| Port Kembla wreck dived Posted - 13 February 2007 : 10:47:07 AM Gidday, A small team from Auckland has located and dived the wreck of the "Port Kembla" in 96m some 8 miles west of Farewell Spit (top of the South Island). This wreck was significant in that she was lost to a mine in 1917 left by the same German raider that laid the mine that sank the Cumberland off southern NSW. As is often the case, local fishermen had marks they believed to be the wreck but there was no contemporary confirmation of that. The wreck had not been dived previously. We dived the wreck last Friday and Saturday. It is a stunning site, or at least it was on the days we were there. A good 30 - 40m viz on the bottom with natural light to burn and the wreck was covered in fish. We did not begin to see the whole thing, but it was positively identified from plates bearing the company insignia (Commonwealth and Dominion Shipping Company). We also found the ship's bell. The mode of sinking is not the only similarity with the Cumberland. The site also lies in very exposed and difficult waters; at the entrance to Cook Strait which is famous for its inclement weather and strong currents. Travelling to dive it will always be a bit of a gamble, but potentially with great rewards if our experience is anything to go by. The team was: master and mate - Tony and Nick (local fishermen); deck boss - Geoff Payne; local logistics and deck support - Brian (Nelson diver); bottom divers - Pete Mesley and Simon Mitchell; safety diver - Dave Young; topside video and research - Mike Fraser. I will post a couple of stills from the video when they become available. Simon M. |
The article and forum discussion can be found here: Dive-Oz Discussion Forums/Technical Diving - Wreck Diving/Port Kembla wreck dived
There are pictures of the expedition on Pete Mesley's website and they can be found here: Port Kembla Expedition 2007
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Article Credit: Mitchell, S., Port Kembla wreck dived, 2007 (February 13), Dive-Oz Web Services. All rights reserved.
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1 comments:
Interesting - congratulations on the success of the expedit. Just doing up stories of early shipping around Nelson / Wgtn coastline with 88 yr old father and have done up his story of the Port Kembla - this all adds interest for him - plus article in Nelson Fishing paper - Not too many left now who know all the shipping of the early 1900s. Living in Qld but web sites like yours make it just like yesterday for him. thank you.
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