16 Sept 2012 DIVING on the RMS Rhone off Salt Island in the BVI's

We had met with new friend Chris Potgieter, his wife Jools and their children on Peter Island where he is the Chief Engineer for the island.

I will mention more about this in a different blog, but this visit led to Chris and I chatting about doing various dives together around the BVI’s, and in particular we wanted to start with diving on the RMS Rhone.

The RMS Rhone was featured in the filming of the movie, ‘The Deep’ in 1977 with Nick Nolte and included a scene of Jacqueline Bisset diving in a T-shirt.

Anyway, I will include some facts on how the RMS Rhone wreck came to be, but first a little on our news:

Ana had joined Jools at the Peter Island spa for a mornings Yoga session whilst Chris and his boys loaded up his dive gear into the dingy and swam at the beach.

Eventually the girls emerged having had a thorough work out and it was time to head back to Impi.

We waited a while for Graham (who owns a lovely coffee shop called ‘The Watering Hole”, the local South African shop and manages a yachting company in Tortola) and friends to arrive on a charter catamaran called ‘Re-action’.

Before long Re-action had arrived with all its guests and lowered their dingy which headed out from Deadman's Bay for Salt Island where the RMS Rhone wreck lies meters below.

We had decided to take Impi across as I felt it would be nice for the girls and kids to accompany us even though not diving on the wreck, this was a ‘platform’ from which to swim and enjoy basking in the sun.

Before long, Graham, Chris and I had fitted our dive gear on and were in the water.

Brent:

Chris:

Graham changing a faulty O'ring:

We swam across to the others at their dingy and together we descended down to the seabed below.

Deadman's chest can be seen behind and the dingy is roughly where the RMS Rhone went down

As we flippered our way along, I observed a number of jelly fish and it was not too long before I felt a ‘stinging sensation’ on my leg … a moon jelly had got me!

Moon Jelly fish:

I must admit that the sting was more of an irritation than painful, but it resulted in me being more cautious as I meandered between them.

The visibility was fair although there were a huge number of ‘white specs’ in the water.

As we approached the Rhone, I observed the dark shapes of the wreckage emerging in my sight.

My mind raced back to those final moments on board the doomed ship as I swam around the carnage that remained.

Looking up, the skeleton of the wreckage was beautiful against the light blue and there were huge numbers of fish to be seen as well as corals and other reef plants.

I wished I had taken my underwater flash with me but I have yet to learn about underwater photography and camera settings let alone work with a complicated flash too!

Checking depth, air supply and the compass from time to time:

Chris taking a video of the dive with a 'Go-Pro' camera attached to his wrist

Upturned hull on which a coral garden now grows

The dive was spectacular although my spine shivered as I thought of all the suffering and anxiety that must have taken place within the confines of this structure on that fateful day … I found myself transported back in time 145 years before and thinking of how fallible man is, how short-lived our lives can be … this unsinkable ship lay at the bottom of the ocean in ruin. A captain, well trained in navigating the heavy seas, crew members who had fought many a storm and worked hard at keeping the boat luxurious and clean, passengers from all walks of life taking a holiday with their children to get away from the stresses of life, business men, teachers and lovers seeking romantic destinations … how segregation of the classes between 1^st class, 2^nd and 3^rd class cabins at that moment of cutting and running from the storm brought such separation to meaningless drivel … everyone contemplating only one thing … survival!

I felt mesmerised in the moment … drifting meters below I observed the wreckage with parallel thoughts of past and present as life’s reality poked at my soul … the reality of mortality, the meaning of life and the ability of the human mind to avoid and escape tragic events and trick one into the belief that we will live forever … there will come a day, but far away …

Once again I considered my life, the dream of sailing, diving beneath the oceans of far away foreign lands, waking up to new bays and coves and watching the sunset over others … I counted my blessings once again … I considered my good fortune to have taken a break from life as so many know it to be … to have overcome the lure and trap that money brings … to be ‘off the grid’ and ‘free’ … and I was grateful to have had Ana alongside me when I plucked up the courage to let go of the things I had worked so hard for, things that seek to clutter and bind one to an existence that always promises a ‘better tomorrow’ when we in fact live in a ‘better today’.

As we emerged back to Impi I noticed a number of nasty jelly fish with incredibly long tentacles. I made sure to keep well to the side of them as a sting from this bad boy could cost a visit to the hospital!

It is a highly toxic ‘Warty Jelly fish’!

Up, up and up until we eventually surfaced.

We found the current had swept us some distance from the boat in the direction of Tortola … this proved to be an interesting and hard swim for us back toward Impi.

I was exhausted but happy to eventually place my hand on the back steps of Impi and to be greeted with a hearty smile from Ana who was waiting with towel in hand!

What a lovely dive this has been … what a thought provoking dive … I was glad to be back on board as Ana, our friends and me cruised back to drop anchor in Deadman’s Bay off Peter Island before heading to Deadman’s Beach Bar and Grill for lunch.

And so I had finally dived on the RMS Rhone wreck …

What had happened to this ship?

What had brought an ‘unsinkable ship’ to the ocean floor below?

Here are some of the facts around the RMS Rhone and its last moments:

The RMS Rhone, similar to the Titanic as in being considered ‘an unsinkable ship’ (apparently, by the British Royal Navy), had hit the bottom of the ocean in October 1867, and here I was about to dive down to it some 145 years later … as the concept sank in … a real ship with people and cargo on board hustling and busting about was now one I would be exploring at the bottom of the sea!

The RMS Rhone was a royal mail steam packet ship tasked to transport cargo between England, the Caribbean and South America. Carrying a propeller which was the second bronze propeller ever built, she was (for those years) incredibly fast at a speed of 14 knots.

Built in London and launched during the year of 1865 … 94m (310 feet) in length and 12m (40 feet) wide and carrying two masts, the RMS Rhone was one of the very first ships ever powered by both sail and steam to be built of iron.

August 1865 saw RMS Rhone off on her maiden voyage to Brazil where over the next number of voyages she proved her strength and reliability as she encountered and beat her way through a number of severe storms before being moved to the West Indian route.

She had become a favourite for passengers on account of speed and luxury with 253 1^st class cabins, 30 2^nd class cabins and 30 3^rd class cabins.

Due to an outbreak of yellow fever, the original coaling station had been moved from St. Thomas (then Danish owned islands, currently US owned Islands – USVI) to Great Harbour here on Peter Island which is why the RMS Rhone had pulled into Great Harbour alongside the RMS Conway on 19 October 1867 to refuel.

In those years it was thought that the month of October was outside of hurricane season. 

This was why the captain of the Rhone, Robert F. Wooley decided to remain at anchor in Great Harbour despite a rapidly dropping barometer and dark clouds, a sure indication of an approaching storm. 

Unbeknown to him at the time, the storm was in fact a hurricane which would become a category 3 hurricane named ‘San Narciso Hurricane’ reaching a peak of 130 mph. San Narciso would drive approximately 80 ships ashore and would cost approximately 600 people their lives by drowning.

Captain Wooley decided it was best to make way for the open sea as the eye of the storm moved overhead … he feared that since they were dragging anchor during the first part of the storm, that as the eye passed, the change in weather (synonymous with hurricanes) would drive the RMS Conway and RMS Rhone onto the shore of Peter Island.

Quickly, a decision was taken to transfer all passengers onto the RMS Rhone as it was ‘unsinkable’ and to move the RMS Conway into Road Harbour Tortola. This was the same area where Ana and I had witnessed ships dragging anchors and colliding (from on board Impi) as storm Isaac passed by … the story and photos are on our blog at http://cat-impi.blogspot.com/2012/08/storm-isaac-creates-havoc-in-road.html

Passengers on board the RMS Rhone were strapped to their beds to prevent injury due to the ferocity of the ocean … you could only imagine the panic and fear of these people …

The RMS Conway had managed to lift anchor and slip away before the Rhone but lost all hands as it was caught by the back end of the storm … the Rhone in the meanwhile was struggling to lift its anchor as the chain had got caught in coral … ordered to ‘cut it away’ (the anchor can be seen on the same coral to this day in Great Harbour) the RMS Rhone made its run for open sea between Deadman’s Chest Island and Salt Island avoiding an underwater reef between these islands known as ‘Blonde Rock’ as although at a depth of some 7.6m (25 feet) below sea level, during hurricanes the swells are so severe that they could cause the ship to hit bottom.

RMS Rhone was a mere 230m (250 yards) from safety in the open sea when the second half of the storm swung around from the south. As the winds shifted in the opposite direction RMS Rhone was at the mercy of the sea as it literally was tossed into Black Rock Point on Salt Island.

The RMS Rhone lies between this ball we are attached to and the point seen - beyond this it would have been safely in open seas

The ship split into two sections and the hot boilers which had been running at full steam exploded as the cold water made contact with them.

The bow of the ship lies in 24-25 meters (80 feet) and the stern is about 9-10 meters (30 feet).

Only 23 in total of the 146 people (plus an unknown number of passengers from the Conway) on board survived … all 23 were crew.

Many of the bodies were buried on Salt Island where there is a cemetery.

In 1950, sadly, the British Royal Navy saw the ship wreck as a navigational hazard due to the vessels mast sticking out above the water and blew up the stern section … this is a great pity!

The Rhone has become a popular dive site and even regarded by some as the best in the world … personally, and although this was a really nice dive, I hope to see better!