Table Of ContentThe Darkness Below
eDarkness
h
T
Below
Rod Macdonald
Whittles Publishing
Published by
Whittles Publishing Ltd.,
Dunbeath,
Caithness, KW6 6EG,
Scotland, UK
www.whittlespublishing.com
© 2011 Rod Macdonald
All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted,
in any form or by any means, electronic,
mechanical, recording or otherwise
without prior permission of the publishers.
ISBN 978-184995-037-4
Printed by
Also by Rod Macdonald:
Dive Scapa Flow
Dive Scotland’s Greatest Wrecks
Dive England’s Greatest Wrecks
Into the Abyss: Diving to Adventure in the Liquid World
www.rod-macdonald.co.uk
To my wife Claire and my daughters
Nicola and Catriona
Rod Macdonald is the best selling author of four of the classic staples
of UK diving: Dive Scapa Flow; Dive Scotland’s Greatest Wrecks; Dive
England’s Greatest Wrecks and Into the Abyss: Diving to Adventure in
the Liquid World. He specialises in wreck finding and research. Rod Acknowledgements .......................................................................................... ix
lives in Stonehaven in the northeast corner of Scotland with his wife
Introduction: The wreck of the White Star liner Justicia .............................. xi
Claire and two daughters Nicola and Catriona. He is a keen yachtsman
and skier, and is a crewman on the Stonehaven Lifeboat. ONe First Beginnings ........................................................................... 1
TWO Evolution is a slow process .......................................................... 9
ThRee The Beckoning Depths ............................................................ 24
FOUR Deeper and deeper .................................................................... 33
www.rod-macdonald.co.uk
FIVe Bail out on the SS Cushendall .................................................... 47
SIX Trimix – First beginnings ......................................................... 55
SeVeN Into the Corryvreckan Whirlpool .......................................... 62
Cover Photograph: On a Tri-Services Expedition to the South China
Sea, Rod hangs beside the Royal Navy ensign that had just been eIGhT HMS Hampshire ........................................................................ 69
flown on the bridge of HMS Repulse. © Guy Wallis NINe The wreck of the liner Remuera ............................................... 77
TeN Stonehaven Shipwrecks ............................................................ 88
eLeVeN Bent in the North Channel ...................................................... 102
TWeLVe In the darkness – nets ................................................................ 120
ThIRTeeN The Search for the German destroyer T6 ............................. 128
FOURTeeN Over the horizon .................................................................... 133
FIFTeeN SS Kildale and SS Bretagne ..................................................... 136
SIXTeeN The Dark Side beckons ............................................................ 141
SeVeNTeeN HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Repulse ................................ 146
eIGhTeeN Norway ..................................................................................... 156
NINeTeeN The Fleetwood steam trawler Lowdock revealed? .............. 168
TWeNTY A Surprising Find ................................................................... 179
TWeNTY-ONe The Silent Tragedy of the SS Greenawn ................................ 191
TWeNTY-TWO The loss of the SS Creemuir .................................................... 198
Postscript ........................................................................................................ 207
Contents
Acknowledgements .......................................................................................... ix
Introduction: The wreck of the White Star liner Justicia .............................. xi
ONe First Beginnings ........................................................................... 1
TWO Evolution is a slow process .......................................................... 9
ThRee The Beckoning Depths ............................................................ 24
FOUR Deeper and deeper .................................................................... 33
FIVe Bail out on the SS Cushendall .................................................... 47
SIX Trimix – First beginnings ......................................................... 55
SeVeN Into the Corryvreckan Whirlpool .......................................... 62
eIGhT HMS Hampshire ........................................................................ 69
NINe The wreck of the liner Remuera ............................................... 77
TeN Stonehaven Shipwrecks ............................................................ 88
eLeVeN Bent in the North Channel ...................................................... 102
TWeLVe In the darkness – nets ................................................................ 120
ThIRTeeN The Search for the German destroyer T6 ............................. 128
FOURTeeN Over the horizon .................................................................... 133
FIFTeeN SS Kildale and SS Bretagne ..................................................... 136
SIXTeeN The Dark Side beckons ............................................................ 141
SeVeNTeeN HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Repulse ................................ 146
eIGhTeeN Norway ..................................................................................... 156
NINeTeeN The Fleetwood steam trawler Lowdock revealed? .............. 168
TWeNTY A Surprising Find ................................................................... 179
TWeNTY-ONe The Silent Tragedy of the SS Greenawn ................................ 191
TWeNTY-TWO The loss of the SS Creemuir .................................................... 198
Postscript ........................................................................................................ 207
Acknowledgements
More than 30 years of diving has taken me to some of the greatest and some of the
most remote dive locations in the world – and has brought me some of my closest
friends. My diving career has been a journey from 1970s-style UK diving in a 7mm
wetsuit with a Fenzy ABLJ and a single 10L aluminium tank, through deep air diving to open-
circuit Trimix diving and latterly on to closed-circuit rebreather Trimix diving. My last book
Into the Abyss: Diving to Adventure in the Liquid World charted the early part of that voyage.
This book takes the story forward to the present time.
For helping me to achieve this, my thanks firstly are to my wife Claire who, when I ran
out of steam or came up against a literary brick wall, would get me focussed and give me
direction. She came up with some great ideas for the book – her best usually in our local, The
Marine Inn down at Stonehaven harbour. Thanks also to my parents for reading my early draft
manuscripts and helping with constructive feedback.
My long-time dive buddy Ewan Rowell was really the star of Into the Abyss – which wasn’t
so much autobiographical about me but more an account of Ewan’s eclectic diving career.
He features often again in this book and has kindly let me use some of his great underwater
photos. We’ve had some tremendous fun over the years – topside and submerged – and
I’m much obliged again, Ewan. His oil field work has recently taken him to Perth, Western
Australia, so he has been out of the UK diving loop for a while and is thus sadly missing from
the later chapters.
The Stonehaven Snorkellers Deep Cave Rescue Team (SSDCRT) (less than seriously
named because we do not carry snorkels, do not go deep unless we really have to, seldom go
into caves and have not rescued anyone) have had a glorious last few years with many virgin
wrecks being located, dived and identified. Thanks to all the team – without whom none of
this would have been possible. It is immensely reassuring on a deep scary dive – often in
pitch-black 5-foot visibility hundreds of feet down – to know that such solid divers are around
you. When we did have an incident this summer on the Baku Standard the team sprang into
action and solved the problem at depth before making a perfect ascent to safety.
Up in Peterhead, the northern branch of the team – consisting of Jim Burke, Mike Rosie
and Mike Wilcox, coxed by Roger Mathieson – diving off the Buchan Elle (say it quickly!)
have successfully dived and identified most of the wrecks around the northeast and this has
brought rewarding contact from survivors and relatives.
ix
