Blog
26 March 2012
Random House have advised that a relative of a crewman lost on the SS Greenawn during WWII has posted asking for information as his/her grandmother was never given any onformation about the loss. The comments are being moderated just now and should appear soon on the Blog.
But meantime, to the relative who has posted (name and contact details are now posted by Random House for privacy reasons), we do have video footage and lots of information which may be of comfort to your grandmother. E-mail me privately at rod@rod-macdonald.co.uk and I'll see what can be provided. Regards. Rod
07 March 2012
My new book The Darkness Below was published by Whittles Publishing in October and seems to be doing well. It's a collection of all the highlights, incidents and brushes with danger I've experienced whilst diving shipwrecks around the UK and abroad - with the odd non-wreck dive thrwon in - like the Corryvrecken Whirlpool. I'm working on the next one right now.
I have been remiss in not checking this site for several months and am delighted to see so many constructive comments and so much contact from relatives and survivors. I will give answers where I can. On my own site www.rod-macdonald.co.uk I have started a Survivor's and Relatives Forum where thos elooking for information and contact with other relatives can post and exchange information. Contact me directly at rod@rod-macdonald.co.uk for any specific help I can give on ships I have dealt with.
Regards, Rod
09 October 2011
Random House have just signed up with my publishers Mainstream Publishing to market their eBook titles through Apple stores and iPad. Dive Scapa Flow, Dive England's Greatest wrecks, Dive Scotland's Greatest Wrecks and Into the Abyss will shortly be available as eBooks. Interesting and exciting development.
11 August 2011
Just back from a weekend down at Eyemouth diving with Marinequest's excellent set up. Their new boat is a fantastic dive platform. Managed to dive a very famous ship, HMS Pathfinder - famous as she has the unlucky distinction of being the first HMS sunk by torpedo from a U-boat in WWI. She lies in about 68metres of water in the Firth of Forth. On the way down the line it was crystal clear down to about 40 metres. After that the vis got progressively siltier until on the bottom at 68msw it was a poor 5-10 feet at best. Nevertheless, we managed a fine tour of her on our underwater scooters. Lots of artefacts, guns and shells strewn about. 78 minute Run Time.
13 June 2011
Following hard on the plankton bloom of a few weeks ago, the seas are now filled with lion's mane jellyfish which have cleared up the underwater visibiliuty immensely. As a cpontrast to last weekend's 3 foot plankton soup visibility, this weekend we had 15 metre ambient vis on the bottom 50 metres down.
Greg Booth and myself arrived down on the wreck midships and dropped in through the large skylights of the Engine Room. It's half filled with silt now but the massive 25 foot long 7-cylinder engine is still impressive in scale. From there we had a look around in the Galley before heading up the port side walkway past the row of cabins with their doors and portholes rotted and fallen out. We swam forward over a Hold and reached the 5 storey high bridge superstructure before turning the dive and heading back down the starboard side to the strobe blinking away on our downline.
For 25 minutes down on the wreck we had a run time of about an hour in pleasant 10C water. On the slow ascent we were being bombarded by jellies and were covered in their translucent stinging tentacles. We both got stung around the lips - a small price to pay though for such a fine dive.
06 June 2011
Launching my RIB in Stonehaven harbour yesterday the water looked pretty clear. 5 miles offshore as we shotted the wreck it still looked clear - we could see our shot line going down quite a way. But as soon as we tumbled backwards into the water we were encased in a living soup which very quickly as we descended blotted out all light filtering down from above. The water has warmed in the last few weeks from its winter 6-8C to 10C and this has brought on the bloom. By the time we got down to the wreck at 58metres we had a silty 3 foot pitch black visibility which made us cut short our bottom time to 15 minutes. Bring on the jelly fish bloom to clear up the visibility for us he said rather selfishly.
21 May 2011
Just back from a stunning week's diving up north. Shake down dives on Day 1 in Scapa Flow on the German WWI battleship Markgraf and a penetration dive on the light cruiser Dresden swimming in through a doorway under the superimposed aft turret and going right through the officer's accommodation deckhouse. Evening crossing of Pentland Firth to tie up overnight at Wick.
Next day saw us diving a large WWII steamer 15 miles off the land in 50 metres. Lovely 10-15 metre ambient visibility on the bottom and a general cargo of bottles, crockery, wire bales and concrete. The dive team loved the wreck so much we went back the next day to complete our survey.
After that we ran back across the Firth to Scapa Flow ahead of an imminent big SW blow. The following day saw us carrying out a survey dive on the boom defence vessel HMT Strathgarry. Last day's diving was a bit of a self imposed mission to link the 2 15-inch stern turrets of the Bayern to the forward turrets. The massive Bayern had lain upside down on the bottom after the scuttling in 1919. During salvage operations in the 1930's her sealed hull was overfilled with air and she became buoyant and rise to the surface before her gun turrets had been secured for lifting. They remained on the bottom and are now 80-100 metres apart. We managed to fix a rope to the east set of turrets and navigate along the scour in the seabed left from the now departed hull to find the west turrets. Job done - both sets of turrets can now be dived in the one dive.
02 May 2011
After a harsh winter has kept us out of the water for longer than normal, the season is now well started and the dives are being piled in. In lovely oily calm conditions we've just had 2 dives on a newly discovered wreck 4-5 miles off Peterhead which we believe to be the WWII salvage vessel, Wrangler. Crockery gleamed in the fo'c'stle in our torch beams and I came across the telegraph pedestal pinned under a 2inch thick concrete slab, a cheap but effective way of armouring the bridge roof against enemy machine gun fire. Lovely swim through the Engine Room. Portholes are still much in situ along the side of the hull with all their brass deadlights hanging open - so I suspect she sank during daylight.
29 March 2011
We're still on track for publication of my new book, The Darkness Below in September. Advance Information is being criculated by my publishers to the major book providers and it is starting to appear. Here's a link to the website where you can now pre-order.
http://www.whittlespublishing.com/index.php?view=product&product=183
27 January 2011
The MS for my new book, The Darkness Below has now been completed and submitted to my publishers. provisional publication will be September 2011. It follows on from Into the Abyss - Diving to Adventure in the Liquid World and is a collection of adventures not just in Scotland but around the world ..... some funny, some almost fatal ..... as in our quest to find virgin shipwrecks far offshore diving mutated from deep air to Trimix using mixed gases, and on to Rebreather diving. This is a book not just for divers but anyone interested in the sea or maritime history.