Dive on the wreck of Ex-H.M.A.S. Canberra “FFG-02” 25th Feb 2011
Dive time 50 minutes, maximum depth 30.8 metres, dive number 290
The lead up to this dive was filled with both excitement and some nervousness. Excited because I love shipwrecks and I have dived the “HMAS Hobart” in Adelaide and that was pretty awesome but this one is closer to home. Nervous because I always am a little (which I consider a good thing) and I had some issues the last time I attempted this site with an over- tight wetsuit and ear-clearing problems which caused me to abort the dive within the first 10 minutes of hitting the bottom.
“H.M.A.S Canberra”
HISTORY
The “H.M.A.S Canberra” was a long range escort frigate and the second ship to bear that name, the first being heavily damaged and sunk off Savo Island in August 1942. This one was built by Todd Pacific Shipyard Corporation, Seattle, USA, launched in December 1978 and commissioned into the Royal Australian Navy on 21st March 1981. She was powered by gas turbines and could be underway from a cold start in 30 minutes. She displaced 4200 tonnes, 138.1 metres in length and 14.3 metres across the beam and with twin gas turbine engines coupled to a single prop, she was capable of 30 knots. She had the capability to perform a number of roles including air defence, anti-submarine, surveillance, reconnaissance and interdiction. She was also capable of simultaneously countering threats from the air, surface and sub-surface.
She was eventually decommissioned on the 12th December 2005 and in the following year it was decided to strip the ship and sink it as an artificial reef and dive site. After much deliberation, planning and so forth, this was finally achieved on 4th October 2009. The site was open to the diving public a month or so later. For a full video of the sinking, see http://www.hmascanberra.com.au/
“HMAS Canberra” about to go down
Sat 25th Feb 2011
Our charter boat was to leave Portsea pier at 1030 hrs on a glorious Saturday - sun shining, 25 degrees, dead flat water and no wind. It was the makings of a good day. There was a group of 7 of us, 3 who were diving together, Coops, Chris and myself. We have dived together many times before and know each other’s limits and interests. I was a little apprehensive about the dive in general due to problems last time, which was over a year ago and not having done a boat dive since. Both my dive buddies knew this and were prepared to take things easy. I knew though that as soon as I hit the water, I would be fine as indeed was the case.
I was planning to use a single tank, primarily as I was too lazy to climb up onto the boat with twins but seeing as my off-siders had twins and the plan was for a longer dive, twins were the go. I had mine filled with a 36% oxygen mix, (as opposed to “normal” air having 21%. This in simple terms means I am breathing less nitrogen. On the surface, nitrogen is inert, it doesn’t do anything but at depth, the body absorbs it and limits the time you can spend below. With more oxygen, it means you are breathing less nitrogen and therefore can stay down longer. The down side is that oxygen becomes toxic at depth and therefore you are limited as to how deep you can go.) With the mix I had, I could stay down the bottom for some 40 minutes or so and with plenty of air, it wasn’t a problem
As we were all ready, the boat left early and it was a pleasant, cruise out through the heads to the dive site with the exception of the notorious Rip which as usual, beat us around a little.
The Rip can look deceptively calm but I wouldn’t want to be in there
The dive site has yellow mooring buoys all around it so you can easily see the shape of the wreck and the public one is on the port side towards the aft part of the ship. The mooring line is anchored to the seabed (not the wreck as I thought last time). We geared up, checked everything, checked each others gear and then rolled off the side of the boat one by one. The sea was dead flat and with no current so it was an easy swim to the yellow buoy. Once there, we all checked that each other was ok then dropped one at a time down the line. The sea was a beautiful deep green colour and the shot line disappeared into the milky green with an almost dreamy feel.
Chris dropping down the shot line
The shape of the ship comes into view
We dropped slowly to about 12 metres then left the line and swam the 10 or so metres through a green void until the fuzzy silhouette of the ship came into view. We had reached the railing on the deck at the helipad, which is at the rear of the ship. The plan was to get here go up onto the top of the structure and then go down the funnel down to the bottom into the boiler room. We went up onto the upper deck and found the boiler funnel easily – it was the big round hole.....
Coops looking into the black void of the funnel
We looked inside but could only see a couple of metres into the blackness, even the high powered dive torch failed to show up anything down the bottom. Coops went in first, head first of course but I followed feet first. If there was no way out I knew I wouldn’t be able to turn around and I didn’t want to try to come up feet first. I dropped down watching Chris come down after me, some silt falling off the walls as we descended, murking up the water a little. The torch cut through the darkness but I still couldn’t see the bottom.. but as can be seen there is plenty of room, well a bit anyway.
Chris coming down the funnel after me
Eventually I did get to see the bottom and there was a hole big enough to get through. This led to the boiler room at the bottom of the ship. We swam inside there, through the engine room and the workshop area. There were plenty of rooms on either side to go and explore but it was best to keep relatively close together inside for the time being.
Most of the rooms had sunlight penetrating them from holes cut in the side but a few were in total darkness and it was an eerie feeling being inside one and turning the light off...
Remains of an engine block remains of a generator
We swam out of one of the penetration holes in the side, up the hull to the deck then along to the ship to the bridge
Coops making an exit
Swimming alongside the hull Coops at the plaque in the bridge
Coops was already inside looking at the plaque - which I didn’t get to read – I tried a few times to squeeze through the front windows but obviously these weren’t designed with divers in mind and I couldn’t fit, so I had to use traditional methods and go through the door. I went in, did the mandatory “sitting in the captain’s chair” and had a look around at what was left in there. I am sure they had more instrumentation in its heyday. I had to do the usual thing of turning knobs and switches, picking up the telephones and all the things you do in such situations.
After we finished playing in there, we went out and swam along the top of the ship, past the aerial masts, the funnel and eventually back onto the helideck where we swam out back onto the mooring line. We slowly cruised up the line stopping at 5 metres to do a compulsory 5 minute decompression stop (this allows some of the absorbed nitrogen to dissipate out of your system hence preventing possible “decompression illness” or the bends)
Time to leave the ship and head back to the boat – now where is that shot line?
After that it was a leisurely swim to the surface and back to the boat where it wasn’t too hard to get back in with the twins after all.
Awesome and surreal are the only words I can think of to describe this. Swimming inside a rather large vessel, thinking of the crew who served on her, what they did, how spic and span it all would have been in its day. A great dive, some great stuff to see and great people to dive with.
Really was pretty awesome.
Loved reading this, wish I had the courage to take on such an exciting adventure, you have really captured what it must be like to be underneath the sea and exploring so much history, great read xxxx
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