|
If you haven't been following this story then visit
this link to find out what it is all about. We chose a local wreck called the Longbenton, a 211 ft long
924-ton steamer torpedoed by a German sub in 1917 whilst being
used as an Admiralty colliery vessel. It lies about 6.5
miles S/E of Hornsea in 16- 20m of water.
 We planned to dive on a low water spring tide to optimize
light penetration for photography.
It was a lovely sunny day and the sea looked calm but was
deceptively bumpy further out. There was a slight southerly
wind blowing and the forecast was for the wind to increase
later in the day. Two ribs, Stray Lass and Skippy 2 set off
from Hornsea's excellent new public boat compound and slipway.
Skippy 2 enabled 4 other divers to join us and also provide
critical surface cover.
We arrived at the dive site just after 1.00pm and dropped a
shot line near the wreck as planned. Ian bounced down,
unclipped the shot and tied the line onto the wreck's boilers
at a depth of about 12m, then sent the shot up on a lifting
bag and returned to the boat.
We clipped the heavily weighted ironing board; iron, club
notice and 'ironing' onto the shot line and I escorted these
down the shot line to stand it on top of the boilers. I waited there with the ironing board for Simon & Ian with
camera in hand.  The other divers were previously briefed about
the wrecks layout, entered the water and commenced their
exploration of the wreck.
Ian took a series of photos of me ironing on top of the
boilers, and then we dropped down to the seabed with ironing
board for another series of photos.
All the film had now been shot, so we had a quick fin
around the wreck by which time I had clocked up a dive time of
50 minutes. We sent the ironing equipment up to the surface with a
lifting bag and hauled it back onto the
boat and set of for Hornsea.
To my amazement everything went according to plan, which
was a great relief. The other divers who had not previously
dived off our coast before were equally amazed at the quality
of this shallow wreck and the abundance of marine life
present.
The event raised good publicity for sport diving and
Hornsea Rescue in the local press and Radio Humberside
interviewed Ian on the day of the event. We have had a
tremendous response from sponsors who thought it was a very
worthy cause and something completely different. Some sponsors
thought we were complete 'nutters' (which is perhaps a key
quality for those who choose to dive in the North sea).
A big thank you to the staff at Hornsea
compound, John and Skippy 2 for providing valuable surface
support and to all those people who sponsored the event, which
will raise over £1500 for Hornsea Rescue.
Check
this out on the Extreme Ironing web site.
|
