Miscellaneous


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.


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.


Alpha-Numeric Signal Flags

In this modern age of radio, these signal flags are a quaint anachronism that is no longer used, although they were once very important in ship-to-shore and ship-to-ship communications. Each flag stands for both a letter value and a shorthand message. The letters are expressed here in the modern international phonetic alphabet, in which A-B-C would be spoken Alpha-Bravo-Charlie (see below).


Marine distance measurements are expressed in terms of nautical miles. A nautical mile is significantly different from a common or statute mile. The conversion is 1 nautical mile = 1.151 statute miles, or approximately 6076 ft ( vs. 5280 ft for a statute mile. )

Why such a confounded thing as this? Here's why:


wire drag
A fine diagram of a wire-drag operation. The wire is towed between two tugboats, suspended by buoys at a predisposed depth. When the cable snags on an obstruction and draws into a V, the buoys point to its location.

Wire dragging is an operation used to locate and/or reduce the navigational hazard of a sunken wreck, rock, or other obstruction.


Side-scan sonar is a modern method of underwater imaging that can produce remarkably detailed and realistic views of shipwrecks and other bottom features using sound rather than light.

side-scan sonar shipwreck SS Delaware
Notice all the detail in this side-scan sonar image of the Delaware.

squirt bottle

A small spray bottle of soap solution is an extremely useful item to have in your kit.

Much better than soap is baby shampoo. A solution of roughly 50% baby shampoo and 50% water is useful for many things:

  • Lubricating dry suit seals
  • Lubricating gloves and boots
  • Finding leaks in suits, hoses, etc
  • General cleaning-up

This is also the best mask defogger I have yet found - much better than anything you can buy, and it won't sting your eyes ( although it doesn't taste too good. )