Why dive wrecks like Andrea Doria

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Having considered this question for many years, try this cut an paste:

"W
hy do adventurers climb great mountains or diveto dangerous
depths? The various answers seem toinevitably evolve into platitudes,even the most famous and thoughtprovoking response of “Becauseit’s there.” Everest climber GeorgeMallory’s elegantly simple acceptanceof the inexplicable nature of the answeris not satisfying, nor do I expectthat it was meant to be. Why dive the Andrea Doria; why bother? Yearsback, a simple answer for me would havebeen “To get china,” as if themuddy dishes possessed some sort ofintrinsic spiritual value. All thosebasement artifacts were interestingtrophies to be certain, and a wreck’shistory was written in these brass,glass, and ceramic conversation starters.Doria china was also tangibleproof that at a specific point in a person’slife they were skilled divers witheither sufficient nerve or stupidity to gointo the Dish Hole and come back alive,but being able to identify whichof these two choices was the correctcharacterization was not particularlyclear cut either. Then there is the “purpose”explanation, the proposal thatin modern times it is less of achallenge to simply survive in western society,and new challenges are needed to lend aperson a sense of unique identity,of being special and belonging to anexclusive club. So was that reallyit, did the motivations for extremesports simply come down to braggingrights and rebellion against anindifferent society’s glacially certain movementtowarduniversal anonymity? Uncomfortably, I would have to answer“Yes.” But nothing is that simple, andthere is still a missing element tothis passion that defies definition,maybe because it is such an integral partof one’s being that it can’t bepinpointed. Oh, the hell with it: “Because it’sthere.”
Page 209 Setting the Hook

Peter Hunt
 
"
There is no history there, all the mystery about the wreck has been explored, why do it?
I couldn't disagree with this statement more. Would you say the USS Arizona at Pearl Harbor has no history because it is rusting. The Doria still holds a ton of mystery. Less than two years ago the second bell came up, by a diver doing his first dive on the Doria

Two N.J. divers find historic Andrea Doria bell at famous shipwreck site | NJ.com

People dive the Doria for many reasons and as long as they are qualified and they are comfortable with the risks they are assuming then those reasons should be good enough.
 
Diving The Andrea Doria safely is the result of training and preparation.

The end result of that training and preparation is to have managed risks, and developed the competence to travel 235 below the sea, to sightsee the remains of a historical vessel. The Doria is not the end all, but because of its stature a nice place to go. One who can handle the depths, currents, darkness, and gas planning on the Doria, can handle them in most other venues as well.

My first thought was a comparison with running a marathon. Would most runners ever train to run 26 miles around an enormous cornfield by themselves, or would most reward their hard work and effort with a run in the NYC Marathon or the Boston marathon. Same with SCUBA divers, we reward ourselves with visits to places we want to see, not because we might find a plate, even though finding a plate would be fantastic.

I hope my theory is understandable.

Mike
 
Why make a difficult dive? JFK put it better than I ever could back in 1962 when he was giving a speech about traveling to the moon.

"...We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too. "

"Many years ago the great British explorer George Mallory, who was to die on Mount Everest, was asked why did he want to climb it. He said, "Because it is there." Well, space is there, and we're going to climb it, and the moon and the planets are there, and new hopes for knowledge and peace are there."

It's not all about the shipwreck. It's also about finding ones limits, putting all your training into practice and venturing where comparatively few have traveled. Some people are content to tool around in shallow water looking at the aquatic life. Others want more.
 
This might help answer the question: www.settingthehook.org
(web site to "Setting the Hook: A Diver's Return to the Andrea Doria")
Fair warning - if not for the complete applicability to this thread, this would clearly fall under the "shameless plug" department (I'm the author).
Cheers,
Peter
Pete,
Got your book at Beneath the Sea. Awesome! Thanks so much for sharing your story.
Dave
 
After watching a nice video posted by Howard I came away wondering some of the same things; it's a pile of junk at 170+ feet. nothing much to see other than rusting metal. divers are having to carry multiple cylinders, will have deco obligations. what's the point?

But rather than starting a new thread, I found this one. It was very informative to folk like myself who wonder why (at least it was until the trolling whirlpool started and non-informative responses like "they just don't get it" took the spot light.)

Perhaps a sticky thread with contributions from experienced, thoughtful deep/wreck divers could be attached to this forum to answer the "Why" questions us warm-water reef divers have.
 
After watching a nice video posted by Howard I came away wondering some of the same things; it's a pile of junk at 170+ feet. nothing much to see other than rusting metal. divers are having to carry multiple cylinders, will have deco obligations. what's the point?

That's funny... I think the same thing about caves. Wet rocks.

do the wet rocks 1000 feet back in the cave look the same as the wet rocks 100 feet in the cave??
 
What are you trying to say?
All the places named do not offer wreck diving except Coron.
There are a lot of good wrecks in Philippines:
Princess of the Orient, MV. Coral island, Princess of Boholyna, MV. Mactan Ferry, MV. Dona Marilyn just to name a few.
And if you are good enough then there are USS Cooper, USS Flier, USS Ward and at least 5 IJN destroyers in Ormoc Bay. I won't even mention IJN Fuso and Yamashiro.

Just came back from Truk and dived all the ships bar 3 in the Lonely Planet Book. Deepest was about 60 metres. Going back again and next time for 3 weeks so we can dive every ship. We love wreck diving and all it entails. Can you please let me know any links for these ships as we love wreck diving and would put them on our list of places to go. We holiday to dive, the holiday part being secondary. Planning trips to Palau, Thailand, Samoa as they are close to use but crave wreck diving. I ahve some WW2 wrecks at Indonesia I want to dive as they have only been dived a few times. Not deep but strong currents so significant risk, but as they are Australian ships it has history close to my heart.
 
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Having had the experience of diving the Doria, I can tell you it is a great experience. Now living in the Florida Keys I have dived deeper wrecks (Wilkes Barre, etc as deep or deeper).
History, uniqeness, etc cannot be replicated. These deep wrecks are not for everyone, but those that can and are comfortable with the challanges should.
 

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