A lot of people loved Wreck dives in the world Part 1. So I decided to make a part 2. Here it goes:
The Britannic was built and launched in Belfast but was used by the United Kingdom at the start of the first world war. It was used as a hospital ship, transporting sick and wounded passengers. The builders had learned from the mistakes they did to the Titanic, so they wanted to build a new and improved version. They were almost identical, with a few major improvements to the construction.
After completing five successful voyages to the middle eastern theater, the ship was heading back to the United Kingdom. They were stranded a bit because of rough weather, but after a few days, they went full speed, heading home.
It was on the 21st of November 1916 things turned bad. Something shook the boat, but it wasn’t apparent at first. Some passengers thought they had hit a smaller boat. It was a mine. the gravity of the situation quickly rose. Water was quickly entering the ship. They knew it was going to sink.
only 55 minutes after the explosion. the Britannic laid onto its starboard side and began disappearing into the depths.
It now lies off of the Greek island of Kea. Resting 121m or 400 feet down in the water. It’s only for very experienced divers because of its depth. This is why I didn’t add it to the first video, but if you ever have the pleasure of diving the Britannic, make sure to tell me how it was in the comments below.
U.S.N.S. General Hoyt S. Vandenberg was
A transport ship in the United states navy in World War 2. After many years of service the ship retired in 1983 and in 2009 she was sunk as an artificial reef.
It now lies 6 miles off the Florida keys and is the second largest artificial reef in the world. Many forms of sea life make Vandenberg its home. Such as barracudas and Goliath groupers.
The ship has many cutouts and there are many swim-throughs. Bring a dive light the next time you’re diving there, so you can see a lot of the ship’s interior.
However, the most unique thing about this ship is the satellite dish that sits right on top of the wreck. You can actually swim right trough the middle, witch is definitely on my bucket list! There are also 2 Meter long Goliath groupers on this wreck, so that’s also something you should be on the lookout for.
While we are on the topic of artificial reefs, the Uss Oriskany is the largest artificial reef in the world. And not only that. It’s a massive aircraft carrier!
Oriskany was built after world war two and earned two battle stars for the Korean War and the Vietnam war. It was decommissioned in 1976 and sold for scraps. Because the buyer never did anything to it, they repossessed it in 1997. In 2004 they decided to sink it as an artificial reef and in 2006 she was carefully sunk off the coast of Pensacola, Florida.
The Oriskany is 1 of 3 drivable aircraft carriers in the world. It’s a sure bucket list dive for wreck lovers. The most unique thing with this dive is it’s 3 football fields long deck. It is massive. A veteran instructor on the wreck said that “the most common reaction for first-time Oriskany divers is awe. Most have never been on a wreck so large, and with so much to see, it never gets old”.
This is not a single wreck, but it’s quite extraordinary. Scapa Flow is a body of water in the Orkney Islands in Scotland. The passage has been used by ships for decades. It’s has been an important route for travel, trade and you guessed it both world wars.
This story is the best I’ve read in a while.
The islands that surround Scapa flow was used as the British naval base throughout the first world war. To defend against enemies they sunk over sixty block-ships in the channels, added submarine nets, and booms. These were backed by concrete barriers, minefields, and artillery. Sooo.. A pretty decent base.
It was in June 1919, shit went down. After the German defeat in WW1, the British interned 74 ships of the Imperial German Fleet in Scapa Flow, waiting for the Treaty of Versailles. They waited for 7 long months to see what would happen with their ships.
The German officer in command was growing tired of waiting, so after waiting for a bulk of British fleets to go on exercises. He gave the order to sink as many of their own ships as they could, to prevent them falling into British hands. They sunk 52 of their own ships that day. The British Navy saved as many as they could, but the Germans had prepared the boats to sink for a long time. For 8 Years they tried to salvage as many of the ships they could. They managed to salvage some of them and sell them for scraps. But don’t worry there are still exciting dives to be had at Scapa Flow. 7 of the sunken German ships are easily accessible to divers today.
Scapaflowwrecks.com has an amazing interactive map where you can see all the wrecks and 3D rendered pictures of what they look like.
if you’re interested you should definitely take a look.
Andrea Doria was an Italian luxury ocean liner. After world war 2 Italia was attempting to rebuild its economy and with that came its national pride. SS Andrea Doria. At the time, this was the fastest, largest and most safe ship in Italy.
The story about it’s sinking is one of the most tragic maritime disasters throughout history. Andrea Doria was heading for New York City. When approaching Nantucket, Massachusetts, another ship, MS Stockholm slammed right into Andreas Starboard side. Andrea immediately started to take in water. Over next 11 hours Andrea sank down in the deep water, and Italy had lost it’s best ship.
Now the wreck lies 50 meters or 160 feet below the surface. Because of the depth, the water temperatures and the waters current, it is commonly referred to as the Mount Everest of scuba diving. As said before it was a luxury liner, so it was frequently dived by treasure hunters. Maybe you can find the next treasure down there?
I’m actually planning to make a part 3 of this series. It’s really fun to make these videos. The history behind these ships are incredible, and it’s something you don’t really get to learn about. Hope you all enjoyed this video if you have any wreck dives that you want me to cover in the next video, be sure to drop a comment. Also, share this video with your diving friends. If you wanna be notified when I drop the next video, make sure to hit the subscribe icon, and tick that bell. Alright guys, thanks for watching, and safe travels