HMS Audacious Tampion Emblem recovered. Outstanding artefact reflecting the tradition of this proud Dreadnought Battleship. The Emblem is reckoned to be from one of the gun tampions, but due to its size (8 inch diameter) not certain.

Words from Virgil’s, The Aeneid, meaning Bold in Strength, or Strength in Bold Daring. In The Aeneid, Acentes, son of Troy, gives 2 oxen to each ship to hold a feast and thereafter proposes to the Trojans to race their ships and other martial competitions, the winner to expect prizes of victory.

Some nice photographs taken by English technical Diver, Keith Denby

A few really nice photographs of HMS Viknor taken by underwater photographer & technical diver Barry McGill .

[caption id="attachment_463" align="alignnone" width="650" caption="Viknor Boilers"][/caption][caption id="attachment_461" align="alignnone" width="650" caption="Viknor Rudder & Screw"][/caption]

See Video taken on Justicia by Rosguill Diver in 2009: -

Dived WW1 U-Boat U 89 which was rammed by a British destroyer. 60m deep. Vis 15 metres. 104mm gun on bow and 88mm gun on stern. Great dive. Surface temperature 10 Centigrade. Plankton has arrived in really good health!

See video taken on dive: -

[caption id="attachment_407" align="alignnone" width="700" caption="Kitting up "][/caption]Another really nice dive on the Empire Heritage in 66m – 25 miles north of Mevagh boatyard. Nice porthole for Eoin. Shot at boilers and lots of Sherman tanks. Vis still 20 metres.

First dive on the Audacious with 8 divers enjoying an incredible 20m vis. Shot placed at the propellers. Normal vis for April would be 10 – 12. Weather has been settled and that along with the water temperature being so low (9 degrees) has produced excellent vis for this time of year.

In 2010 there are a number of weekends booked for the 60 – 80 metre range. A couple of deep weeks (> 100m) and a couple of weeks up to 90metres. Targets this year, apart from the Classics, are the stern of the Carinthia (115m) which has never been dived, another look for the mast bell of the Flavia(105m), a dive on the bow of the unknown west (104m) – stern dived 2009, a few of the unknowns @ 93m, 94m & 95m which are probably Deadlights…..but you are never absolutely sure. One pet of the author’s is the small wreck 0.5 miles south of the Amazon which could well be the WW1 U-boat which sank the Amazon.

The Audacious continues to collaspe around the 2 armoured sides & each Spring the Audacious shows more. 2009 saw one diver get into the hatch on one of the forward turrets – recovering a couple lamps.

2009 – on a dive on the Pinto(66m) – a local diver sent up half a side of the Pinto with a beaut of a porthole attached – Bit of a lift onboard!!! – thanks, Eoin. Still on the wreck were loads of 12 pounder shell casings and also smaller ones. Never got back to it but it should be on the 2010 list.

Up to date reports will be found right here from April onwards……good diving, weather and vis to all.