Unexpected end to a diving trip
Twenty divers embarked on a weekend of diving off the south coast of England. It was a glorious summer's day.
The size of the dive party meant that the company providing the trip had to charter a second vessel and the divers were split into two groups of ten. The chartered vessel had been used on previous dive trips, and had recently had her out of water survey carried out, in preparation for recertification against the Code of Practice for the Safety of Small Commercial Motor Vessels (Yellow Code). However, the certification had expired, so the vessel should not have been in operation until the recertification process was complete. Strangely, she had been assigned a freeboard mark that was above the level of the bottom of her transom doors, which opened outwards from the aft deck. There was no internal watertight subdivision.
The vessel prepared for departure, with her aft deck loaded with dive gear. As she was manoeuvred from the mooring, one of the divers noticed water coming in at the transom. The skipper was not unduly concerned, however, and they headed for the dive site.
On arrival about an hour later, water was clearly visible in the aft deck area; one of the divers joked that perhaps they were sinking! The skipper was now not quite so amused, knowing this meant that the bilge underneath the aft deck must also have been full for the water to have reached that level. He turned on all bilge pumps, including a salvage pump attached to the port engine, and quickly headed home. He also alerted the coastguard.
The vessel continued to fill with water. Both the port engine and, shortly afterwards, the starboard engine, stopped. The primary dive boat took the stricken vessel in tow to try and keep her afloat as long as possible. By the time the lifeboat arrived, it was too late for emergency pumps to be effective. Confusion had arisen over the casualty's position, and this had delayed its arrival.
Just minutes before the vessel sank by the stern, the divers and crew were rescued. The liferaft, still in its canister, floated off the wheelhouse top and was retrieved. As the vessel sank, a towline was attached to the bow. Once she had sunk to the bottom, the lifeboat slowly towed the casualty along, and she rose to the surface and was able to be beached and salvaged on the next tide.
