H.M.S. Repulse

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Dive No. 3 - 16/05/06 - HMS Repulse Depth-50.0m Time 86-min
This was the wreck that I think everyone was looking forward to diving, we had steamed all night to get there. We were awakened the next morning by Jack shouting briefing in 30 minutes. Normally this would not be welcomed but we'd all had an early night and being a dry boat, within the 30 minutes we were up on deck having had a light breakfast, ready for Jack's briefing. We were moored onto the stern of the wreck, to the inner starboard propeller shaft. The wreck is laid on her port (left) side, almost capsizing. At the briefing we were told under no circumstances were we to enter the wreck of were we to bring anything back to the surface because this was a war grave we were visiting, although we all knew this beforehand and respect was shown to the 407 ratings and 27 officers that lost their lives when the Japanese air attack sunk this vessel in December 1941. We dropped down over the deck to the seabed were I noticed a small anchor against the wreck. This was my marker where to start my ascent on my return. We headed forward under the officers accommodation to where the masthead stretched out over the seabed before our bottom time was up and we had to return back to the shot line to make our ascent.

Dive No. 4 - 16/05/06 - HMS Repulse Depth-51.7m Time 81-min
This was our second dive with Jack leading and also giving us the change to practice run times. Jack planned a very conservative run time that would normally keep us in the water longer than our dive computers. A 20 min bottom time was planned and Jack led us down to the gunwales and across the deck to the seabed. Here he turned towards the stern and we soon came to the massive 15-inch guns, which appeared to be pointing straight at us as we approached them. Just past the big guns there was the remains of a respirator, which was trapped in the wreckage. Tuning now we made our way to the bows and the remains of the Jack staff. Jack pointed to the view along the cutter towards the keel. This was breath taking to say the least, despite the unusually poor visibility. With our bottom time just about up, we headed back to the shot line were we took over the lead to practice the ascent according to the run time we had planned earlier.

Dive No. 6 - 17/05/06 - HMS Repulse Depth-53.6m Time 95-min
After the fantastic dive on HMS Prince of Wales, we returned to the HMS Repulse for another dive with Jack to re-enforce our dive planning skills. and run times. This time we were led around the torpedo damage to the stern. There was a small entry point where the torpedo had pierced the hull and a massive hole at the opposite side where the explosion had caused so much damage. Two of the propellers were missing having been salvaged around 1970 when the Ministry of Defense sold salvage rights to a foreign company.

Dive No. 7 - 18/05/06 - HMS Repulse Depth-52.2m Time 83-min
During the night our dive boat broke it's anchorage from the bow of Repulse due to the deteriorating sea conditions and because of this our sleep was disrupted so much that many of us didn't feel dive fit the next morning including myself, so only one dive on HMS Repulse later in the day for me. My final visit to this massive ship took me down to the stern then along a line that Jack had laid earlier in the day. The line led us along the deck past the officer’s accommodation where we could see bed heads inside as we looked into the cabins. Moving further along we came to a heavy fishing net that was draped over the midships area, looking behind this net revealed the rails that formed the catapult launch used to launch the ship's only airplane. A little further on we came across the mast structure, which disappeared out over the seabed. With our bottom time drawing short, we turned back toward the shot line and left the wreck in piece.

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Comments

[George rahall]

Plaudits
Years have gone by, and thanks to the Computer I read of Divers descriptions of warships long lost but not in my mind.. God bless