat System dive was dumbfounding -- Watergate was dominating the news and I guess the media wanted an adventure story??? It was well known that we made tons of Scuba dives on her wearing double 80s. Other than having a double-lock decompression chamber onboard and wearing Bouée Fenzys, the state of the art wasn't much different than when you guys started exploring her. Why the long delay?

 

[settingthehookPete]

My short answer would be that the word got out to a wider cadre of divers that it was possible to recover hand-painted, First Class china.

There was also a belief at the time that the hole (I'll avoid a potential distraction by trying to name it) was just too small for a reasonable penetration prior to Gimbel’s expedition (which might have been incorrect, as I'm only now finding out).

There were other issues too, such as regular charters expressly for wreck diving had only relatively recently (1970-ish and on) started operating, and some (most?) of the boats were too small to consider working a wreck 100 NM from NY. Sport divers before that had little choice but to charter a fishing boat to get out to the Andrea Doria.

By 1981, two charter boats were on a strong enough economic footing and were large enough to give regular charters a try: the Wahoo and the Sea Hunter. Gimbel’s last expedition coincided with a somewhat natural evolution of the dive charter business in NY and NJ.

Although Gimbel's documentary didn't air until 1984, the new, larger second Wahoo (55&#8217 was in its first season of operation in 1981 and went out to dive the wreck to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Andrea Doria's sinking. This was two weeks before Oceaneering's arrival and the start of Gimbel's final effort.

The Wahoo also spent some time in the vicinity hired by Marty Bayerle looking for the Republic during Gimbel's project and listened to the radio comms with the Provider bringing out supplies. About the same time, the Sea Hunter took a charter to the Doria, probably like Steve at least partially to see if there was sufficient diver interest to make regular charters to the Doria commercially viable.

When Gimbel's divers arrived at Montauk at the end of their 1981 expedition, news coverage showed the hand painted china brought back as souvenirs – that, in my opinion, was what first really got the wreck diving community interested.

It took a little while after that to determine the approximate location of the china, as no one wanted to penetrate at 165’ and then go probably much deeper without some idea of where to look. Once that was learned (by the Wahoo folks through a conversation with Ted Hess at a symposium; I’m not sure how the Sea Hunter group learned about the location), the charters started filling quickly.

It wasn’t until the 1983 season that this all came together for the Wahoo, and two successful charters came back with a fair amount of china (I crewed on both). TV media met the Wahoo at the Montauk dock and the NY Post and Newsday each did a story on the event. If a further spark was needed at that point, that did the trick.

Thanks for asking,
Peter

Setting the Hook, a Diver's Return to the Andrea Doria
https://www.facebook.com/SettingtheHook?ref=hl

 

[SandPhantom]

Ordered mine today.

 

[Akimbo]

...There was also a belief at the time that the hole (I'll avoid a potential distraction by trying to name it) was just too small for a reasonable penetration prior to Gimbel's expedition...

One thing for sure, the first class foyer was a far more dangerous place before Oceaneering divers removed tons of debris. It wouldn't take much to find out the hole was plenty large enough before Gimbal -- and scary as hell inside.

I remember bumping a big jumble of crap and watching it sway back and forth. Closer inspection revealed it was several bulkheads collapsed on each other and suspended by the electrical wire running through them. A Scuba diver probably could get past it but a sat diver with an umbilical, burning rig, and lifting gear could never recover safes under it.

Personally, I'd rather have Peter Gimbal's name on that black hole of a money pit than Sat System's. In the end, both operations were colossal failures.

 

[settingthehookPete]

I couldn't even imagine the environment prior to removing much of the debris; it was scary enough during my dives (and those electrical cables were still there, unfortunately for a 1985 expedition).

I've got severely mixed emotions when I hear the words, "Gimbel's Hole." It was a singularly exciting time in my life and it shaped to a large degree who I am today (chalk up another aspect of failure to Gimbel's final effort!). Regardless of Gimbel's success or failure, I do believe that opening up the hole and bringing attention to it at a time when the sport was ready for such a challenge altered the nature of what would become technical diving forever.

Akimbo - have you had an opportunity to read Setting the Hook? If not, I'd like to send you a free copy. Thanks for the input and setting the record straight for me.

Best regards,
Peter

 

[Dr. Lecter]

Any plans to add to the Apple Books store?

 

[settingthehookPete]

Dr. Lector (very catchy title, if not a tad bit disturbing...),

I've been remiss in expanding beyond Amazon and Kindle format (although there is a free app for conversion from Kindle to ITunes). I will investigate both the Apple Store and a Nook conversion within the next two days.

Thanks for your interest,
Peter

www.settingthehook.org
https://www.facebook.com/SettingtheHook?ref=hl
peter@settingthehook.org

 

[settingthehookPete]

Some might find the following image interesting, particularly after such an enlightening conversation with Akimbo, a true Andrea Doria pioneer.

Peter
https://www.facebook.com/SettingtheHook?ref=hl
Setting the Hook, a Diver's Return to the Andrea Doria