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Originally posted by pry
Hey Nik, They found Ark Royal in December 2002, see the following

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/2585887.stm

I wonder if there is any chance of that documentary being shown here in the states. Any idea what other ships they are looking for? The P.O.W and the Repulse would be good canidates.

Timjot, POW and Repulse have both been located and are being dived on with permission of the UK government as long as they "Look but not Touch or Enter" the wrecks. Seems they were not even considered "War Graves" untill 1986.
I'll see if I can locate that dive page I saw a while back out of OZ that had a few images of Repulse.

One interesting thing I have noticed in the last couple of years that with the advances in ROV's more and more wrecks are being located and filmed. I would like to see the Ark Royal Doc, Maybe if I part with some more of my money and upgrade to digital cable so I can get the BBC channels here then maybe I can see some of these.

When you say dived on do you mean by divers or ROV's. I assumed they must have went down in pretty deep water. Curious how the UK still holds jurisdiction. If in Malaya waters I would think they would hold juridiction. If in international waters are they not in therory fall under international salvagers laws?

BTW, thanks for the info, seems they are finding all the famous wrecks these days. Not many mysteries left.

Originally posted by TIMJOT
When you say dived on do you mean by divers or ROV's. I assumed they must have went down in pretty deep water. Curious how the UK still holds jurisdiction. If in Malaya waters I would think they would hold juridiction. If in international waters are they not in therory fall under international salvagers laws?

POW and Repulse are not that deep, POW is upside down and Repulse is on her side at about 60 meters (180 feet or thereabouts for us metric system challanged Americans) and both can be dived on with special air mixtures.
I am not a diver but I think 120 feet is as far as a recreational diving can go without the special equipment.

Found some Repulse images here
http://www.seimoa.com/Repulse_Article.htm

The jurisdiction issue is interesting, as best as I can remember all USN war wrecks are still the property of the USN (AKA US Government) for eternity by international treaty as "War Graves" The same applies to the cemeteries in France and Belgium. I assume that UK has something similar worked out.

Originally posted by pry
POW and Repulse are not that deep, POW is upside down and Repulse is on her side at about 60 meters (180 feet or thereabouts for us metric system challanged Americans) and both can be dived on with special air mixtures.
I am not a diver but I think 120 feet is as far as a recreational diving can go without the special equipment.

Found some Repulse images here
http://www.seimoa.com/Repulse_Article.htm

The jurisdiction issue is interesting, as best as I can remember all USN war wrecks are still the property of the USN (AKA US Government) for eternity by international treaty as "War Graves" The same applies to the cemeteries in France and Belgium. I assume that UK has something similar worked out.

Well, I guess that counts me out. I only have a open water certification ( max 60ft ) but have gone as deep as 100ft.

I agree they should be treated as war graves. I only asked because I seem to remember some concerns once they discovered the locations of the Bismark and Titanic that salvagers could in theory claim the wrecks.

Thanks again for the info. You seem to have a link to everything:)

Originally posted by TIMJOT

Thanks again for the info. You seem to have a link to everything:)

Always remember Google is your friend
(over time you figure out what key search words work best)

I started a "Fates of all USN Warships" project back in 95 or so and have gathered a big data base of information. A diving friend of mine told me to check out dive sites for wreck images and in some cases the images I found cleared up the some conflicting fates listed in "Well reguarded" history books. Since then I have gotten very interested in underwater wrecks.

So every now and again I do a wreck search and that is how I found the Yamato images that I started this thread with.

The practical limit for diving with regular air is about 130 ft, although you can go a bit deeper but you'll get nitrogen narcosis the deeper you go, plus potential decompression issues. Once when I was young and stupid (not so young anymore) I did a dive to 200' to get a picture of the depth gauge. Got the picture and flooded my camera. Stupid and expensive.

Very interesting thread. I understand that, for those divers out there, a great site is the former Brit base at Scapa Flow. Most of the German fleet from the FIRST World War rests there after the skeleton crews scuttled them to keep them out of the hands of the Brits (after the war). I believe it is pretty shallow, but COLD, water too.

A guy I worked with drowned while scuba diving at Truk lagoon. I was surprised, because I didn't know he was interested in WWII ships, and also that he died exploring them.

From what I understand Truk is a great place for diving and visiting WWII wreckage, but very dangerous for some reason as well.

This carrier was sunk by the japanese in early 42 off ceylon and it is a very very deep dive about five hundred feet if I remember the show correctly...think I'll do a search on it.prett cool link I just found.....http://www.battleships-cruisers.co.uk/hms_hermes.htm

IIRC one of the alpha testers for WiTP dives on wrecks.............care to put in your 5 cents Drongo?

Bikini Atoll is always a "one day" for me, when I've got the time and money.

Deepest I've gone was 48 metres on a Jap sub off Gudalcanal. That was enough, as I get scared when you cant see the surface anymore. :p

Hi all,

There is one most excellent site about "Force Z" ships "Repulse" and "Prince
of Wales":

http://www.forcez-survivors.org.uk


There you can find survivor accounts from both sides - British sailors on
ships and Japanese pilots (Japanese pictures and accounts of "Betty" usage are
very interesting).


Leo "Apollo11"

Originally posted by dwesolick
I was born and raised in Houston, TX. I visited the (BB) USS Texas many times. The bell of the USS Houston was retrieved by divers many years ago (60s or 70s, I think) and is on display aboard the Texas.

They say a ship's soul resides in its bell. If so, the Houston's soul is perfectly safe.

Hey Dwesolick,

Seem to recall that the Houston's bell was not retrieved untill 1995 from the wreck, I THINK you are remembering the bell from the 1st Texas that was on display in the wardroom right next to that big model of the Houston. The model has since been removed, lost for a time, relocated and is now undergoing restoration and will be put on display aboard the Lexington down in Corpus. If I remember right (and I will check out to make sure and let you know) the Houston's bell is located at UH in their memorial.

For a quick trip down memory lane check out a bunch of images we took of the Texas last year... link to images at bottom of page.
http://www.navsource.org/archives/featu ... /texas.htm

Most of the ships at Scarpa Flow were salvaged for scrape in the inter-war period (1919-1938), almost all that were left have been salvaged for their prebomb steel. I think only the HMS Vanguard is left and it was being taken apart several years ago.

Originally posted by Heeward
I think only the HMS Vanguard is left and it was being taken apart several years ago.

HMS Royal Oak is still in Scappa Flow as a war grave with 800+ souls aboard and still on duty.

And here is a list with conditions of wrecks in Scappa Flow with some images and a few low rez movies of dives to watch.

http://atschool.eduweb.co.uk/jralston/r ... recks.html