184 DaYs WiThOuT YoU: December 2011

Heya peeps

Please keep in mind that I typed this blog 3 weeks ago before leaving for an island called Gizo (which I’ll post a blog about in the next few days). I couldn’t gain Internet access before I left so I saved this blog to post at a later stage. So here it is…

So I know I haven’t been updating my blogs on a daily basis like I should be doing and I apologise but I have spent a couple of days on an island called Tulagi which is an hour boat ride from Guadalcanal.

Here is an update on whats been happening on paradise island J hope you enjoy…

Just before our trip to Tulagi I had the privilege of meeting a really awesome German guy and is currently living in Thailand teaching people how to dive J he is really funny and constantly keeping a smile on my face. He came to the island for an interview and I’m happy to say that he got the jobJ we made our way to Bonegi beach for a few dives. At the time I was really sick and had a problem equalizing my ears so I had to sit these dives out which was a real pain :p I wanna be in the water with every chance I have. I met a guy on the beach while waiting for the divers to come out the water, he had a really long surf board and let me have some fun with it! It was awesome J

The following day we spent most of the day loading the boat and packing our gear for our trip. The boat entered the water late afternoon and we made our way towards the island before sunset. We had 6 crew on board and made it a very nice group to go with. On the way we encountered some heavy rain! Luckily I had my rain jacket with me or else it would have been a very cold trip. Just before our arrival into Tulagi Harbour (ok its not actually a harbour- I think I only saw 2 boats our entire stay there) we came across a pod of dolphins! It was so amazing! They were jumping in and out of the water alongside the boat. It was really something to see! On arrival we walked straight off the jetty into the hotel. It was really nice and had an Islander look to it :p we were shown our rooms and settled in quite nicely J

Day 2 in Tulagi we all woke up fairly early and met over breakfast. Shortly after breakfast we loaded the boat and made our way to the USS Kanawha. She was used as an oil tanker in WWII and had some pretty heavy artillery pieces on desk (6” Guns) still with tons of live shells (about a meter in length) lying all over the deck! This vessel was sitting at about 51m under the sea and was too big to cover in one dive so we headed back to the island to have lunch and dived her stern in the afternoon. The stern sits in about 65m of water. Neil asked us to keep an eye out for the letters of her name mounted on the back and let him know which one of the letters were missing. Haha funny story actually, I was so narked (narcosis, which you can find in an earlier blog – but it’s a drunken sensation you get when going REALLY deep) by the time I got down there. I looked long and hard and found that all the letters were missing. Neil later corrected me that only one of letters had fallen off… Ooops

Day 3 in Tulagi I finally got the chance to do the wreck I’ve been waiting to do for so long! The USS Arron Ward… here is some info on her history and this is my deepest dive yet at 70.1m under the sea! Pretty scary huh?

"The Aaron Ward gave another fine example of the fighting spirit of the men of our destroyer force. Though hit nine times by both major and medium caliber shells which caused extensive damage she nevertheless avoided total destruction by the apparently superhuman efforts of all hands. The superb performance of the engineers' force in effecting temporary repairs so that the ship could move away from under the guns of the enemy battle ship largely contributed to saving the ship."
— Admiral William F. Halsey, Commander, South Pacific Forces^[1]

The destroyer rejoined the fleet on 6 February 1943 and soon resumed escort work. During one stint with a small convoy on 20 March she aided in driving off attacking Japanese planes. A short time later, on 7 April, she had escorted Ward and three tank landing craft from the Russell Islands to Savo. Not expecting to arrive until 1400, the destroyer went ahead at 25 knots (45 km/h) to provide Ward and the three LCTs with air cover until they reached Tulagi. At about noon the destroyer received notification of an impending air raid at Guadalcanal.

Sinking

As the ships neared their destination, Aaron Ward received orders at about 1330 to leave her convoy to cover USS LST-449 off Togoma Point, Guadalcanal. (One of the passengers on LST-449 at this time was then Lieutenant (junior grade) John F. Kennedy, later to become President of the United States.) Joining the tank landing ship at 1419, the destroyer directed her to follow her movements and zigzag at the approach of enemy aircraft. While the LST maneuvered to conform to Aaron Ward's movements, Lieutenant Commander Frederick J. Becton, CO of Aaron Ward, planned to retire to the eastward through Lengo Channel, as other cargo ships and escorting ships were doing upon receipt of the air raid warning from Guadalcanal.

Sighting a dogfight over Savo Island, Aaron Ward tracked a closer group of Japanese planes heading south over Tulagi; while swinging to starboard, the ship suddenly sighted three enemy planes coming out of the sun. Surging ahead to flank speed and putting her rudder over hard left, Aaron Ward opened fire with her 20 mm and 40 mm guns, followed shortly afterwards by her 5 inch battery. Bombs from the first three planes struck on or near the ship, and the mining effect of the near-misses proved devastating; the first bomb was a near miss, which tore holes in the side of the ship, allowing the forward fireroom to ship water rapidly; the second struck home in the engine room, causing a loss of all electrical power on the 5 inch and 40 mm mounts. Shifting to local control, however, the gunners kept up the fire. A third bomb splashed close aboard, holing her port side, near the after engine room. Having lost power to her rudder, the ship continued to swing to the left as another trio of dive bombers loosed their loads on the now-helpless destroyer. While none of these bombs hit the ship, two landed very near her port side. Twenty destroyermen had died; 59 had been wounded; seven were missing.

Coordinates: 9°10′30″S 160°12′0″E9.175°S 160.2°E Despite the best efforts of her determined crew, and the assistance of Ortolan and Vireo, however, the destroyer settled lower in the water. When it became evident that the battle to save Aaron Ward was being lost, Ortolan and Vireo attempted to beach her on a shoal near Tinete Point of Florida Island. At 2135, however, Aaron Ward sank, stern-first, in 40 fathoms (70 m) of water, only 600 yards (550 m) from shoal water.

Discovery

On 4 September 1994, divers located the wreck of the Aaron Ward. The first dive to the wreck was made on 25 September 1994. Because of the depth, divers are limited to about 15 minutes at the wreck before beginning their return to the surface.^[1]

Awards

Aaron Ward was awarded four battle stars for her World War II service.

Later that afternoon we took a trip to the other side of the Island where we did a reef dive :p no rusted metal involved (unfortunately -lol) I did happen to see +/- at least 15 Sharks J the biggest ones must have been 3m long. They were all Grey Reef sharks and one White Tip! It was really something epic to see! We made our way back to the Island and Phillips wife and I took a walk around the island to take some photos of the sunset! It was totally worth it! It only took us 45min to get half way around and about 15min to cut through back to the hotel J when we got back I had a quick shower and rushed down for supper J Sam and myself had a really awesome chat that evening that turned into the early hours of the morning. I learnt so many cool things about hit culture, it was very interesting J We also lay alongside the boat on the jetty and gazed at the stars for a long time. I saw so many shooting stars I ran out of wishes to make – lol (o_0)

Day 4 in Tulagi and only having 3 hours sleep I struggled to get out of bed and make it to breakfast but the sun was up and the day was underway. Our first dive of the day was a New Zealand Navy ship called the Moa which helped sink a Japanese sub that was the turning point for the war (coding book was found on it). The sub sank on the western side of Guadalcanal in Visale which I’ve had the privilege to dive a few times. I also had the opportunity to meet to brothers whose Grandfather fought on the Moa and helped sinking the sub. They are very cool guys and was quite interesting listening to all their stories that there grandfather had passed down to them J we made our way down to the wreck at about 35m and did a bit of exploring. Neil happened to find the lettering that’s normally mounted onto the stern of the ship, Which has been lost for the last 69 years! He’s dived this site numerous times and has never been able to locate it and just by some lucky chance the first time I go down with him on this wreck he finds the letters “MOA” in the silt on the sea floor, what a great discovery it was! We made our way to the surface where Neil cleaned the brass letters and placed them back into a tub of salt water to prevent rapid corrosion. We made our way to the New Zealand Resolution vessel that just happened to be in the area scanning the sea floor for new wrecks with Ewan and the brothers on board. Neil handed over this amazing discovery to the captain of the ship and was congratulated for his amazing discovery =D well done Neil!

After a long week spent diving in Tulagi we made our way back to Honiara. We off loaded the boat and cleaned our gear. I made my way upstairs to find that Adam was just about to start an enriched air diving course or known as a Nitrox course which I decided to sit in. I was super tired but the class was super interesting J