Project Hermes - Expedition Diary

Mark Powell leads a band of technical divers to dive the wreck of HMS Hermes - the world's first purpose-built aircraft carrier. Sunk during an onslaught from Japanese Zero Fighter Bombers during World War 2, this rarely dived historic wreck is a wreck diver's dream.

HMS Hermes - Sri Lanka

Expedition Diary

EXPEDITION DIARY: DAY ONE

There was no rush to get up next morning so we enjoyed a leisurely breakfast at about 9.00 am. There was no rush as some of the equipment had not yet arrived. We had shipped sofnalime, rebreather cylinders and a booster pump and - despite shipping it a month in advance - it had only cleared customs the previous day and was being transported across the country on the day we arrived. The crate arrived at the harbour gates at 7.00 am and we were still waiting for it to receive permission to enter the harbour at 1.00 pm.

As we were sitting in the harbour waiting for the kit to arrive we had a constant stream of buses arriving and off each bus a group of school children would get off and come and look at the boat and us on board, rather than tourists we felt more like tourist attractions. In the mean time we did what little preparation we could. I checked my rebreather was undamaged but without sofnalime or cylinders there was little other preparation that could be done.

Kit arrives at 1.00 pm and it’s like Christmas, packages and boxes come tumbling out of a van. Some contain brand new cylinders for the rebreathers straight from AP in the UK, others contain the Haskell booster pump and panel, finally there are 20 kegs of sofnalime. Once the van has been unloaded the first priority is to build the blending panel and booster pump so that the rebreather cylinders can easily be filled. A couple of hours later and we have a working blending panel and full diluent and o2 cylinders, stages are rigged and we are ready for a check dive.

We finally head out of Trincomalee harbour and can truly appreciate the size of this natural harbour, what we thought was the extent of the harbour turns out to be just one part of the harbour. As we steam out we pass the submarine boom nets which are still pulled across the harbour entrance every night. Half an hour later and we are at a site called pigeon rock, this is a shallow reef with depths of between 10m and 20m. We all kit up and are taken out to the dive site in a fast rib. Dropping down we can see that the vis is reasonable but not exceptional. The marine life is similar. At least it is ideal for a check dive and we can all fine tune our weighting.

I'm happy to find that with a stainless steel backplate and 4kg at the top of the unit I am perfectly weighted. After a few minutes looking at the reef I run through a few drills to make sure my bailout works, stages can be removed and replaced and everything is generally working. Check dive successfully completed we head back to the live aboard. Although its been a frustrating day and we have only done the one dive at least we are all set up and ready for the rest of the week.

EXPEDITION DIARY: DAY TWO

Friday is to be the first day of wreck diving. Today we will be diving the MV Cordiallity, a cargo ship that was carrying limonite. Limonite is a mineral mined in Sri Lanka and used in the production of iron, at least that what the internet claims! The ship was a casualty of the civil war and was sunk in 1997 by the rebels. Eight Chinese sailors were killed when the vessel was attacked and sunk. The ship is in 18m of water and the highest point, the bows and a crane on the foredeck break the surface making it a very easy wreck to find.

We drop in on the bows and the size of the wreck immediately hits you. 18m high bows stand up proud from the bottom. Just back from the bows the hull has been cut open where the wreck has been salvaged. From just behind the bows right the way back to the engine room, in other words the entire cargo hold area, the hull has been sliced vertically on order to cut the material of the hull into smaller sections ready to be salvaged. On the port side, just in front of the engine room one of these sections has fallen outwards and is lying on the sea bed but the other sections have all fallen in to create a tunnel effect along much of the length of the cargo holds. This makes it easy to swim under the collapsed inward sections, safe in the knowledge that an exit is always just ahead.

These enclosed spaces are populated by a whole range of marine life including box fish, banner fish, grouper and many other fish. As you make your way towards the stern you reach the stern superstructure and the entrance to the engine room, this huge space is definitely the highlight of the wreck. The engine room is on 3 levels with the engine and auxiliary equipment still being easily accessible as are a number of side rooms which served as tools stores and workshop. Tools still hang on their places on the wall. The only downside to this dive is that the visibility is not as good as we expected, only a couple of metres in places although inside the wreck and especially in the engine room the visibility is much better. Light streams in from above lighting up most of the engine room.

After the dive two of the crew head off in the fast rib to check out another wreck that has been suggested by some local fishermen, despite a two hour round trip the wreck turns out to be very small and stands up only 2m from the seabed and so we decide to do the second dive on the same wreck as in the morning. The visibility around the wreck has improved slightly and it allows those divers who didn't find the engine room another chance to explore it. It also gives me a chance to do a full circuit of the wreck, work out the exact shape of the wreck and sketch the layout. I finish off the dive with another look around the engine room and find plenty of other opportunities for exploration. The engine room alone on this wreck is well worth the dive. After the second dive we have a late lunch and start the steam south to reach HMS Hermes. The plan is to steam through the afternoon and early evening and moor near the wreck ready for the first dive in the morning.

EXPEDITION DIARY: DAY THREE

The plan today is to dive the Hermes, the whole reason for the trip. The day doesn't start well as we have two sets of marks for the wreck and there doesn't seem to be any sign of the wreck around either point. The marks are close together and so we know we are in the right area but it takes a significant amount of searching before we finally locate the wreck. There is a lot of tension onboard but once we know we have found it the tension turns to excitement.

As we drop down the line we can see that the visibility is excellent, it drops a little after 30m but is still impressive. The shot is right on the wreck, near the flight control tower and almost on top of one of the guns. After we tie in the shot It's time to explore the wreck. She lies on her port side and I head along the deck towards the stern. The shot is at the forward end of the flight control tower so I can see the main part of the hull on my left and the tower on my right.

As I get to the end of the tower I come across the second of the main guns. From this point onwards I am swimming along the side of the hull where the flight deck should be exposed but in this area the wreck is almost inverted so it is difficult to see the scale of the flight deck. I pass another main gun before getting to the stern. The starboard prop is standing clear and makes a very impressive sight. The port side prop is partly buried in the sand and is only partly visible. I make my way slowly back along the wreck until I get back to the shot and have a look around this area before reaching my planned bottom time of 45mins. We all have similar plans and so the whole team ascends together with smiling faces all round.

The delay in finding the wreck together with the surface interval required in order to make a second dive feasible means that we elect to do the second dive on another wreck. This is known as the boiler wreck for reasons that were soon to become obvious. Again we had approximate marks and so the first step was to find the wreck which sits in just 10m of water. The first position didn't seem that promising and due to the heat and the fact that I was only expecting a very broken wreck I elected to jump in anyway, even if it ended up being a scenic dive. Some of the others decided to carry on searching in the boat, after 30mins of scenic diving I was beginning to think I had made the wrong decision until in the distance I saw the unmistakable shape of wreckage. Through blind luck I had managed to stumble across the wreck despite being 200m from where we had jumped in. I realised that this wasn't just broken wreckage but was the remains of a huge ship.

The fact that we were only in 10m meant that i still had plenty of time to explore the wreck and it wasn't until about 20mins later that the boat found the wreck and the others joined us. Five enormous boilers dominate the wreck with the remains of two engines behind. Huge crank shafts and piston heads still visible. Two prop shafts led away from the engines, in places still in the prop tunnel, back to the large stern section. Forward of the boilers the bows were almost intact but lying on their starboard side. This was clearly a very large ship. The layout and lack of armour or guns implies it was a cargo ship. The loss of a ship of this size would almost certainly have been documented and it should be possible to give this wreck a more concrete identification than the boiler wreck.

Dinner that night was filled either the excited chatter of some very happy wreck divers and after dinner I pulled out my laptop and we went through all the pictures I had of HMS Hermes identifying any features we had spotted that day and identifying target areas for the following day. The discussion of the wreck branched out into some of the history of the ship and her sinking and i gave an overview of her history to those members of the group that were less familiar with the story. I believe that it is much more enjoyable to dive on a wreck when you appreciate the story of the ship and of the men who served and in this case died on her.

EXPEDITION DIARY: DAY FOUR

We are up early in order to dive and then have sufficient surface interval for a second dive. The plan for this dive is to explore the flight control tower and then swim forward to the bows. With the shot midships it makes it easy to go off in either direction. We swim along the control tower that lies along the sand, looking in to the intact bridge area where gauges, complete with glass, are still present as well as a range of other fittings.

Above the bridge area is a large circular structure that looks like a mini helipad. I assume this must have been a mounting point for some sort of instruments but interestingly this looks different to the structure shown in the pictures I have of Hermes. Either the structure shown in the pictures was mounted on this circular platform and has fallen off or possibly it was changed when the ship was refitted. A review of pictures before and after her refit should help to solve this mystery.

We swim back over the control tower and back towards the bow. The anchor chains as well as the anchor are clearly visible. At the bow the recount has come a