The Rusty Ruskie revisited

The dive trip to the Mikhail Lermontov (affectionately known as the "Rusty Ruskie") kicked off on Friday (November 3rd) aboard the charter boat “Affinity” which was berthed at Picton in the Marlborough Sounds. Ian Swan and myself were joined by a few other like minded wreck divers from New Zealand and Australia. Once the dive gear was loaded and stowed we set sail up the tranquil Queen Charlotte Sound to Ship Cove where we moored up for the night.

Ship Cove is where fellow diver Nigel Lees tragically lost his life just over a year ago in a diving accident. Memories of the incident replayed through my head leaving me feeling both sad and angry at the loss. When we set sail for Port Gore early in the morning I was very glad to be leaving despite the natural beauty of the surroundings.

Affinity soon passed around the infamous Cape Jackson and over the Pelham Rock which gouged the holes that were to eventually sink the ‘Mikhail Lermontov’ back on February 16th, 1986. We were soon at the Lermontov's final resting place in Port Gore where the Baltic Shipping Company liner lay on its starboard side in 37m of water.

I dived with Ian and we chose to visit the Lermontov’s stern where the covered swimming pool, gymnasium, and hospital were located on their various descending decks. We were blessed with the best visibility I’ve ever encountered in Port Gore and the water was a pleasant 13°C. Neither Ian or myself did any penetration into the ship on this dive but merely acquainted ourselves with the layout and even had time to fin the 155m from the stern to the bow, passing some eerily empty cabins and the ships bridge en route.

The second dive of the day saw Ian diving with Anna and Marcia where they did a penetration into the bridge. When everyone was off the Lermontov, I did a solo dive with a paint scrapper and a scrubbing brush in hand and went to the swimming pool to clean some of the heavily encrusted windows. This allowed some daylight to pour in and illuminated the Neptun(e) Bar in natural light. Here I found unopened cans of beer and packets of cigarettes behind the bar counter.

The swimming pool is also the home to a commemorative plaque for diver Erica Lowe who died whilst diving the Lermontov back in May 1987. She became separated from the rest of her dive group and it was a over a year before her body was discovered by some divers. I attempted to give the plaque a wee bit of a clean while I was there.

The borrowed Inspiration rebreather electronics I was using performed flawlessly throughout their use, but needed drying off ready for the next day’s diving. Once the rebreather was broken down and excess moisture removed from the loop, I changed my 3 litre oxygen cylinder and topped up my diluent cylinder. That evening, everybody ate a hearty meal and talked mostly about diving until it was time to retire to bed.

Both Ian and myself were first in the water the next morning and planned to dive to the kiosk storeroom. This took us back to the pool and down through some broken panes of glass into a passageway that lay level with the seabed. I led and reeled off line with Ian close behind. After negotiating a low hanging door, we arrived at the store. Ian had a look around and observed the weird sight of all the doll arms and legs that were floating at the top of the room. After I managed to stir up the silt from the rotting packages in the room, I suggested to Ian it was time to leave by the same route we took in. We exited without any fuss and visited lots of places on the exterior of the ship whilst we slowly ascended through our designated decompression stops.

After our long surface interval, we told the dive supervisor that we were heading to the hospital area of the Lermontov. The visibility of the water was beginning to drop a bit, but this had no real impact on the already murky water around the props and rudder. With our HID lights switched on, we moved over to the hospital entrance and I tied off the line from my reel to the watertight door and began my penetration leaving Ian to keep watch from outside the doorway. Room after room passed above and below. I carefully counted and took note of the sequence of fixtures, doorways, double doors until I reached the “Waiting Room”. There is no natural light this deep into the ship but my light lit up the areas above and below me. I could see open cupboards and drawers where divers had scavenged artefacts from them over the years. All too soon it was time to return down the passageway and back to Ian.

Back aboard Affinity we waited for everyone to finish their dives. Once they were on the boat, we steamed over to a sandy slope in Port Gore where a few of us dived for scallops. On the seabed at 18m I found an unusually large spotted stargazer (Genyagnus monopterygius) which was not bothered by my presence and just lay motionless as I finned around it. I was the last to get out of the water and my evening meal was waiting for me “…in the oven!”. We spent the night anchored there, sheltering out of the wind that was blowing across the rest of the bay.

My last dive of the trip was on Monday morning with a change of electronics on the rebreather. Pete Mesley lent me his “Vision” rebreather electronics which incorporated a HUD and a single arm-mounted module for the controllers/secondary displays. The dive was planned for the Bolshoi Lounge with Ian. Upon entering the cavernous room through the doorway below the bridge we quickly came across the remnants of the ornate ceiling lights. Ian followed me over to a point where I tied off my line and waited for me as I went exploring deeper into the darker recesses of the ship. After I finished and had all my line back on the reel we casually checked out the lounge. This turned out to be a great dive but it was soon over as we had to leave the Lermontov’s confines to start our ascent for decompression. Once back on Affinity, we both knew the trip was coming to an end so we packed away our dive gear ready for the journey home.

This was a good trip with some great people sharing similar interests, particularly a love of rust. :o)
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Photo Credit: Swan, I., 2006 (November 6), Cape Jackson and the Jackson Head Beacon on the Walker Rock. All rights reserved.
Photo Credit: Swan, I., 2006 (November 4), Port Gore seen from the deck of Affinity. All rights reserved.
Photo Credit: Swan, I., 2006 (November 4), The encrusted swimming pool windows. All rights reserved.
Photo Credit: Swan, I., 2006 (November 4), Commemorative plaque to Erica Lowe. All rights reserved.
Photo Credit: Swan, I., 2006 (November 5), Dive gear on affinity. All rights reserved.
Photo Credit: Swan, I., 2006 (November 5), A sea anemone on the encrusted rails of the Lermontov. All rights reserved.
Photo Credit: Swan, I., 2006 (November 7), A sign in Russian. All rights reserved.