The opinions and recommendations expressed in this article are soley those of the author. DIVER Magazine
recognizes the controversial nature of this account and we invite interested
readers to weigh-in on the subject. The City of Hamilton was provided with a
copy of the manuscript and invited to comment. City officials responded by email expressing appreciation for the opportunity to comment, noting that what follows is a memoir and that as such, comment or response from the
city was unnecessary. They expressed interest in providing some information summarizing the work the city has
done to date along with long term plans to preserve the Hamilton and Scourge resources. DIVER will publish this information when it is made available.
to film as I go. Moments after we pass our down line Michel lets out a great cheer through his regulator, but I don’t know why. Then he turns revealing between us a short, stout, large bore cannon called a carronade. We know the Hamilton carries these guns.
Our dive that July 15th day of 2000 followed months of research and planning. The payoff was worth it because we now knew conclusively that another of our sonar targets 500 yards (457m) to the north of the Hamilton would put us on the Scourge. We had done it. We had found two of Lake Ontario’s most remarkably intact, and historically important shipwrecks.
But the longest part of the dive was still ahead. Our 20-minutes bottom time from start of the descent required 90 minutes of decompression. Just one minute additional bottom time would add 40
At 290 feet (88m) we make contact with something wooden, obviously man-made… a ship’s railing
minutes deco time, and it was a bone numbing 32°F (0°C). Our first deco stop was at 200 feet (61m), and from there we’d stop every 10 feet (3m) until our schedule was complete. We’d started out breathing 13 percent oxygen/60 percent helium, mixed with nitrogen. At 170 feet (52m) we switched to our first deco mix of 25 percent oxygen/25 percent helium and hooked up with our safety diver, Todd Ziegler, who was on ‘normoxic’ trimix, with 21 percent oxygen, so he could use his dive computer. We were using bottom timers and custom generated tables written out on wrist slates. Todd confirmed our gas switch and seeing
Scourge and Hamilton
sailing ‘wing on wing’ in Lake Ontario with U.S. squadron behind
all was okay returned to shallower waters. We switched gases again at 70 feet (21m) to 50 percent Nitrox. Soon after at 50 feet (15m) Todd guided us to a heavily weighted line off the Zodiac where we completed our deco, ascending to our last stop at 20 feet (6m), switching to 100 percent oxygen supplied from surface regulators.
Todd then looked at me with enquiring eyes. “Well,” they were saying. He handed me a slate on which I wrote two words: saw cannon. He quickly relayed the news topside where everyone had to wait patiently for our arrival and the eagerly anticipated details. Back aboard we were all smiles and laughter and high fives in every direction. We couldn’t believe our luck.
It would take us two years to complete eight dives on the Hamilton and two on the Scourge. Our lightweight descent/ascent gear was
www.divermag.com 39
Image: Richard Schlecht/National Geographic Stock
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