Deeper into the Darkness

by Rod Macdonald

Overview

Rod takes the reader diving to explore many more famous wrecks around the UK from the Great War. These include HMS Pathfinder and HMS Audacious – the first British battleship to be lost to enemy action in WWI. The wreck of HMS Hampshire on which Lord Kitchener perished on a secret mission to Russia in 1916 is visited along with HMS Vanguard, which blew up at anchor in 1917 in Scapa Flow. The K-class submarines lost in the Firth of Forth during the Battle of May Island in 1918 are dived, along with UB-116, the last German submarine to be sunk in action in October 1918.

            Rod then leaps forward in time to the Pacific during WWII and visits the American shipwrecks from the Battle of Guadalcanal, along with daring penetrations into the stunning Japanese wrecks lying at the bottom of the Truk and Palau Lagoons.

            The development of technical diving is brought up to the present day where closed circuit rebreathers utilising mixed breathing gases allow Rod to go deeper into the depths in search of lost shipwrecks.  The wreck of the SS Creemuir, torpedoed and sunk off north-east Scotland in 1940, was first dived by Rod in 2012. This exploration reveals the human side of shipwrecks when Rod’s team recover the Creemuir’s bell and present it to the sole surviving crewman, Royal Navy Radio Officer Noel Blacklock.

            The latest developments in shipwreck exploration taking place at Scapa Flow are recounted before the book concludes with the scandalous desecration of the naval war graves of many nations at Jutland, the South China Sea and the Java Sea.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781849953603
Publisher:	Whittles Publishing
Publication date:	03/05/2019
Series:	Diving Trilogy Series , #3
Pages:	320
Product dimensions:	6.60(w) x 9.40(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Rod is famous for his authoritative dive guides such as Dive Scapa Flow, Dive Truk Lagoon and Dive Palau – the Shipwrecks. Vol. I in the trilogy, Into the Abyss – Diving to Adventure in the Liquid World; and Vol. II, The Darkness Below. He has also been inducted into the prestigious Explorers Club.

Also Known As:

Música Movimento MagiaThe MenParis Opéra BalletThe Paris Opera BalletPamela RodriguezSeth BoydCapella SagittarianaCappella Sagittariana DresdenDresden Capella SagittarianaAntônio Lopes de Amorim Diniz

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements vii

Introduction ix

Book 1 World War I Naval Wrecks around the UK 1

1 HMS Pathfinder 3

2 HMS Audacious 20

3 HMS Hampshire 33

4 Explorers Club Flag No 192 expedition to survey HMS Hampshire 42

5 HMS Vanguard 68

6 The Battle of May Island 31 January 1918 77

7 UB 116 90

Book 2 The Pacific 97

8 Guadalcanal 1942 99

9 Truk Lagoon 1944 128

10 Diving the shipwrecks of Truk Lagoon 141

11 IJN Kamikaze-class destroyer Oite 202

12 Palau 1944 213

13 Diving Palau's shipwrecks 225

Book 3 Latest Developments 279

14 SS Creemuir 1940 281

15 MFV Spes Nova 297

16 Scapa Flow 304

17 The desecration of naval war graves in the South China Sea, Java Sea and Jutland 321

Postcript 337