A J Boat goes down: 08 DEC 70
If I recall correctly, this J boat was the same one we had worked on just a few days before she was sunk after a collision.
We used come alongs to pull the prop shafts back into position after they had worked their way back while under repair and tow.
I believe the J boat was tied to a tug alongside the 100-ton crane (Big John). Struck by a freighter coming into port, the J boat was damaged badly. Her starboard aft end had been crushed and she went down pretty fast.
I was underwater rigging a lift cable to a 45 foot Tug when I sensed something; perhaps some sounds, vibrations that set my alarms off so I decided to stop what I was doing and surface. The collision occurred just as I surfaced. There was big trouble. The crane barge was moving and mooring cables and lines were stretching. People were shouting, running around. I was half way up the ladder, with double tanks on my back, when cables and lines started parting and flying overhead. Another huge crash and bump sent me sliding down the wobbly ladder. Hanging with one leg stuck through a rung, and with only one hand on the ladder I decided to ditch my tanks and so off they came. Some of the crane crew guys risked their lives to help me get my footing on the ladder and drag my ass up in a hurry. I remember one guy knocked the mask of my head as they were pulling me up. Anyone of them could have been struck by a snapping line or cable. Those guys saved my butt, most likely.
While things were still shifting around, Bachelor and I jumped into our Boston Whaler dive boat and I got the pictures of the J Boat sinking.
J Boat Search 12 DEC 70
We were asked by the Newport Harbor Master to search for the J boat some days after we finished our part in the Tugs salvage. Finding it would be a trick as there was no way to tell where it may have settled in the river with the current running as it was when she sank.
He insisted we try so we did.
Bachelor, Al, and I packed up the Whaler and headed out to search for the J Boat. We dropped the anchor and let it drag. Snagged something almost immediately. After an unusually long descent down the anchor line I hit bottom. It was completely black, as usual. The water had turned quite chilly and I was beginning to shiver a bit. The bottom was hard and sandy; not typical for what I was used to finding diving in the river. I hung onto the anchor line and started groping around. To my horror I discovered that I was in an old wreck of some sort. I had come through a hole in the top of the structure. I could feel encrusted metal ribs on either side of me and a bulkhead in front of me, and seemingly, a big void behind me, as far as I dared reach. With a bit more groping and bouncing, I detected a metal "ceiling" on either side of me. This was not the J Boat. I remember taking a few moments to assess my predicament. There was only the hole that I had descended through to make my exit. It did not take much imagination to see what could go wrong. I did another feel around to double check my situation, then signaled to have the slack taken out of my safety line; cleared the anchor, then signaled to be pulled up. I kicked off and shot up out of there hoping I would not get snagged on anything. I was lucky.
On many dives we had to contend with potential entanglements like the stuff seen caught on this anchor.
Barely discernible in the tangled mess on the anchor is the crushed windshield and part of the roof of the J Boat!
I was happy to report to the Harbor Master that while we didn't find the J Boat, exactly, some of it was hanging from the anchor of the freighter that had just pulled in.
That was the end of the J Boat search.
Copyright © 2005 by Christopher Chulamanis