Wreck of the Thai Muang

 Ocean diving, Wrecks  No Responses »
Feb 182013
 
Wreck of the Thai Muang

About the wreck Continuing on from last week’s post about the Thai wrecks we dived from the MV Giamani over Christmas, here’s some shots from the next shipwreck on the schedule, the Muang Thai. Before tourism came along much of Phuket’s economy was based on dredging for seabed tin. As the basis of people’s livelihood’s changed the old tin boats were run and used until they sunk of their own accord. There’s a few old tin dredges on the seabed up and down the Thai coast and if they’re all covered with as much life as the Muang Thai they’d be excellent dives. About the dive I suffered from pre-dive indecision on whether to go with my wide angle or [read more…]

Fish around the wreck of the MV Sea Chart

 Ocean diving, Wrecks  1 Response »
Feb 112013
 
Fish around the wreck of the MV Sea Chart

About the site For all this talking about macro shots and fish, and cave diving and dry caving recently, I’ve been a little light on for wrecks. We did some brilliant wreck dives at the end of our stay on the MV Giamani as we headed back down the coast towards Phuket. All three vessels were in “terrible vis” for Thailand – which is to say it was comparable to average to good Melbourne vis, and there were a hell of a lot more fish. The first wreck dive was the MV Sea Chart. The Sea Chart was running from Myanmar around and down to Vietnam with a load of illegally logged teak when she ran into some bad weather about [read more…]

Divers in the ocean

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Jan 212013
 
Divers in the ocean

About the site Both of today’s photos were taken out of Melbourne on a visit to one of the J class subs. The beauty of it is that both could have been taken anywhere in the ocean with relatively clear water and somewhat flat seas, although I do think the deep blue colour of the water gives away the temperate location. About the dive The dive in this instance was a fairly high speed affair to a wreck with limited bottom time. I was also on air which meant a lot of the photos of the sub itself were affected by my narcosis – none of them are what you’d call winning shots. Instead my favourite shots from this dive [read more…]

A sunny day on the J4 submarine

 Ocean diving, Wrecks  1 Response »
Dec 102012
 
A sunny day on the J4 submarine

About the site The J4 sub is the most-often dived of the J class subs that were scuttled out of Port Phillip Bay. Built late in WWI in response to rumours that the Germans were developing something better, they were sold to Australia by Great Britain after the war ended. Despite an expensive refit process here in Australia, by the 1930s there was no use for them and they were scuttled. The J4 was rediscovered in the 1980s, and is also known as the 26m sub for the depth of water that it sits in. Shallower than the others and with correspondingly less narcosis, it’s an easier wreck to photograph. About the dive This dive was about five days after [read more…]

Zooanthids and fish on the SS Coogee

 Ocean diving, Wrecks  No Responses »
Jul 302012
 
Zooanthids and fish on the SS Coogee

About the wreck The SS Coogee was built in the UK in 1887 and first known as the Lancashire Witch, possibly a more exciting name than she ended up with. In 1888 her owner went broke and she was bought by Melbourne ship owners Huddart Parker LTD to steam between Melbourne and Geelong. As the Coogee she had an interesting history, with several collisions with other ships and sandbars. In 1917 she was taken over by the Royal Australian Navy for use as a mine sweeper and in 1921, she was used to repair the telegraph cable that crosses under Bass Strait. By 1928 the ship was considered redundant and she was taken outside the Heads and scuttled. It should be [read more…]

Off camera strobes on the wreck of the Kate bomber

 Ocean diving, Wrecks  4 Responses »
Jul 022012
 
Off camera strobes on the wreck of the Kate bomber

About the site Following up from two weeks ago, I thought I’d add a few lines about another plane wreck I dived while staying at Lissenung Island Resort. The place featured above is a Japanese “Kate” bomber. Unlike the Allies, where American crews were assigned to a single aircraft, Japanese crews jumped in the closest available plane. The occupying Japanese moved to destroy all records in PNG towards the end of the war, and these two facts mean very little is known about the history of the Japanese plane wrecks around Kavieng. This particular plane was a Nakajima B5N, nicknamed a Kate bomber by the Allies and wrecked sometime during WWII. With a crew of three, she was the standard [read more…]

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