Bob Field's Story - Page 3 of 7

 

It was always of utmost importance to check that the air compressor cylinder air intake was up wind of the air lift compressor exhaust. Carbon monoxide poisoning is a very real threat to a divers air supply, as the carbon monoxide gas is absorbed very easily under pressure, and the effects can be fatal underwater, so the air has to be as clean as possible.

Whenever a diver surfaced from finishing his shift, the normal procedure was to update the next diver as to the current status of the work, and then enter the dive details into the log book, preferably before getting out of his/her wet suit. This ensured the information coming up from the site was recorded while still fresh in the divers mind. All divers carried a small white Formica board attached to their arms with elastic, and a pencil to write anything of significance, such as artifact descriptions, positions in relation to the ship, drawings etc. while actually on the seabed. On surfacing these would be copied straight into the log book. If anything of importance was discovered then a conference would be started, and decisions made on the spot, and a supervisory dive made. In this way the site was excavated in as efficient and professional way as possible, considering the very difficult underwater conditions, and the fact that all the divers were unpaid amateurs.

Diving on the Mary Rose was always an interesting, even exciting experience. First of all was the knowledge that each diver was part of a very unique club, we were the only people who could see and touch the Mary Rose, the ship was last seen afloat by king Henry VIII. Anything that we saw or touched would be being seen for the first time in 450 years.

Also most of what we were finding was unknown up to that point, the knowledge having been lost over the centuries. Going down the descent line was in itself an experience. Below about 20 ft. there were always huge shoals of Pollack & Wrasse fish, which stayed around the site because it was a protected area, free from commercial fishing. Below 30 ft. there was no red colour so everything had a greeny blue colour, then it got darker and darker, until on the seabed, strangely enough, it became lighter, because of the light reflecting off the lighter mud, however it still took 20 minutes for the eyes to get used to the dark.

Around the 48 frame there was a grid of scaffolding tubes laid out on the seabed, over and outside the wreck site. These were to delineate the site and to provide datum points for the 3 dimensional positioning measurements, of any artifacts or parts of the ship, as they were uncovered. We used white plastic folding rulers to take measurements.

Next to the 48 frame, was the outside port rear trench, which went down some 10 feet or more, below the seabed. The visibility was never better than 20 ft, and around 10 ft. was considered good. This made working alone slightly scary, however once you got down to excavating and with the noise of the airlift, there wasn't much time for thinking.

The first job was to position the air lift and then turn on the compressed air. If the tide was running very fast, the whole air lift would buck around, making it quite exciting to work with. When the airlift was turned off, the site was very quiet, with only the sound of the Isle of White ferries passing nearby. Always there was a resident cuttlefish, whose name I think was Percy, who used to hang his tentacles over the scaffolding pipes and watch for the divers to change shift, then into the trench he'd go looking for morsels that had been disturbed with the excavating.

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