Diving for bottles

While I here working in St. Thomas I've been able to do a fair amount
of diving. The most fun one so far has been diving in the ship
channel.
We picked a day with no cruise ships moving around. Duh!

But because of the cruise ship traffic in and out of the harbour the
bottom of the channel is turned up on a regular basis. In fact the
bottom, due to the prop wash of the ships, looks a lot like what you
would see after a treasure salvage ship with mailboxes got done
blowing out the bottom. And you can find all kinds of cool bottles and
stuff dating back 100 - 150+ years ago as well as new cruise ship
junk.
There is a local here who owns a real old time do it all dive shop
that has hundereds of bottles in his shop and at his house. He told us
it's not uncommon to find cannon and musket balls as well as coins.

Of course since you are diving in the ship channel no dive shops
offers this as a dive. Not to mention it's probobly not legal from a
USCG stand point as well.

But it's real cool. And you find lots of broken pieces of bottles and
china as well as whole ones.
The depth is only around 35 feet so you have tons of time and the
ships come and go several times a week so there is freshly turned
bottom to search all the time.

On this one dive 2 out of the 3 of us doing the dive got a whole
bottle. I was the odd man out so I'm going to try and hit it a couple
more times before we leave to get one for myself.

Anyway, if you're ever in St. Thomas, have access to a private boat
and understand the risks, it's well worth a shot IMHO.

"capt.bill11" <capt.bill11@verizon.net> wrote in message
news:1173906072.424177.316920@y66g2000hsf.googlegr oups.com...
> While I here working in St. Thomas I've been able to do a fair amount
> of diving. The most fun one so far has been diving in the ship
> channel.
> We picked a day with no cruise ships moving around. Duh!
>
> But because of the cruise ship traffic in and out of the harbour the
> bottom of the channel is turned up on a regular basis. In fact the
> bottom, due to the prop wash of the ships, looks a lot like what you
> would see after a treasure salvage ship with mailboxes got done
> blowing out the bottom. And you can find all kinds of cool bottles and
> stuff dating back 100 - 150+ years ago as well as new cruise ship
> junk.
> There is a local here who owns a real old time do it all dive shop
> that has hundereds of bottles in his shop and at his house. He told us
> it's not uncommon to find cannon and musket balls as well as coins.
>
> Of course since you are diving in the ship channel no dive shops
> offers this as a dive. Not to mention it's probobly not legal from a
> USCG stand point as well.
>
> But it's real cool. And you find lots of broken pieces of bottles and
> china as well as whole ones.
> The depth is only around 35 feet so you have tons of time and the
> ships come and go several times a week so there is freshly turned
> bottom to search all the time.
>
> On this one dive 2 out of the 3 of us doing the dive got a whole
> bottle. I was the odd man out so I'm going to try and hit it a couple
> more times before we leave to get one for myself.
>
> Anyway, if you're ever in St. Thomas, have access to a private boat
> and understand the risks, it's well worth a shot IMHO.

Sounds like fun. Thanks for the report.

On Mar 14, 5:36 pm, "ben bradlee" <N...@Way.Bite.Me> wrote:
> Sounds like fun. Thanks for the report.- Hide quoted text -

Indeed.

On Mar 16, 11:02 pm, "capt.bill11" <capt.bil...@verizon.net> wrote:
> Update, got a bottle and a cannon ball this afternoon!- Hide quoted text -

What on earth are your going to do with a cannon ball?

<bracuk@axxent.ca> wrote in message
news:1174106434.234403.70790@p15g2000hsd.googlegro ups.com...
> On Mar 16, 11:02 pm, "capt.bill11" <capt.bil...@verizon.net> wrote:
>> Update, got a bottle and a cannon ball this afternoon!- Hide quoted
>> text -
>
> What on earth are your going to do with a cannon ball?


He's hoping for a cannon, today, of course.

--
Popeye
"Best thing for him, really, his therapy was
going nowhere." -Dr. Hannibal Lector.

www.finalprotectivefire.com

In article <1174104128.576745.304860@l75g2000hse.googlegroups .com>,
capt.bill11@verizon.net says...
> Update, got a bottle and a cannon ball this afternoon!

Very cool. I've left a few Civil War era cannon balls laying on the
bottom because the guys at EOD in Charleston told me they could be
dangerous when brought up (plus the captain wouldn't let them on the
boat).

On Mar 17, 9:08 am, Al Wells <al.we...@gmail.com> wrote:
> In article <1174104128.576745.304...@l75g2000hse.googlegroups .com>,
> capt.bil...@verizon.net says...
>
> > Update, got a bottle and a cannon ball this afternoon!
>
> Very cool. I've left a few Civil War era cannon balls laying on the
> bottom because the guys at EOD in Charleston told me they could be
> dangerous when brought up (plus the captain wouldn't let them on the
> boat).

Great, now you tell me!

On Mar 17, 9:08 am, Al Wells <al.we...@gmail.com> wrote:
> In article <1174104128.576745.304...@l75g2000hse.googlegroups .com>,
> capt.bil...@verizon.net says...
>
> > Update, got a bottle and a cannon ball this afternoon!
>
> Very cool. I've left a few Civil War era cannon balls laying on the
> bottom because the guys at EOD in Charleston told me they could be
> dangerous when brought up (plus the captain wouldn't let them on the
> boat).

Pictures of my finds so far: http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f3...enTouch478.jpg