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Above: Adina
Ochert and Nick Gilbert kitting up for for their dive on HMS
Victoria
assisted by
NISD's Walid Nosshie
Since the 1940’s the coastline off
Lebanon has seen its fair share of action. During the early
part of WWII Lebanon, under the control of Vichy French garrisons
loyal to Nazi Germany, was the subject of a five week allied
offensive that resulted in a number of maritime casualties
(some still waiting to be discovered). In the 1970’s
the civil war added to the ranks. Untouched for decades many
of these wrecks are in pristine condition.
The first wreck we dived is known locally
as the ‘Torpedo boat’. Some time during the 1941
offensive this vessel was attacked by allied aircraft and
sunk off Tripoli in the North of Lebanon. With a forty-minute
boat journey to the dive site we were soon kitted up and descending
the shot line in a very comfortable 28 degrees centigrade.
However, below 40 metres the temperature dropped noticeably
and we were glad to be wearing our 2.1mm RI dry-suits. Unfortunately
the shot had bounced off the wreck and on reaching the seabed
we were presented with a featureless sandy bottom. Looking
around we quickly picked up the silt trail stirred up by the
dragging shot and took a compass bearing. Following this bearing
the dark shape of the torpedo boat soon loomed into view.
The wreck is about 60 metres long, upright and well preserved
with live WWII torpedoes (the timer mechanisms still clearly
visible) littering her deck. Expecting to see a sleek shape
similar to the German Schnell boat we found in Malta during
our 2003 expedition, were a little surprised. This craft was
much larger than we had anticipated and had no torpedo launching
tubes. Evidently she had been used by Vichy forces for submarine
re-supply rather than direct offensive action.
The next day high winds meant uncomfortable
conditions in the north so we turned our attention to a wreck
only two minutes from the
NISD
dive centre in Beirut. The SS Lesbian (taking its name from
the Greek island of Lesbos) was a British freighter impounded
in the small commercial port of Beirut during WWII. During
the Allied invasion of Syria and Lebanon the Vichy French
Navy, fearing that allied bombing raids would sink her and
block the small harbour, scuttled the Lesbian a short way
out to sea. Rarely dived, even though she is so close to the
dive centre, Lesbian lies upright and intact at a depth of
60 metres. When we dived this wreck the visibility was limited
to around 8 metres however it can be up to 30. There are numerous
holds, compartments and access ways to explore and with an
abundance of marine life Lesbian, although not the most exciting
dive in Lebanon, is an excellent bad weather alternative.
Left: Bow of
the torpedo boat. Right:
Anchor capstain
Images: Copyright
©2005 Adina Ochert
The following day the weather had improved
significantly so we found ourselves driving north once again,
but this time to dive our main target: the 10,500 ton battleship
HMS Victoria. Victoria sank over eleven decades ago in 1893
after colliding with HMS Camperdown, her bow plunging deeply
into the soft seabed below to leave the wreck standing close
to vertically in 144 metres of water. This formed an incredible
mental image and we would not be disappointed.
At first Victoria, presented a very small
indication on the echo sounder; she is a challenging wreck
to shot and the line can end up several metres from the hull.
However our host Walid Noshie had a foolproof method of ensuring
we could locate her underwater. Dropping shot lines either
side of the stern we used our compasses to take a bearing
between the two. This allowed us a clear point of reference
for the direction of the wreck as we descended.
Entering the water carrying two 12 litre
cylinders each as open circuit bail-out we swam to the shot
line, carried out leak checks and began our descent. One of
the things we really like about diving a rebreather is that
you can take more time on the descent, tuning into your environment
and switching on to the operation of equipment without flapping
about wasting precious gas -especially on deep dives. At 80
metres we stopped. We should have been on the wreck by now
but there was nothing around us but blue. Taking out our compasses
we confirmed the correct direction with the bearing taken
on the surface. Then working as a team one of us swam out
into the blue whilst the other remained in contact with the
line, torch on acting as a reference point. Within seconds
the dark shape of Victoria’s massive ruder and twin
props loomed out of the blue – incredibly just as Mark
had described his experience to us. Signaling to each other
we regrouped by one of the four-bladed starboard propellers.
A quick OK and we descended past guard rails, portholes with
glass still in place (some open) and the battery of 6 inch
quick fire casement guns. Victoria’s massive aft 9.2
ton turret is still in place with its barrel pointing to the
ensign staff that flew the white ensign of the Royal Navy
113 years ago.
Above: HMS Victoria's
propeller at 78m
Image: Copyright
©2005 Adina Ochert
After twenty-five minutes exploring and photographing
the stern of the wreck (most of our time being spent between
95 and 110 metres) it was time to make our ascent. Drifting
slowly along the length of the aft gun we reached the stern
and the ornate balustrade outside Admiral Tryon’s sitting
cabin.
We looked downwards along the remaining length
of the vertical battleship descending into darkness. This
was a truly stunning and unique sight. The massive rudder
and propellers and the impressive array of gun batteries were
a lot to take in on a single dive and as we made our three
hour ascent to the surface we were already looking forward
to the next dive.
 
Left: 6 inch
casement gun at 115m. Right:
6 pounder QF gun on the upper deck
Images: Copyright
©2005 Adina Ochert
The next morning we were back at the dive site with the best
sea conditions of the week. After the usual pre-dive and in-water
checks we began our descent. The visibility was much better
than on our first dive and at around 50 metres we could see
the dark shape of Victoria’s stern below. Walid had
surpassed himself and put the shot line directly onto the
battleship’s starboard side. As planned we tied in and
positioned a strobe. This ensured that there was no chance
of the shot becoming dislodged as it was our escape route
to the support diver in the event of an open circuit bail-out
from depth.
Fining to the centre of the wreck we began
our descent along the aft 9.2 ton gun. Its barrel encrusted
with pinkish-red soft corals. Descending further we made our
way over the gun-house to the port side where we were visited
briefly by a shoal of tuna. At 110 metres we tied off the
camera for use later (as it wasn’t rated to go to the
seabed) and placed another strobe to aid recovery.
After 120 metres the water became very dark.
Scanning with our torches for obstructions and keeping an
eye out for netting -which is everywhere on this wreck -we
continued our descent. Much of Victoria’s teak decking
has rotted away revealing the inner sanctums of this amazing
battleship. At around 135 metres we could see a milky haze
below us -similar to a layer of silt. However at 140 metres
the haze became more defined and we realised that we were
actually looking at the seabed. We landed on the bottom at
144 metres on a flat area with half buried debris scattered
all around -the main concentration of debris being directly
in-front of the wreck. On the port side one of Victoria’s
searchlights lies intact on the seabed. Amazingly away from
the wreck’s shadow there was still an amount of ambient
light, even at this depth. The sides of Victoria cut deep
into the seabed which appears to be an amalgam of fine white
sand and soft silty mud. There are also much larger fish like
grouper that can’t be found around the shallower parts
of the wreck.
Above: A view
of the stern from the aft 9.2 ton gun at 100m.
Image: Copyright
©2005 Adina Ochert
Reaching our planned dive time of 18 minutes
we finned back into the shadow in preparation of our ascent
when we suddenly noticed the distinctive line of the ships
forward breakwater. Drawings and photographs indicate that
this is just forward of the two 110 ton guns which at 144
metres should have been buried into the seabed. Ascending
a little further we found a massive circular hole along the
ships centreline with a coarse thread cut into it. Unmistakably
this was the mounting for the turret but unfortunately there
was no sign of Victoria’s two 16.5 inch guns. Ascending
a little further the remains of the superstructure confirmed
our position on the wreck.
The dive boat’s echo sounder (which
has sounded the seabed in a radius of at least 50m around
the wreck) and three independent depth gauges confirmed the
seabed (not the debris field) to be between 143 and 144 metres.
What we had observed (according to the ships drawings) should
have put HMS Victoria at around 156 metres - leaving a 12
metre discrepancy that is not immediately easy to explain.
Unfortunately, with time against us we had
to leave this conundrum for future expeditions. So, with the
job of safely getting to the surface in-hand we continued
our slow ascent up the wreck returning into the blue. Our
first decompression stop was at 100 metres and after collecting
the camera we spent another 5 minutes photographing the stern,
arriving back at the shot line at our planned run time of
34 minutes.
Above: HMS Victoria's
ornate balustrade at the stern
Images: Copyright
©2005 Adina Ochert
All too soon the incredible sight of Victoria’s
stern and Admiral Tryon’s ornate balustrade was out
of sight and we were making our way towards Moffid -the awaiting
support diver. At 45 metres we signaled to Moffid that we
were OK and flushed our breathing loops with a weaker 15/40
trimix. The combination of this and switching the rebreather
to a higher partial pressure of oxygen reduced our overall
decompression obligation by about 1 hour and 40 minutes. However
we still had over three hours remaining before we could surface.
At 6 metres we were surprised to be joined by a 2 metre lone
Mako shark. It swam around us several times with agitated
jerky movements, stopped, turned to swim another circuit and
finally shot away into the blue.
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