BAREG Update 24 MAY 2023

1. SS Atlas Survey

We will resume our survey of the SS Atlas, 17-24 June. For divers already signed on, we are requiring a nominal $200.00 deposit for participating in the project. You can make your payment via paypal (remember to use the ’family/friends’ feature or add enough to cover paypal’s service charge) or you can pay, made out to BAREG, and sent to our mailing address:

BAREG
P.O. Box 17302
3682 King St.
Alexandria, VA 22302-9998

We will hold a zoom planning meeting at 1900 on Wednesday, 31 May. The invitation will go out to all BAREG members. We will discuss this year’s survey goals, diver requirements, and logistics.

 

2. NAS Training

This past weekend, 20&21 May 2023, BAREG conducted Nautical Archaeology Society (NAS) training on an unidentified shallow wreck in St. Georges Creek in the lower Potomac River watershed. Four BAREG divers attended the Underwater Recorder and Surveyor Short Course under the instruction of Troy Nowak, a professional archaeologist, BAREG member, and NAS instructor. The course consisted of on-line NAS training, a brief classroom session that was held on the M/V My Purpose Holds, followed by two days of in-water training.

On the first day the divers made a site assessment, set a baseline, and got oriented to the wreck, and this took time as viz was one foot at best. On the second day the divers recorded measurements of major features using offsets from the baseline. On both days, Troy provided additional instruction from a dinghy and the shallow site made it easy to answer the divers’ questions and give guidance as they worked on the wreck. The course concluded back on the pier with the divers transferring their measurements from the wreck onto a scaled site drawing.

Congratulations to the four divers; Jay Lytell, Bill Ralph, Matt Hanson, and Tor Andrewes. All four divers will use their new skills when BAREG resumes its detailed survey of the SS Atlas off Cape Lookout next month. Finally, our thanks to Troy for teaching the fist BAREG NAS course. Troy also found an excellent wreck to use for future NAS training, and to that end, we’d like to know if other members are interested in receiving NAS training.

3. Spot open – U-853 Dive, 3&4 June 2023

One of our divers had to drop out of our annual U-853 dive trip due to sudden unexpected circumstances. The spot is open and the cost per diver for two days of diving this Type IX U-boat is $330.00. We’re less than two weeks out, so please contact me soonest. U-853 is one of the best, if not the best, U-boat dive sites in the western Atlantic and any BAREG AN/DP certified member should make this dive. One additional requirement, the charter operator will only take back-mount open circuit divers.