November 2009 FCDA Surface Interval.

FAIRFIELD COUNTY DIVING ASSOCIATION
October 2009
Volume 16 Issue 10
Inside this Issue
Presidents’ Corner
page 1
Events of Interest
page 2
FCDA Donors I
page 2
Underwater World
Record
page 3
FCDA Donors II
page 3
October Raffle
Winners
page 4
FCDA Donors III
page 4
FCDA Member Ads page 5
FCDA Holiday Party
page 6
Newfoundland
Shipwrecks
on TV
page 7
Next FCDA Meeting
page 8
M2 — The Presidents’ Corner
The holidays are here and that
can only mean one thing. It’s
time for the annual FCDA Holiday
Party. This year’s party will be at
Testo’s in Bridgeport on Saturday
December 5th. The food is excellent there and the company is
always good so be sure to send
in your RSVP.
to hang.
The October meeting was a blast
as the group actively participated
in a screening of “The Creature
from the Black Lagoon”. Afterward we enjoyed our usual fare
at Luigi’s.
Our November meeting will be on
Friday Novemeber 20th. Capt Bill
Palmer of The Thunderfish will be
presenting on the wrecks of Rhode
Island. Billy is always an excellent
presenter and draws large crowds
at Beneath the Sea ( He’s like Elvis
there).
Some important safety tips I
learned from the movie:
1: Do not dive with a romantic
rival if that said rival is armed
with a spear gun.
2: If you are being harassed by a
water based amphibious creature, a boat in the middle of a
lake, may not be the safest place
3: 30 second decompression stops
at 3 feet are probably not sufficient.
4: Mixing volatile chemicals, in an
enclosed cabin of a wooden boat,
is not a great idea.
Matt has organized an end of the
season trip to Fort Wetherill on Sat
Nov 20th ( i.e. the Saturday after
Thanksgiving). It’s always a good
time.
Well, that’s all for now…
Page 2
Events of Interest
to FCDA Members
Nov 28 Shore Dive @ Fort
Wetherill meet in the main parking
lot @ 10am; contact Matt Rownin
[email protected] or
(203) 767-2361 for details.
Saturday, December 5, 2009 7:00 PM - Annual FCDA Holiday Party - Testo’s Restaurant
FCDA Donors
The business listed on this page has donated
dive gear and dive services to help support the
Fairfield County Diving Association.
New England's Tech Diving Center!
FREE U/W Photo magazine
Download issue #32 of
X-RAY magazine @
http://www.xray-mag.com/pdfs/
xray32/X-Ray32_FS.pdf
New England Dive Center
476 North Colony Street
Wallingford, CT 06492
203-284-1880
Fax 203-284-1355
Dealer
for
OMS,
UWATEC, Oceanic,
M ares,
D ac o r ,
C r e ssi -S u b ,
P o s e i d o n ,
Scubapro,
Bare,
O'Neill
and
Henderson.
P.O. Box 3005,
Fairfield, CT 06824
Internet mail: [email protected]
http://www.fcda.us
The region's foremost
source for scuba and
technical diving gear,
and
training
everything for the
r ecr ea tio n al
or
serious tech diver.
Draeger
Atlantis I
Rebreather
training,
certification
and rental.
2009 Board
Presidents
Vice-President
Secretary
Treasurer
Matt Rownin &
Mike Cassetta
Mark Shannon
George Sharrard
Paul J. Gacek
New England Dive Center offers complete training for all levels of
diving, from Open Water through the most advanced technical
courses. Our instruction provides certification through SSI, PDIC,
TDI and IANTD.
Visit us on the Web: http://www.nedive.com
Page 3
Turkish sportsman
breaks underwater
world record with over
135 hours
Diver Cem Karabay has broken a
world record by staying underwater for 135 hours, two minutes, 19
seconds. (The previous record
was 120 hours, one minute, nine
seconds )
Originally planning to stay in his
specially designed tank in the parking lot of a shopping center in İstanbul's Beylikdüzü neighborhood
until Sept. 9, Karabay ended his
trial early due to health problems.
Although Beylikdüzü Underwater
Sports Team head Karabay ended
his trial on the sixth day while he
had aimed to stay in the 15square-meter tank for 10 days, he
was successful in his attempt to
make his way into the Guinness
World Records.
FCDA Donors
The business listed on this page has donated
dive gear and dive services to help support the
Fairfield County Diving Association.
Page 4
FCDA Donors
October
Meeting
Raffle
Winners
The business listed on this page has donated
dive gear and dive services to help support the
Fairfield County Diving Association.
After a boisterous showing of
“The Creature from the Black
Lagoon” the club held its monthly
raffle at the October meeting to
support our DAN sponsorship.
The winners were: Dive Bag
donated by New England Dive Center - Andy Cummings; Sea Drops
donated by New England Dive Center - Jim McAuliffe; Great Lakes
Diving Book donated by Northern
Tech Diver - Andy Cummings;
Four Air Fills donated by Rex Dive
Center - Mike Cassetta; Two Nitrox Fills donated by Rex Dive
Center - Paul Gacek; Octopus
Print donated by Divers Alert Network - Mark Shannon; Two Carabiners donated by Divers Alert Network - Charlie Blanchette;
Princeton Tec Dive Light donated
by Orbit Marine Dive Center - Tom
Thomes; Mask/Fin Bag donated by
New England Dive Center - Andy
Cummings and a Dive Gear Bag
donated by Orbit Marine
Dive
Center - Tom Thomes.
Thanks to New England Dive
Center, Orbit Marine Dive Center,
Rex Dive Center, Divers Alert Network and Northern Tech Diver for
donating tonight’s raffle prizes for
our DAN raffle.
Remember, you can't win if
don't buy tickets and you can't
tickets if you don't get up
come out to FCDA events
meetings!
you
buy
and
and
'Bring A Friend' Special
PADI OPEN WATER DIVER COURSE
Sign Up @ Regular Price, 1st
Friend 50% Off, 2nd 60% Off
___________________________
Nitrox Certification
Special for Fairfield
County Dive Association
Members
$99.00
Includes all PADI materials, and
on-line PIC
Winter Diving with
Atlantis
Rex Dive Center will be running
winter dive out to the wrecks of
Block Island Sound with Atlantis
Dive Charters.
Trips are planned for the Grecian
and the U-853.
Send an e-mail to George for
more information @
[email protected]
Page 5
FCDA Member Ads
Hey - have you got a non retail-diving business that you’d like to share with fellow members of FCDA?
Get your business card size ad in the FCDA monthly newsletter “Surface Interval” for only $50.00 for one
year. Give your business a boost and help support the production of our monthly newsletters. For more
information, write to FCDA, P.O. Box 3005, Fairfield, CT 06824 or email to [email protected].
Page 6
Annual FCDA Holiday Party
Saturday, December 5, 2009 - 7:00PM
Testo’s Restaurant
1775 Madison Ave
Bridgeport, CT 06606-5219
203 372-1627
Family Style:
Stuffed shrimp, Roast pork, Chicken francaise
Salad, Pasta, Potato, Vegetable, Rolls, Ice Cream and Coffee/Tea; Cash Bar
All this for only $36.00 per person!
Advance reservations required!!
ab
r
G
5
g
$
a
B
Di
R a ve
ffl
e
d
o
o
G any
p
m
o
C
Mu
sic
I want to have a great time at the 2009 Annual FCDA Holiday Party!
Name(s) __________________________________________
__________________________________________
Number of people
____ @ $36.00 per person= ________
Make your check payable to FCDA and mail to:
FCDA, PO Box 3005, Fairfield, CT 06824
postmarked by November 28, 2009.
Page 7
The fight to preserve
desecrated war
graves
CTV News W5
Date: Sat. Nov. 7 2009 6:56 PM ET
High atop the cliffs, overlooking
Conception Bay, Newfoundland
stand the guns. Pointed out to sea,
silent and watchful, recalling a
dangerous time.
It was World War Two and these
mighty shore batteries stood watch
against a fleet of German U-Boats
that prowled the North Atlantic.
Submarines that, for one day and
one night of mayhem and horror in
the fall of 1942, rampaged against
a fleet of merchant ships in this
now placid bay.
And beneath the lapping waves lie
the dead. Entombed in the wreckage of freighters that sank too
quickly after being torpedoed. Watery graves of young men lost during a time of war.
Bell Island, the site of the attacks,
was the only North American location to be directly attacked by German Forces during WWII.
For decades it had been a thriving
mining community. Its primary resource was iron ore which was
shipped to the blast furnaces to be
turned into steel, used to make
tanks, ships and weapons to fight
the Nazis. As a result, Bell Island
became a natural target for German submarines.
U-513
On September 5, 1942, German U-
boat U-513 silently slipped into
Conception Bay, sighted the
freighters loaded with ore from
Bell Island and fired its torpedoes. The first ship to go down
was the SS Saganaga. Minutes
later, more torpedoes struck the
SS Lord Strathcona.
"All you see is a big explosion,
you know. Looked like she was
hit mid-ship. you know, that
would be right dead centre I
would say ...," said Patrick Mansfield, who was, back then, working on a nearby freighter.
As the Saganaga and the Lord
Strathcona quickly settled to the
bottom, they carried with them
crewmen who couldn't get out.
Local historian Bill Flaherty recalls
the shore guns taking aim. "They
got permission, they armed their
guns. They positioned themselves
to fire but there was no sight of
the U-boat."
The German sub had successfully
pulled off the first attack on
North America and made its escape.
Attacked again
Two months later on November
2, 1942, another German U-boat,
U-518, slipped into the bay and
torpedoed the SS Rose Castle.
Gordon Hardy was an 18-year-old
sailor on board the ship that
night, who managed to escape.
"I got up on the railing and I just
jumped or dove, whichever, and
the torpedo come through the
other side" recalled Hardy.
Hardy barely managed to escape
with his life. He was one of the
lucky ones. "The ships were fully
loaded with iron ore. The Rose
Castle actually went down in like
30 to 90 seconds. Boom, straight
down."
Moments later another torpedo
slammed into a Free-French
freighter, PLM27, which went
down in seconds. Once again the
shore batteries tried to find the
attacker, but the German U-boat
slipped away into the mists of the
North Atlantic.
Nearly 70 years later the sounds of
that night still haunt Hardy. "I
could hear people all around me in
the dark screeching and hollering
to God and the Virgin Mary."
A total of 70 men lost their lives in
the Bell Island attacks. A few bodies were recovered but most of
those killed went down with their
ships that, to this day, rest at the
bottom of Conception Bay. The
wrecks are in pristine condition,
likely because they have been
sheltered by the bay and preserved by the cold North Atlantic
waters.
At low tide you can see, beneath
the water, one of the ships resting
upright. Dive beneath the sea and
this graveyard unfolds in a vista of
rusting hulks, huge blast-holes visible in their sides. Silent guns stand
on the decks.
Secretary’s Note
Watch the W5 show @
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/
story/CTVNews/20091106/
w5_bellisland_091107/20091107?
hub=WFive
There are two parts with part 2
having the bulk of the U/W footage.
Page 8
Next FCDA Meeting
Friday - November 20, 2009 - 8:00 PM
Coast Guard Cottage - South Benson Marina - Fairfield, CT
Capt Bill Palmer of The Thunderfish
will be presenting
The Wrecks of Rhode Island Vol 1
Capt Bill is a regular featured presenter at Beneath the Sea. He is a well known wreck
diver and his insight proved invaluable in the efforts to identify the U-Who in the book
Shadow Divers.
Fairfield County Diving Association
P.O. Box 3005
Fairfield, CT 06824
Address Service Requested