Day 8 (8th August 1015) – Preservation of the Sea Venture, 9 out of 50 Wrecks completed! Friday afternoon came upon us very quickly after a very busy first week to our adventure. The admin party met up, got the boats and equipment ready and loaded all the vehicles ready to move out of camp early the next morning. Luckily all our new equipment arrived from Scuba Pro, so a few hours were spent putting that together and testing it before its first use the next day, what a relief, no more running to dive shops to borrow kit (thank you BWD). The alarm went off for 0515hrs and all the administrative party (CSgt W and his team) made its way into camp for 0600hrs. They immediately made their final checks,loaded up the the last pieces equipment and departed Camp for 0630hrs. We arrived on the beach next to Fort St Catherine and immediately placed up the Regimental Flags and Pop-up tents. Laid out all the equipment and administration area ready to support the day. The two Boston Whalers arrived which completed the set up for the start of the event. 0900hrs came and the remainder of the Regimental Divers arrived at the beach, the following soldiers were diving from the Regiment: Major Dwight Robinson, WO1 (RSM) Gavin Rayner, WO2 (RQMS) Jimmy Self, CSgt Kevin DeMelo, CSgt Tim Furr, CSgt Jason Smith, Sgt Giovanni Lema, Sgt Marquisha Douglas, Cpl Andrew Kirkpatrick, Cpl Shelton Williams, Pte Alexander Gibbs, Pte Neville Vanderpool, Pte Jonathan Pedro, Pte Satyrah Robinson and Bandsman Jarrod Zancanella. Also joining us Sarah Lagen and Cpl Raymond Hainey from the Royal Gazette, and Adrienne Smatt from VSB. 0930hrs the reconnaissance party deployed on one Whaler to RV with Dr. Philippe Max Rouja Dept of Conservation and Custodian of Historic Wrecks (The lead in this project) at the sight of the Sea Venture. We rafted next to his boat and met the rest of the team: Stuart Joblin (owner of Makin Waves and long term friend and Dive Buddy of Philippe’s, Geoff Gardner of the Bermuda Underwater Exploration Institute and a visiting intern who I failed to get the name of (sorry!). A quick five minutes chat on how we were going to get the job done and we moved back to collect the first wave of divers. We loaded two boats with 4 divers and approx 20 ¾ full Hessian Sand bags and moved back out to the wreck site, on arriving we dropped the sand bags next to the drop line set by Stuart and Geoff next to the Wreck of the Sea Venture. One boat moved back to the shore to rendezvous with the Governor of Bermuda and the Commanding Officer of the Regiment. While the first four Regiment divers kitted up and got their selves ready to enter the water and start the Operation. We picked the Governor and CO up after getting them to fill a few sandbags to aid the mission and moved to the Wreck site with their snorkel kit in hand and received a brief from the RQ. On arrival at the site they received a quick brief from Philippe before entering the water to take a look at the Sea Venture. At this stage the divers were poised in the water over the wreck site ready to move and start the preservation! The CO and Governor where taken back to shore and the next wave of divers and more sandbags were collected and brought back out to the site. The preservation began as the Soldiers with Philippe moved the sandbags over the exposed wooden timbers of the sea venture, still the flint ballast laying on the sea bed from a distant UK river bed. We managed to get all 16 divers in the water to assist with the covering of the wreck,becoming part of the Sea Ventures long underwater history, we laid approximately 50 bags on the Wreck. With the operation finished about 1400hrs we moved back to the boats to say thank you to all and said our goodbyes. Leaving the two Regimental boats on the water to remove a Lobster Pot from near the wreck site that had miraculously appeared, after instruction from Philippe and permission for Fisheries to do so. We packed up the location and the Task Force moved back to Warwick Camp for the big clean, which we completed after a couple of hours. Finally rapping the day up with a couple of cold ones and a chat before we all went home after this most memorable day! The Regiment would like to say thank you to Dr. Philippe Max Rouja, Mr Robert Steinhoff (who unfortunately could not join us) and the Dept of conservation and HWA for allowing the Regiment to be part and provide manpower to assist Bermuda in the preservation its most historical Maritime Treasure the Sea Venture.

• published: 10 Aug 2015
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