Wreck Diving Adventures
I’ve had so many adventures while diving on shipwrecks that I could write a book about them. In fact, I did write a book about them; at least some of them. I titled the book appropriately Wreck Diving Adventures.
In the book I described two of my shipwreck discoveries: the U.S. submarine Tarpon (off North Carolina) and the World War Two freighter Kolkhosnik (off Halifax, Nova Scotia).
I described how I dived on a wreck that was shown on the charts as the Malchace, then recovered the ship’s bell which was stamped with the name Manuela. The wartime identification of these two torpedoed wrecks was reversed, so that the Manuela was listed as the Malchace, and the Malchase was listed as the Manuela. The wrecks lay only a mile or so from each other.
Kolkhosnik Lee Tank
Manuela Bell
The book has two chapters about freshwater wrecks: one about wrecks in Lake Michigan, the other about the U.S. submarine S-49, which lies at a depth of 130 feet in the Patuxent River, Maryland.
Missing from the book is an event which, at the time of publication, had not yet occurred. This event happened on the U.S. cruiser Wilkes-Barre. Named after a city in Pennsylvania, about 30 miles from where I now live, the Wilkes-Barre was scuttled in an explosive test off Key West, Florida. The book has photographs of the sinking in 250 feet of water.
The first event was an encounter with a giant grouper called a jewfish. At a depth of 220 feet, I swam through a doorway into a compartment that led to an adjacent one whose bulkheads were lined with sinks and toilets. I was still in the light zone when the glow entering the doorway went dark. When I turned around, I saw that a jewfish had followed me inside. It was so large that its flanks barely fit through the doorway, and it measured more than half the height. Its body practically filled the opening – and blocked my way out of the wreck.
Not one to panic, I slowly eased my way toward the fish, hoping that it would move away so that I could escape. Instead, the fish swam backward and exited the doorway. I chased after it. Once outside the wreck, the fish outdistanced me effortlessly, hardly seeming to strain its fins. Soon it was out of sight. I re-entered the compartment and continued my exploration. But throughout the remainder of the dive, I kept looking over my shoulder with a feeling of anxiety.
Interested in buying a copy of this book or related books?
This book is more than a collection of tales depicting the exploration of unknown or little known shipwrecks, of colorful images of breathtaking underwater vistas, of vignettes of man’s historic past or nature’s magnificent wonders, of incredible sagas dealing with thorny legal issues and bureaucratic legerdemain.
Softcover with color photo covers, 6 x 9 vertical
144 pages, 166 color photos, 25 black & white photos
ISBN: 1-883056-00-4
This book is a continuation of and addition to the Popular Dive Series. It contains newly discovered wrecks, newly identified wrecks, changes in wrecks, and wrecks that were not covered in the original series.
Softcover with color covers, 6 x 9 vertical
240 pages, 9 color photos, 96 black & white photos
ISBN 978-1-883056-54-4
Part of Gary Gentile’s popular Dive Guide series. This volume covers the most well-known wrecks sunk off the geographical coast of North Carolina from the Diamond Shoals north to the Virginia border.
Softcover with color covers, 6 x 9 vertical
240 pages, 64 color photos, 118 black & white photos
Over 400 GPS and loran numbers included
ISBN: 0-9621453-7-8