Miscellaneous


Port & Starboard

port - the left side of a ship, when facing forward

starboard - the right side of a ship, when facing forward

running lights

The starboard side of a vessel ( or an airplane ) carries a green running light, and the port side carries a red running light. The best way to remember all this is: port, left and red are all short words, while starboard, right, and green are all long(er) words.


John Chatterton and the Horenberg knife
John Chatterton and the Horenberg
knife, the most tangible clue to the
identity of New Jersey's mystery U-boat.

In 1991, while checking out an obscure site known for hanging up fishing lines, I dropped down the anchor line only to find a virgin German U-boat. A wreck diver's fantasy of discovering a new shipwreck somehow had become a reality, and it was every bit as good as could be imagined. While reveling in the experience, I wondered if I would have enough skill and luck to ever make it happen again. Several discoveries later, the challenge is still irresistible.


I find this sort of material to be much more interesting than the endless rehashing of coral reefs, glowingly useless gear reviews, and "buoyancy tips" that fill up the standard glossy diving magazines.

Historical

Conservation ManualDonny L. Hamilton

The Oxford Companion to Ships and the Sea

The Oxford Companion to Ships and the Sea
Peter Kemp, 1988

Lots of interesting information and trivia.





Artifacts recovered after long immersion in salt or freshwater require conservation treatment if they are to last. On exposure to high concentrations of oxygen in the air, iron artifacts will bloom into piles of rust. Wood will crack and split if dried out improperly. Organic materials will crumble to dust.

The manual below details conservation methods for many types of materials and artifacts.


Another entry from the Way-back machine:

NJ Scuba
George Hoffman

"Gentleman George"

by Dan Berg

Note: George Hoffman passed away January 14, 1997, about a year after this article was written. His death is a great loss to the diving community and he will be missed by us all.


LOST AT SEA:
A treatise on the management and ownership
of shipwrecks and shipwreck artifacts

by Michael C. Barnette

shipwreck Lillian

Somewhere out on the ocean, a ship is in distress. Tossed about by churning seas and brutal winds, the vessel struggles to stay afloat. Her crew puts forth a valiant effort while passengers, many incapacitated by waves of nausea spawned by the ever-moving deck underneath their feet, huddle together in fear. The hull is slowly breached, and seawater steadily invades the ship. As the blitzkrieg of flooding water rises to extinguish the boiler fires, the vessel loses all power. Cast in darkness and overwhelmed by the noise of the howling wind and crashing surf, the sea tears off sections of the crippled ship, carrying away numerous unfortunate souls. The end is near.


H10224/86 -- OPR-C121-WH-86; WHILE INVESTIGATING ITEM 751, AN AREA WITH NUMEROUS SIDE-SCAN SONAR CONTACT WAS FOUND AND DEVELOPED USING SIDE-SCAN AND ECHO SOUNDER; DIVER INVESTIGATION DETERMINED LIMITS OF SITE, NATURE OF WRECKAGE, AND LOCATION OF THE LEAST DEPTH; SITE WAS ORIENTED NORTHEAST-SOUTHWEST; CONSISTS MOSTLY OF SHIPYARD DEBRIS IN THE FORM OF HEAT EXCHANGERS, BUCKLED DECK PLATING, TWISTED ANGLE IRON, WOODEN RIBS, AND PIPING OF VARIOUS LENGTHS AND SIZES; THE NORTHEAST END OF THE SITE CONSISTED OF A BARGE LYING IN A NORTHWEST-SOUTHEAST DIRECTION WITH THE BOW OF THE BARGE DEFINING THE SOUTHEAST WALL OF THE SITE; THE NORTHWEST END OF THE BARGE, THE STERN, WAS COVERED WITH METAL DEBRIS, HAWSER LINES, AND TRAWLER NETTING; DIVERS CONCLUDED THAT THIS SITE IS THE WRECK OF A BARGE THAT WAS FILLED WITH SHIPYARD SCRAP IRON AND DEBRIS; PNEUMATIC DEPTH GAUGE LEAST DEPTH OF 50 FT. (ENTERED MSD 4/91)

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