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RESEARCH, EDUCATION & MEDICINE
ADVANCED DIVING
46
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FALL 2016
M
odern technology brings
enhanced opportunities for
exploring shipwrecks. But
deep wreck expeditions are
complex undertakings that
require a team of technical
divers prepared to work with literally tons of advanced
equipment both underwater and topside. The 2016
centenary dives on the
Britannic
involved divers
working alongside submersibles and remotely operated
vehicles (ROVs) at great depths.
Compounding the need to employ specialized
equipment and detailed operational protocols was the
filming of the expedition for both a BBC television
special and a big-budget Russian documentary to be
distributed globally.
Conducting deep ocean dives with free-swimming
technical divers has long been the subject of controversy.
Members of the commercial diving industry deemed
the 1994
Lusitania
dives by Starfish Enterprise, a British
deep wreck diving team of the 1990s with whom I did
my first dives on the
Britannic
, unsafe due to a lack
of diver safety protocols and the absence of an onsite
recompression chamber. The 2016
Britannic
endeavour
was characterized by careful planning, substantial
collaboration and detailed safety protocols.
Text and photos by Leigh Bishop
PREPARATION AND PROTOCOLS
FOR A DEEP WRECK EXPEDITION
The Logistics of Exploration
A submersible uses its powerful lights to
illuminate the wreck of the
Britannic
, which
sank in the Agean Sea on Nov. 21, 1916 —
100 years ago.