U-Boats and Targets

The Second Try is a Charm

This dive trip story really starts with the desperate struggle above and under the seas along the coast of North Carolina during World War Two, but I will fast forward to the Fall of 2001.

Jeff Worthington (my longtime CPA and occasional weekday diving partner) suggested that we go on a costal dive with his daughter Margaret and my daughter Margaret Jane. Janie had not participated in an offshore North Carolina dive so I agreed and off we went. We headed to Morehead City and the Olympus dive center one fall Friday evening. As we rode down our college student daughters chatted excitedly about the fun the next days activities would bring. While I live less than two hours from the coast, I dive the tropics and semi tropics...some of which will be clear in a little bit.

We arrived at the dive shop at 600 hours in the morning and started to check in. Flags were already standing full out at attention in the rising wind, no slack flags these. I had that feeling deep in my gut that said "abort". Because of the boat space situation, they were on the Midnight Express and we the Olympus. That was of no concern as we were heading to the same wrecks. We would see each other underwater. Our boat was filled with a group of "tech" divers or wanna be tech divers from somewhere in the mid west. I have never seen so much equipment this side of a research or navy dive operation. The gear was virtually identical so I made the easy guess that it was the main income for a dive shop. They even had dry suits for the icy 84 degree water. Triple and quadruple tanks with 70's hanging from the waist were standard fare. (Ok, a slight exaggeration, they only had double 100s....but the extra 70 was there.) They had been diving for a week and this was their last day. It was an amazing sight. The relentless techno babble was deafening.

The two boat convoy headed into the uninviting wind stirred ocean as the dark orange sun rose from the foam covered waters. Within minutes the other boat turned around and went in just after someone caught their breakfast in their hat. They were the smart ones. Our group elected to go........like the doomed English Cavelry in the Crimean War immortilized in Alfred Lord Tenyson famous poem.

Half a league, half a league,
Half a league forward,
Onward into the valley of deep,
bounced the wondered.

Waves to the right of us,
waves to the left of us,
crashed and thundered
their foam flew over the boat.

`Forward the Odessy!'
Was there a man dismay'd
Not tho' the divers knew
Some one had blunder'd:
Mine not to make reply,
Mine not to reason why,
Theirs but to go and dive,
Into the valley of Deep
While I wondered.


Sorry Al...that was really weak..

I learned later that some sane person on the other boat had taken a vote and they wisely elected to hang it for the day. Janie and I however were stuck with a bunch of gung ho desperate to dive heros.

The waves crashed over the bow and the water ran along the overhead to plunge to the deck at the stern of the dive boat. Wow was this fun.... I told Janie that my best guess was that dive conditions were going to be unacceptable and we were in for a long boat ride that day. She agreed and we sat back an relaxed. What the hell, I kinda like a rough boat ride and this was going to be interesting.

I informed the dive master that we would probably not dive unless the water was going to be better than I expected...but that we were not upset. He understood clearly what was going on. The majority customer may not be right but they are the customer. They had rented the boat and we were walkons.

I really felt sorry for the divemaster who had to set that hook in 110 feet of water on the wreck with a surge, a strong current, and 10 feet of visibility. My opinion was validated so we sat back and observed.

All of them except us and one other who was too sick to live 5 more minutes went off the boat for the dive of a lifetime. After about 15 minutes they started back up the bouncing dive ladders.

"Wow, did you see that wreck?"

Quite to my surprise they all got back aboard reasonably unscathed and we headed to the next site and a two hour surface interval in a bouncing sea. Most of them were suffering from Mal de Mare but they gamely went on their second dive while Janie and I sat that one out. Paraphrasing Mark Twain, I would rather decline a bad dive than a couple of German beers. At my age I am not interested in bad dives....if it ain't fun, I don't do it.

On the way back in the mate called me aside an told me that he was sorry that we had been trapped all day, and that he appreciated our cheerful attitude. The Olympus Dive operation is a class act....They gave us rainchecks for another trip. Later that afternoon, the four of us headed back to Raleigh, a little disappointed but safe to dive another day...



That day came yesterday--almost one year later. We called in our rainchecks and headed back to the beach while a hurricane was crashing into Louisiana. A call on Thursday to the dive shop encouraged us as they said conditions were ideal. Boy....were they right on.

We met at the dive shop at 600 hours in the middle of the Morehead Seafood Festival. The shop handled all those problems with good humor and our boat left the dock on time. This time all four of us were on the same boat...life was looking good. Gentle swells rocked the boat as we headed out to sea accompanied by a friendly pod of dolphins. That was a good omen. The balance of the dive group was a group from Newport News, a father and son who had less than 15 dives apiece, and a delightful lady with a slightly foreign accent.

Our first dive was the Papoose.

The divemaster reported from the bottom a visibility in excess of 90 feet and a slight current. Excitement spread through the divers like the plague through 14th century Europe.

Because we were diving the U-352 on the second dive, Janie and I decided to make the first dive a checkout dive. We would dive to a depth of 110 feet for 15 minutes at max leaving our main nitrogen uptake to the second dive. Yeah, I know this is a reverse profile, but all dives are decompression dives and our flying was going to be low on route 70 going home that night. Besides, the U352 is the top dive wreck of North Carolina. I also decided to ration my pictures of the Papoose to optimize the number of shots on the sub. All the shots in this series of pages were taken with a sony cybershot model 70 in a housing of my own design..

All pictures on this site are copyright Tom Rose. Non commercial rights to pictures is free but requires a request. Most of the images are available in high resolution (3.3 Megapixel) for commercial use. If you want a CD of the images and were on the dives, send me an e-mail and it can be arranged if you send me a self addressed stamped cd mailer.

The Papoose sunk hull side up.	Janie peeks in toward me.
One of many sea urchins.	Janie and I swim over the hull.
Jeff swims in a shoal of fish.	After the short dive, we headed up to the hang line expecting to be first, but there was a crowd on the line. On the boat, I checked my pressure gauge...it read 2500 pounds. I hadn't even used a 1000 pounds of air. Most everyone else only had 1000 pounds or less. They had been so excited that they had gobbled air like a dog eating its lunch. We were ready for the U-boat. Our boat hung around for a little then headed for the feast of the day. It took its time as we needed a two hour surface interval.
More good news awaited us as the bottom condition report came up from the divemaster as he set the hook on the U-boat. Even better visibility and almost no current. Even I was getting excited about a second great dive. I discussed the dive plan with Janie. We would do 20 minutes on the wreck and be conservative on the decompression indicated by our computers. This dive we would not be the last off the boat. We descended into the crystal clear water with the U-boat in sight almost immediately with a veil of tiny bubbles from the divers ahead of us. It was a wondrous sight. The first thing we saw was the conning tower (Photo is the header of this page).	Baitfish and divers along the top of the sub.
Jeff Worthingtons daughter swims as one with a school of baitfish.	The baitfish population sometimes obscures the view of the sub. As the schools dart and turn in formation, reality turns into a fantasy.
The water was so warm that a "T" shirt or even less was comfortable. Heaven....	The dance of the fish schools around us and the wreck was amazing. I sometimes lost sight of the fact that the ship was the purpose of the dive.
I was transfixed... before my eyes.....	as the fish darted and danced.... To a symphony only they could hear...

Each of us has their reason for entering this undersea world. Mine has evolved over the years. While wrecks are very interesting, it is the ability to be surrounded by the flow of life in the living sea in a way that you never can, even in a rain forest, above the silver mirror that really makes me feel alive and at one with the biosphere.