Phase I – May 4

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Success

Thursday, May 4, 2000 – Today’s participants:

• Team 1 – Terrence Tysall
  
• Team 1 – Conrad Pfeifer
  
• Team 1 – Grant Graves
  
• Team 1 – Ken Schneider
  
• Team 2 – Pete Goutmann
  
• Team 2 – Tane Casserley (ECU)
  
• Team 2 – Frank Cantelas (ECU)
  
• Team 2 – Gary Byrd (ECU)
  
• Support – Glenn Taylor (NURC)
  
• Support – John Barone
  
• Support – Carl Saieva
  
• Standby diver – Kyle Creamer
  
• Chase boat support – Steve Sellers (ECU)
  
• Chase boat/Chamber operator – Tim Gallagher
  
• Dive Supervisor/DMT – Doug Kesling (NURC)
  
• Video/Photo on deck – Cindy Creamer
  
• Project Director and chief archeologist – John Broadwater (MNMS)
  
• Monitor historian – Jeff Johnston (MNMS)
  
• Captain, R/V Cape Fear – Dan Aspenleiter (UNCW)
  
• The Mate – J.D. (UNCW)
  

We were joined today by Tom Skinner, a reporter from WITN. WITN is a local NBC affiliate located in Manteo, North Carolina. Tom, who is a native of Nags Head, North Carolina, was out with us in 1998 when we were diving from the Kellie Chouest with the Navy. He interviewed several team members and shot some video on deck for a news segment to be aired in the next few days.

Dive teams were staggered to allow for more room on the dive deck. Team one entered the water with team two following five minutes later. Team one planned for a 25 minute bottom time, and team two planned for a 20 minute bottom time. The stagger allowed both teams to begin their ascent at the same time so that all the divers would be on the breakaway line together when it was released. This made life easier for the support team as well because they didn’t have teams in two different locations. The decompression schedules were close enough that the divers were never more than one stop depth apart from the others.

Mother nature welcomed the dive teams with beautiful conditions today. Surface temperture was 72 degrees with a drop of only four degrees on the bottom. Surface current was minimal with only a slight current on the bottom. Visibility was 60 feet on the wreck. Team one was greeted on the bottom by an eight foot sand tiger shark. Terrence and Conrad began taking depth readings and hull measurements to establish reference points around the engine compartment. On the second half of their dive, they took specific measurements of the engine and its mountings. Ken and Grant were tasked with doing video survey of the engine and the turret. Team two arrived about five minutes later on the bottom. Frank and Gary performed overall video survey of the wreck. Pete and Tane took measurements of the anti-corrosion andodes, as well as, placing armor belt markers every ten feet on top of the armor belt from the stern to the midship bulkhead. Both dive teams arrived at the breakaway line at the same time. Pete was the last person up and pulled the release on the breakaway. The entire team completed their decompression without incident. The final divers hit the surface two hours after they entered. Overall, the day was very successful. Several team members completed their first dive on the Monitor today. Congratulations!

The Dive Safety Officer, Mike St. Germain, drove down today for a Dive Safety Control Board meeting. He, along with Terrence Tysall, Kyle Creamer and Tim Gallagher, other members of the DSCB, met at the Coast Gaurd facility. MK2 Twine, the OOD for today, graciously allowed us to use their facilities for this meeting. The organizational structure, participant responsibilities and required documentation for expeditions were some of the topics of discussion.