Edmund

2021-09-28 D0828 Edmund
After work boat dive on diving club Nousu’s Vuoksi boat to the wreck of Edmund at Porkkala.
We left Suomenoja harbour, pier A at 17:00. Kalevi was the captain and other divers were Mattias, Rupert, Antti, MikkoA, HenriL, OlliS, JouniR. Usually Vuoksi would take only 7 divers, but now the weather was going to be so good that 8 was allowed. Jouni was P1, but Rupert was his instructor and this was his last course dive to get P2 certification. It was agreed that me and Mattias would be buddies, and would dive on a 80 min plan. It was a one hour boat ride to the site, and there was a buoy to attach the boat.
On Monday evening the weather was excellent, sunny sky, mild wind and moderate waves.
Me and Mattias were the second pair to water with a 80 min plan. I had 33% Nitrox in D10 tanks. Mattias had leftover trimix in D12’s from our previous dive trip to Königin Luise, but he was mostly going to dive with 12L stage containing 32% Nitrox. We agreed to do photogrammetry video of the left side of the wreck as that part needed more material for 3D rendering.
Sun was still shining when me and Mattias descended the line. At the bottom it was attached to a big rock and from there a tiny line leading to the left front side of the wreck. We scanned the left side for a few time with video. Then circled around the wreck many times, also explored the bottom on both sides of the ship as well the inside. After 60 min I had accumulated a few minutes deco and it was time to start ascent. Mattias had already ran out of gas from his stage and was breathing trimix from back twins. But we were not able to find the line back to the buoy. Mattias decided that we ascent using his reel. He set the reel line under the anchor winch such that the line can be released and pulled up once we get to surface. We ascended according to decos show in Mattias’s Perdix, as he had +10 min deco. I had only 3 min deco when we reached 6 meters, so my deco was soon cleared. We had to do almost 10 min deco at 3 m for Mattias. During this time my tanks went below 50 bar, which I had set as reserve warning on my Perdix. At surface I had 40 bar left. When we got to the surface, sun had just set, and it was dark. Mattias had dropped the head from his dive light to the wreck during ascent.
I did take a lot of pictures and video. Pretty soon after me and Mattias were on board, the last pair also came up, and Rupert started driving Vuoksi back to harbour.

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Edmund was a galleon type of wooden sailing ship with 2 masts. It sank 10.12.1907 near Järvö island at Porkkala peninsula waters in a stromy and foggy weather with a loss of 3 lives. The 65 tonne ship was carrying a cargo of wheat from Helsinki to Kirkkonummi. The wreck was found 2001 in sonar scanning. At that time the wreck was in a very good condition and standing upright, the hull intact. The decking had already collapsed inside the wreck and the transom collapsed to the bottom. In early September 2011 the big steering wheel at rear was still standing. At end of September 2011, it was discovered that someone had broken the rear cabin and stolen items from the wreck. The steering wheel had dropped to the bottom and broken badly. The crime was reported to the police, but perpetrators have not been found.