Things you've found under water

[ssidiv3r]

My husband, after exactly 3 weeks of marriage, lost his wedding ring in a lake. We memorised the place. It is about 7 meters deep, visibility is about 2 meters, there is a lot of sediment in the bottom.
We have a technical diver with metal detector to help us in couple of days.
Do you think it is possible for him to find the ring?
I am so anxious... it is so precious to us (mostly emotionally, but also it was a costly, custom made ring).
What do you think is a chance in those conditions for a diver to find a ring? How sensitive are metal detectors?

I wish you luck. My uncle lost his Tag watch a number of years ago in about 1 meter of water plus about 15 centimeters of sediment but my father and I were unable to find it with a rented metal detector; of course, we didn't run a great grid pattern and weren't there when the watch was lost so the odds were kind of against us. My suggestion (taken with a grain of salt) would be to set up a decent grid so the diver searching can be methodical about covering the area where you think you lost the ring and make sure it extends farther than you think it should so you are more than certain that the ring should be somewhere within the grid.

 

[oldschoolto]

Last week... early 1800's whale oil lamp...

 

[Arwen]

I wish you luck. My uncle lost his Tag watch a number of years ago in about 1 meter of water plus about 15 centimeters of sediment but my father and I were unable to find it with a rented metal detector; of course, we didn't run a great grid pattern and weren't there when the watch was lost so the odds were kind of against us. My suggestion (taken with a grain of salt) would be to set up a decent grid so the diver searching can be methodical about covering the area where you think you lost the ring and make sure it extends farther than you think it should so you are more than certain that the ring should be somewhere within the grid.

Excuse me for my incompetence, but what exactly is "to set up a decent grid"?

 

[fire_diver]

Excuse me for my incompetence, but what exactly is "to set up a decent grid"?

It means to run a very tight back-and-forth pattern so that no ground goes unsearched.

 

[Arwen]

Ok, I got it right then. Just wanted to be sure. Thank you very much.

 

[oldschoolto]

If you really what to find something ... you'll need to string some line on the bottom to have a true grid box to work.

Jim

 

[ssidiv3r]

Excuse me for my incompetence, but what exactly is "to set up a decent grid"?

If you really what to find something ... you'll need to string some line on the bottom to have a true grid box to work.

Jim

Exactly what Jim and fire_diver said; easiest way I could describe it would be to think tic-tac-toe but with more boxes depending on the area you have to cover.

 

[Arwen]

We did one search. The person helping us just tied a rope in a middle and made an increasing circle around. The visibility was about 1 meter to begin and 30 cm to finish.
He found one wedding ring, but not ours. So, we are planning to make one more search in the beginning of autumn, when the visibility will probably be better. And I would like to plan it better.
Besides that, found a lot of tin cans, one lighter, some beer bottle caps.
People who live there, told us that a couple of years ago a big diamond ring was lost and not found in exactly same spot.

Don't know if it is worth further searching though... renting metal detector and hiring a diver will increase the costs and the probability of finding our ring is not very high I guess.

 

[CT-Rich]

No diamond rings, but I did find a 40 mm Anti-aircraft shell.

 

[drbill]

Haven't found one yet (in 52 years of diving), but I'm still looking for that mermaid. I'm persistent.