The Flying Enterprise - A Very Deep Dive.
By Brian Smith. 26/08/2003

The Flying enterprise (originally named Cape Kumukaki) was built in 1944 & weighed in at 6711 gross tons. She was one of the many liberty ships built during WW2 & continued service as a commercial cargo vessel after the war.

While departing Hamburg bound for the US in late December 1951,the Enterprise found herself caught in a violent Hurricane. After days of being battered by the sea, 400 miles west of Lands End, the ship suffered a severe stress crack that ran across her main deck amidships & 12 feet down each side. Continuous swells caused the cargo to shift to port & develop a 30 degree list. As Captain Carlsen (below and right - waving) and his ship fought the storm for over 2 weeks the list gradually worsened, submerging the crack & funnel. This caused rapid down flooding into the holds and engine room. The Captain stayed aboard to the last moment, finally leaping from the descending smokestack as the Flying Enterprise surrendered to the sea on January 15, 1952.

August 8th 2003 saw a team of divers travelling out to the last resting place of the Flying Enterprise some 40 miles south of Plymouth aboard the charter vessel Seeker.
After a four-hour steam we arrived on site in perfect conditions. The skipper dropped an exploratory shot to test the run & check the drop, as this is not a shallow dive. The Flying Enterprise lies in 85m of water.

Once satisfied the skipper told us we could kit up. We did not want to kit up too early as the air temperature was in the very high 90's & dehydration could be a serious problem. The first pair of divers in tied in the shot line; the second tied the prosaic loop & attached the lazy shot.

Alex & I were the last pair in. As we stood on the edge of the Abyss all preparations now finished, mental as well as physical all nerves & apprehension gone we heard the skipper shout GO!
We hit the water with our heels with all air vented from our suits & wings. At six meters down the shot we halted our descent & checked each other, no signals were exchanged; we both were looking for body language signalling a problem. Seeing none we continued down to 21m where we clipped on our name tallies to the lazy shot & did our first gas switch from our travel gas (50% O2) to our bottom gas 15/47 Trimix then down & down & down. We then saw strobes, attached to the shot by the other divers & oh! My dear sweet Lord, the wreck stretching out in front of us as far as the eye could see which was some 30m distant.

Although this was just a rusting hulk I have never seen anything more beautiful. The first thing we did was to orientate ourselves as to the position of the shot in the wreck. We slowly finned around for the next 16 minutes (having used up 4 of our 20 minutes on the decent) gazing awe-struck at this magnificent ship. The other divers of the team were clearly visible either rummaging around, or like us just touring.
All too soon my time was up & I signalled to Alex time to go. He signalled back that he was going to have another 5 minutes (he was on twin 15 litre cylinders against my small Twin 12's) my immediate but only split second thought was no. I snapped back a crisp OK as at this depth if you need a "buddy" you should not be there. You must be self-sufficient. The reason for this is that if you get a problem at this depth, by the time you have got your "buddy" to realise there is something wrong & what to do, it would probably be too late. You have to be able to reach all your equipment & do gas shutdowns in the dark without a second thought. Worst case scenario to remove your set or stages & swap regulators around whilst maintaining buoyancy. With 70 minutes of decompression to do, going for the surface is just not an option. I located the shot & began my slow ascent. Four minutes later I reached the level of my first stop at 42m.
The next 10 stops (at 3m intervals) were not more than 4 minutes each with a gas switch to 50% oxygen at 21m & retrieval of my name tally signalling I was on the lazy shot.

At my 12m stop I opened the pillar valve on my 80% oxygen side sling cylinder having charged the regulator on the surface before the decent. WHOOSH! GAS LEAK!!!
I realised that it was coming from the cylinder & the regulator must now be loose. Probably as I hit the water the DV got purged & allowed the hand wheel on my Din fitting to be moved whilst rubbing against the shot line on either the decent or ascent. I shut the pillar valve off and tried the hand wheel. Yes it was loose. With the regulator now tightened I opened up again and great- no leak. Purging the regulator to get the water through it I then put it in my mouth now at 9m and carefully drew on it. SWEET NITROX. The next 48 minutes were spent lying about half-asleep on my last 2 stops with a brief interlude to "bag off " when the shot go too congested with other divers.

The first thing I did on the lift up into the boat was to shake the skippers hand because I felt so privileged to have seen such a wreck in such conditions at such depth. If I could I would do this type of diving every day of my life.

Visit this link to see some dramatic photographs of the Flying Enterprise.

http://www.teesships.freeuk.com/1129flying2.htm

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